This is Jordan posting!

Hello Everybody,
Happy Easter! Christ has risen! On Easter we went to church and had an Easter service. After the service, people came up to us and gave us Easter eggs and the Russian kulich, a small cake with icing on top. Trust me, you don’t want to eat one. They’re rock hard.
We got some snow here recently, but fortunately, it all melted pretty quickly. (It’s around 55 degrees F here.)
Music school has been going VERY well. I just got a certificate for playing in the city competition. Jake got a Diploma. Also, I took part in another city competition with my ensemble. Jake and his ensemble got first, while mine got second. On Tuesday I’m going to have an exam on the violin. I’m playing four pages of notes that I memorized. It’s fairly hard to play. Please pray for me. Teaching my friend, Artem, to play the guitar has not been going as well as I hoped. After six months we’re still at beginner’s level. Just recently I gave him an exam and he got 68% right. He’s just now starting to understand certain rules. Now my dad also wants to learn to play the guitar. This isn’t the first time. Last year I had started to teach him, but since he didn’t have enough time, he had to stop.

Vitalik, Artem, and I

Youth has been going well, and so has church. Our church’s praise group has asked Jake and I to play the violin and the cello in the church. I’ve played in our church before, but that was when I had played on the guitar.
A couple days ago, I tried to share the gospel with my friend, Igor. Unfortunately, he is a non-stop joker and doesn’t take anything seriously. Please pray that God will open a door for me.
Well, that’s all for now.
Your brother in Christ,
Jordan

And this is me playing the guitar in my room!!

quick update from Jake

Hello everybody,
Institute session went great! Praise the Lord! Dad came home very exhausted Friday afternoon. He went to sleep later that night, but next morning woke up with a cold. On Saturday Jordan caught it. They are better now, although their throats are hurting.

I have quite a few strong believing friends here. They really look forward to the next Sunday, because they love our pastor's preaching (Volodia is doing a great job preaching on 1 Thessalonians verse by verse). One of my friends, Artyom is really growing in the Lord. I'm really encouraged!!!!! A year ago he started coming to our youth group, but he never wanted to come to church service. I invited him over and over again. Artyom's dad and I are good friends (we got baptized together), and I told him humbly, that as a father, he should bring his son to church. Anyway, a month later, Artyom gave in and said that he'd come to church. He really liked the service, so he came the next Sunday. Since then, he’s repented and has been coming consistently every Sunday, professing to be a believer. I think he is. He is serving in the church, accepts correction readily, and is evangelizing to his friends and bringing them to youth group. He’s also planning to get baptized soon!!!! ALL PRAISE TO THE LORD!!!!

A week ago we had a guest stay at our apartment. His name’s Dave Deuel. Fun guy. He taught at a mini-conference in the Institute. Here’s a picture of him. By the way, don’t ask me who that “person” is in the middle, because I don’t know either!

For Christ’s glory,

Jake

jake's update

Hey everybody,
This is Jacob writing.
Our Institute session just started last week. Another week to go! Dad is teaching "Examples of Expository Preaching.” He is teaching pastors how to improve their preaching by looking at the Sermon on the Mount and other great sermons. It’s going to be a very busy week for him, especially with both the institute and the seminary.

Two weeks ago, I taught the youth group at our church. I taught on Romans 3:1-8. I could notice myself going a little bit faster than I had planned. I was just nervous. First time teaching in Russian. Will try better next time. I hope the youth got the main point of the passage. In any case, ALL praise to the Lord!! Lately as I've been studying Rom 3:1-8, I've learned two important truths: No one should ever question God's faithfulness as a Savior, and no one should ever question God's righteousness as a Judge. Likewise, I've been encouraged by two statements: that I serve a faithful God, whose faithfulness can never be questioned; and I serve a righteous, just God, whose righteousness can never be questioned. What a God we serve!! Our youth leader asked me to teach on the 21st of December on Romans 3:25-31. I'm not positive, but I think that I'm going to be teaching every 3 Thursdays (I taught on the 30th of November, this time on the 21st of December).

For His glory,
Jacob Snyder

latest from Samara

Dear Family and Friends,

First of all, thank you all so much for your prayers and for supporting God's work here in Samara. As a result, God's word is being proclaimed and His church is being strengthened. Praise the Lord -- you are praying, God is answering. Please keep on praying for us and for our precious brothers and sisters here in Samara!
First of all, thank you all so much for your prayers and for supporting God's work here in Samara. As a result, God's word is being proclaimed and His church is being strengthened. Praise the Lord -- you are praying, God is answering. Please keep on praying for us and for our precious brothers and sisters here in Samara!

