The News from Here – February 2006
Greetings, once again, in the Name above all names
that can be named; The Blessed Name of Jesus
Christ.
With the coming of Spring comes
the feeling of renewed hope and new life both in the
physical and in the spiritual. May this time bring
you ever closer to Him.
A New Life Begins Well, the wedding has come and gone (March 4) and I have begun a new life as a husband. We had a wonderful wedding and, everyone at the church is saying it was the most romantic and happiest wedding they have ever been to. We planned on having our ceremony and reception to last for 4 hours. It would be a combination of Russian and American traditions. The ceremony started at 4:00 in the afternoon and, Luda and I left at 10:30 PM!
The Ceremony We wanted our ceremony to be a reflection of Christ’s love for His Church, His Bride. We printed programs explaining the different meanings and symbols involved in the ceremony. We, of course, had an element of mime in the ceremony. It is a piece I have had for years and saved for my wedding. Luda and I stood facing one another and the mime character came forward, looked at each of us and then to God. Luda and I “took out our hearts” and tried to give them to one another, but the mime character stopped us and held out her hands to indicate we were to give our hearts to her. We did this and our hearts were beating in different rhythms and times. The mime character “weighed” the hearts in her hands to indicate they were of equal weight and then lifted them to God. The hearts then melded into one and the mime character brought them down, beating as one heart and in one rhythm. She “tore” the hearts apart and held them back out to us with her arms crossed at the wrists. Luda and I each took a heart and, reaching across, placed them in one another’s chest. It was a very moving piece and, at the rehearsal, some of the member’s of our wedding party openly cried as well as many during the time of the wedding.
The Reception One of the highlights of the reception was a men’s only dance. I had wanted to have a time for a man’s dance to the theme from “Zorba the Greek” but Luda and I worried no men would dance. So, I went to some friends and asked them to PLEASE dance, and they said they would. But, no worries, when the music started, absolutely every man there ran to the floor to dance. We all danced in unison as the song got faster and faster, then, at the fastest part, every man broke off and tried to out dance one another. It was so much fun and I can hardly wait to see the video. Also, our first dance to “Unchained Melody” made many of the women cry and they thought we had rehearsed it for a long time when, in reality, it was the first time we had danced. Sergei gave the first “toast” as my best man and brought people to tears (including himself) as he talked about my time here and what it meant to him and others and the happiness they all felt to see me so happy. I probably would have cried if I hadn’t felt so sorry for him and was trying to support him. We also had two videographer friends stay with Luda and I all day and video us so that I will later do a montage and you can see what we were doing at the same time. For instance, there is video of Luda having her hair done while Sergei is shaving my head! It should be fun.
THE YOUTH The youth are still growing spiritually. They are now teaching many of the classes in our “School of Leaders” which, as some of you know, is our Bible training course for new believers. It fills my heart with such admiration as I look over the various responsibilities of the church and see the youth filling so may positions from ushers, to praise and Worship team to teaching and even helping in custodial duties. They are such great and responsible “kids”. This coming Friday, the 17th, will be our last meeting in our regular youth room. We will begin meeting in our new youth center on the 24th. It isn’t finished, but we think it is the right time to start meeting there as they have been waiting so patiently for it to open. The Sunday night prayer meetings are already there.
THE NEWS ON SERGEI Sergei is still working as a lawyer. As I reported last month, he entered the “Mr. Ivanovo” contest. He got into the top 10 and won the media award from the newspapers and TV as their choice for representing Ivanovo. One local station did a piece on him, visiting him at home and at work and he even got one modeling job, so far, from it. He and I are still getting work as “living mannequins” and doing promotions as mimes. We are looking into getting a full time promoter to increase our work. Also, I feel we have now moved into a time where we are going into “partnership” with the ministry. This means the website will no longer be about myself, but will now feature Sergei and myself. The Lord has spoken to both Sergei and I that it is time to take this step and work with this viewpoint. We have already been working this way but, adding his bio and information to the website and “promoting” us as a duo is just bringing into reality what we were already doing. I will let you know when the site is updated so you can get to know Sergei “up close and personal”. : )
PRAYER REQUESTS Please be praying for Luda and myself as we move into this new life together. As we go through our “adjustments” and such there will, of course, be much “stretching and growing”. Pray also for Sergei and I as we minister and work together that the anointing would increase and we would be able to go to the places the Lord sends us to without financial worries or problems getting in the way. Also, we are planning to visit the States in October for 2 or 3 weeks to minister and visit. Pray for finances for that trip and open doors for ministry. Also for finances for Luda and I to come to the States in May/June Always be lifting the youth up as they grow in the Lord and take on more esponsibility and reach out to this city.
IN CLOSING Thanks for your prayers and support, as always. We hope to see you in late May or early June when Luda and I travel to the states for my daughter’s graduation. Until next month,
Keep the Faith, Randy ( and Luda) Ðýíäè è Ëþäà 4