Dear Saints,
About four and a half years ago, in August of 2012, you received a letter of fellowship concerning the burden and the need to purchase a meeting hall in Moscow, Russia. As you may remember, the fellowship in that letter was that after many years of prayer and looking to the Lord to purchase a good facility near Moscow State University (MSU), an opportunity was opened by the Lord to find such a place to serve both as a meeting hall of the church in Moscow and as a place for gaining students.
Initially the cost of that hall was estimated to be about $1.6 million, which included the cost of the hall itself ($1.5 million) and the estimated cost of the remodeling ($100,000). By that time the church in Moscow had collected for this need about $500,000. Also some brothers in the Lord’s recovery have graciously given a loan of $1.1 million to the church in Moscow for a period of five years for the purchase of the property. To pay back the loan, our plan was that the church in Moscow would collect within 5 years another $500,000, and we also opened up our need of $600,000 to the churches abroad.
Yet later, when we actually started the process of purchasing the hall in June, 2012, we faced some matters that substantially increased the cost of the project up to $2.3 million. After fellowshipping with you all — the churches and saints both in the West and in the East — concerning our need, for the last four and a half years we have received about $1.5 million of offerings designated to this need. Through this kind of fellowship in the Body and participation of the churches and saints we have been able to purchase the hall and to pay back the loan within the five years. Thank and praise the Lord that now the need is fully met and there is no more need to offer!
Today we would like to express our deep appreciation to the Lord and to all of you — all the dear saints and the churches — for your faithful and rich participation in this need through your offerings and prayers. Having received all of the gracious gifts throughout the last four and a half years, we very much appreciate the response and participation of the churches and the individual saints in the United States and Canada, as well as in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and other countries in our burden and need to have the meeting hall in Moscow. We thank and praise the Lord for such a fellowship in the Body! We are deeply touched by the saints’ response to our need, by their spirit of love and fellowship, and by their willingness to share our burden. And we are so grateful that you gave us of your supply to meet our need for the increase of Christ and for the building up of His Body.
As of now, we are using this property virtually every day of the week. Along with the prayer meetings and the Lord’s Table meetings of the church that we have in this hall weekly, during working days the hall is used by the full-time serving ones on the MSU campus team to coordinate, to have appointments with students, and to have college meetings. Also, once a month we have gospel seminars for new ones in this hall. And we believe that this property will be used by the Lord even more in the future for gaining students, young people, and others who will be meeting in district #3 of the church in Moscow.
Through this entire experience related to purchasing this property, we have been reminded that the churches in Russia owe their existence and going on to the coordination, fellowship and prayer of the Body over the entire earth. They are the result of the going, praying and giving of many saints in the Lord’s recovery in America, Asia and Europe. We believe that the Lord’s kingdom will continue to spread in this way to every corner of the earth until the kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ (Rev 11:15). Your participation in our need was a genuine experience of the Lord moving in and through His Body.
We hope that many will receive the profit from the work of the Lord in us and through us for the carrying out of His divine economy in Russia and beyond.
The leading brothers in Moscow
"And they continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and prayers" (Acts 2:42)