smiths
 
 
Michael & Penny Smith
Matthew & Luke
 
From Siberia to the Baltics and back!
 
 
Image result for Baltic Flag
 
Here is a direct quote from Duane Bruce after receiving news from his oncologist that his tumors were shrinking, “I feel the power of prayer has helped me and I will do everything to increase the power of my immune system. I celebrated by buying 2 chocolate donuts … a real splurge.” Amen!
 
Even though Elenora’s family moved to a village about an hour away, she still occasionally manages to come to Sunday School and special events. Astrid, another girl from VBS, has started coming to Sunday School regularly. She is a neighbor and relative of the Kutser family (Mait and Piret). Amen!
 
Angela has been coming regularly and is bringing her teenage daughter Maria as well! Amen! Please pray for Angela and Maria’s salvations.
 
I spent a week with soldiers from the USA training them in SCUBA and had many wonderful opportunities to witness to them, even explaining in depth of Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. Amen!
 
Captain Shields, the chaplain, and I had a good conversation and he has given me free rein to work with the soldiers as often as possible – training schedule permitting. I was able to meet on the base and preached What is Faith?
 
Our 10-day seminar with Eitan Chamberlain was excellent and our people are still inspired to study the life of Christ to a deeper level. We are planning on a trip to Israel at the end of January 2017. If you are interested, please contact us as we are opening it up to supporters and the cost is very low to attract our Estonian believers. We will be conducting it in English and Russian.
 
I spent 4 days with 5 Finnish divers at a resort in Saaremaa filling in for an instructor that had to attend a friend’s wedding. God is good! I was able to share the Gospel multiple times, but the best time came on the last night. On that night, 2 of the divers and I discussed the Gospel until 2:00 am!
 
Timo, an atheist, kept interrupting as I was sharing the Lord with Pekka. He alleged that the Bible recorded things that simply were not true. At one point, as I was quoting the scripture to him, Pekka, finally got tired of it and said, “You know Timo, I think Michael knows a lot more about the Bible than you do. You don’t even believe that there is a God and he believes that there is not only a God, but that He is the source of truth!” Amen!
 
He then added, “I wish we could bring a Bible into the sauna so we could study it here, but it would get ruined!
 
[Cultural note:] A Finnish sauna is a system modeled on Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace! A room is heated by burning a fire under rocks and when the temperature is sufficient, (approximately the melting point of glass) water is thrown on the rocks to add steam to the torture. They have a contest every year to see who can stand it the longest and people actually DIE from this!
 
Please continue praying for Beverly and her fight with cancer. She has a myriad of difficulties, but seems to be hanging in there. Her husband, Doug is still lost. Additionally, please continue to pray for Duane.
 
**Penny got her long-term residency! Praise the Lord!!
 
In the Master’s Service,
The Smiths