I was thrilled to be able to return to Kamchatka, Russia after 10 years! We have so many good friends and pastors there, so it was a delightful 10 days!
Nov 1 – I flew from LA to Moscow (13 hours) and stayed overnight there. An old friend, Oleg, was available to take me downtown Moscow for the first time! Pretty stunning to see the Red Square in real life! the Kremlin is intimidating. Tomb of Lenin sobering. Lots of lights and powerful imagery there. I especially enjoyed St. Basil’s Cathedral (also known as the Cathedral of the Protecting Veil of the Holy Mother of God on the Moat). Next stop Kamchatka!
Nov 2 – Flight from Moscow to Kamchatka (9 hours) was fine. Saw the beautiful volcano Koryoksky from the plane coming in. After I arrived I saw some sights in the Petropavlovsk (PK) area. Had lunch at church then came to an apartment to rest n unpack. Friday night I didn’t do anything but smile and reconnect with a lot of wonderful people. Found a translator to do my power points so that is very cool. She also became my interpreter. Her name is Nona and she’s pretty sharp. After today she wept telling me what it meant to her working with me and the messages’ impact on her. She’s a worship leader in a different church and an English teacher! Deeply touched by all of this. This is the annual Full Gospel Churches’ conference w about 400 in attendance from all over Kamchatka. Pretty cool. And the new sanctuary is beautiful and sounds great too. Maryl and I were honored to pray over this building when it was still in construction 10 years ago! And we worshiped in the basement then! You’ll notice that this striking building sits under the ‘shadow’ of Koryoksky! What a view to see everytime you come to church!
Nov 3 – I spoke this morning on Expectation. Engaging. Enjoying. (His Presence) Sang my song ‘Strength in Silence’ and a Russian song I knew: ??????? (Spaseeba-Thank You). They stood spontaneously when I started that. Pretty cool. Great response to God’s presence. Many people responded to the altar call for salvation! Lunch w everybody in the basement. In the evening I did my prophetic song ‘Prayer is for the Warrior’. Nikolai helped me translate the chorus so we sang that – he sang harmony. The whole place spontaneously stood and sang. Pretty powerful. Then I did my sermon on Extreme Worship with the Hebrew word: Shachah and the Greek word: Proskuneo. I got the whole congregation to stand, bow and worship – many for the first time. At the end I had all the kids and teens come up and do the Proskuneo bow and twirl. It was going so well I had them fan out into the aisles and had the worship team sing ‘Blessed be the Name’ and I would shout ‘Proskuneo’ in key spots of the song and everybody would bow and twirl. It was a kick. Talked about generations and believing in each other and celebrating together. It really energized the whole place. Again many people came forward to receive Christ!
Nov 4 Sunday went great! I sang my song ‘Aloha’ since some remembered it from last time and they really enjoyed it. Then Nikolai translated the first lines to my other song ‘He Turns Everything Around’ (so I have 2 songs started in Russian now!) It went really well. Then I shared the sermon “You have heard it said” There was a very strong anointing and God gave me new examples spontaneously. Challenged them with vision to be more like Jesus in every way. Another great response at the end and sang “Jesus lover of my soul”. At the end of every service a pastor would come up and give an altar call(I am not supposed to) and many responded all weekend. Then we had a great lunch w everyone in the basement.
Next was the final session at 2pm. Great worship and my good friend, Pastor Nikolai Poliavkov preached up a storm. They sure love and respond to him. He preached a great sermon on psalm 46:11 powerful. Another great response w some getting saved. Then he called people up for healing. Packed the front so I and the other pastors waded into the throng and laid hands and prayed over as many as we could. Some wonderful moments Though it was hard to tell if they were healed. Some wanted prayer for family members too. While I am finishing up praying the Koryak people had gathered to do their traditional song we all love ‘Eesus’. I got a pretty good video of it this time. This is a powerful song birthed in Kamchatka about God providing for the birds and us – the interpretive dance is spectacular!
Nov 5 The next day we went to a 30th anniversary party in Yelisovo then to a Banya (Russian Sauna) with all the pastors and got real hot. But survived. Yay!
Nov 6 Today I started teaching the Bible School plus pastors from many churches on worship 9-1pm Tuesday thru Friday. The classes are going great. Packed out and brimming with enthusiasm and excitement. Tuesday I did the whole Vision of Worship in 4 sections and used lots of stories and songs. Got them very involved. Tuesday night I taught a shortened version of that with just my sections on ‘Every service reveals Jesus’ and ‘Every Song Vital Every Word Alive’. Strong anointing. Our good friend Stas interpreted some and also our translator from earlier times, Boris. Great guys. Fun interpreters! I did have a couple of hard days with my lower back. Very painful. Grabbing me. Hard to move at times. Doubled over in pain getting out of the car. Couldn’t sleep on my right side because of pain in my lower left back. But by Thursday it was much better!
Nov 7 Today I taught on biblical worship ending with the Shachah n Proskuneo again. Powerful response. Added some new thoughts and examples that I will try to remember for the future. Great anointing and deep impact on this group.
Nov 8 Thursday I taught and worked w the leaders on their hearts and how to release worship both spiritually and practically. Trying to build their confidence and boldness. It seems to be working. In the evening I preached on the Heart of Worship using the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4. So many things to pull out of that beautiful story. Mostly its a story of revelation of God’s love and restoration of our hearts. Sang my song ‘Alegria’ in Portuguese and ‘Heart of Worship’ (they sing that in Russian – I didnt).
Nov 9 Friday I finished with the Worship team in the Flow. Worked a lot with the singers singing properly to much delight. In between classes I presented a Cherokee basket from my Cherokee wife to a Koryak Pastor Valera! Very wonderful honoring the people of the land here in Kamchatka! After the presentation, all the indigenous people (about 20 in the class) came up and greeted me one by one – they said their name and greeted me in their native language! Beautiful and poignant moment! Then I got another Koryak lady to come up and showed her how to play a simple C chord on the piano (she had never played) and got everyone to sing ‘How Great is Our God’ while she ‘accompanied’ them! Then I put a guitar on a young worship leader who had never played before. I taught her a simple Em chord and how to strum and we started singing ‘Eesus’. She did great and everybody loved it! Then I brought up three guitarists and an accordionist with me on piano and talked about voicing and working together. I taught them some chord progressions that led us into my teaching on flowing in prophetic worship. Got many to sing new songs and ended with a joint song of intercession over Kamchatka. Very powerful. I prayed over them and they prayed over me. Friday night they had their monthly worship service from 8pm to 2am!
Nov 10 After many good byes and hugs and gift-sharing I flew to Moscow and on to New York and then PORTLAND (about 48 hours!) Yay!
Thank you to all who prayed and supported me during this powerful and fruitful ministry in Kamchatka. I was able to plant a lot of good seed on a lot of good soil in this beautiful land. Maryl hopes to join me again to return in the near future. Continue to pray for these amazing and faithful believers as they continue to face hardships and persecution there.
Blessings to all, in Him,
Tim
Bonus Video: https://youtu.be/5LTuWeJiB88