In September we started our fourth group of students in the Samara Institute for Preachers. As with other groups, this one also is a good mix of eager young guys and more experienced pastors. Some are coming from a long ways away. They all want to make the most of their gifts and preach God's word with greater accuracy and boldness for the glory of God. Please pray that these 70 men will continue and graduate as planned in May 2008.



The 160 men who have already graduated are impacting Russia for Christ. Some churches of graduates have thanked us and asked us to thank you all for training these men because "their progress is evident to all" (1st Tim 4:15).

In September another 2-week session of the Krasnodar Institute was completed. Fifty men are currently studying and they too will graduate in May 2008 Lord willing. Please pray for the students at Krasnodar!

Also in May 2008 our 17 seminary students hope to graduate. They're well into their 2nd year of full time studies. We're enjoying getting to know the guys better this year so that we can more personally minister to their needs. We try to have one or two families over for dinner each week and last week we enjoyed having all the bachelors over for pizza.
Please pray for the seminary students to grow in love and humility.


In October we were richly blessed to attend the 50th anniversary of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles. For the first time, all the missionaries that they support (61 families) came home from all over the world to celebrate the momentous occasion and to take part in an unforgetable conference and celebration. We had a wonderful time! The boys enjoyed fellowship with other missionary kids their age. We were overwhelmed and deeply humbled by the outpouring of love from members of Grace. They showered us with gifts and many sincere words of encouragement.

We were also blessed to get together with our new friends the Hodges! They came over from Grace Church last summer as a short term missions team to help do an evangelistic youth camp.





Jake and Jordan are continuing to do well in their home studies and with their music lessons. They've really become independent self-learners and exemplary young men. (Editor's comment - they have a Mom who has sacrificed much toward this goal!!!)






Our seminary wives group is meeting 2 times a month - once for Bible lesson, once for craft and fellowship. The women say it's like a breath of fresh air. They like learning to decorate their homes with crafts and learning to bake American recipes. In spring I taught the women to make pizza and recently one of them said "I've been doing just like you - inviting everyone over and making them your pizza." Another lady told me last week that she gathered 8 other ladies together and taught them how to make it. It's great to see them passing on what they've learned. (Is this 2Timothy 2:2? : )

In addition to praying for all our students, John's teaching and preaching ministry, and our boys' home schooling, please also continue to pray for my language ability. I've been really working hard on my Russian and am tape recording the ladies' Bible study that I attend on Thursday nights. For a long time now I've been able to understand the Bible lesson part, but I still have trouble understanding all the chit chat that goes on around the table before the lesson and also the prayer requests. I can get the drift but not the details. I'm trying to be consistent in reading a Russian book (children's novel). Then I write down all the words that I don't know and work on learning them. I feel this is the way to increase my understanding. But you could really help! Please pray that God will give me greater ability in Russian!

Well, that's all from here for now. We'd love to hear from you. If you haven't written for a while, please take a minute just to drop us a line and let us know how you're doing, or how we might pray for you!

Your servants for Christ in Samara Russia,

Danese for John, Jake and Jordan Snyder

Ok...so you're not supposed to wait for more than a year to update your blog. "the death of your blog site" says Kevin E. But, chalk it up to: 1)an internet connection in Samara slow as molasses, 2)a missionary whose not much quicker than that!

But now we're staying at the Edwards for a few days before the big GCC missions conference in SanDiego - can't wait.

Picture is from recent visit of our beloved Pastor Joe to Samara - great blessing!! He did a great job teaching NT survey to over 50 eager brothers in Krasnodar! PRaise the Lord.

Well, if there is anyone reading my blogsite, I'll try to do a better job of keeping it up to date...at least while we're here in LA with modern technology!!

Foolishness exposed

Only have a minute to report! What a great evening last night! Pavel the preacher exposed man's folly by giving 10 excuses a fool might give for not wanting to get a bath, then showed that basically the same excuses are given by men for not wanting to have their souls cleansed by Christ. I'll try to get them all, but for example: "I don't need a bath...I'm not that dirty" "I'll get a bath when I feel more dirty" "I get a bath on the holidays, at Easter and Christmas"

Many more folks are coming to the tent. One 70 year old grandma invites every passer by into the tent. She calls all of them "youth" and says to 60 year old men "young fellow, come and hear the good news of God". Please pray for the Lord to do a great work today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday)! Thanks for praying!

Exemplary Evangelist for Christ! 9am--Pavel was at the tent to work through problems with the city officials. 10am--he was rehearsing with the singing group to perform at the evening service. During the day he was with his team, preparing for the outreach. 6:30-8:30pm he was emcee for the evening and featured preacher--Preached a GREAT gospel message! Here at 10pm--he is on the street witnessing to youth of Samara. He does this for 5 days straight! And this is the 7th city he has been evangelizing since June 1! Can you learn something from this Russian brother!!