“We do not wrestle against flesh & blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. We are fighting for the preservation & proclamation of the truth. We are fighting for the honor of Jesus Christ. We are fighting for the salvation of sinners, & we are fighting for the virtue of saints.” John MacArthur "The Book on Leadership"
The book: Infinitely More
Most of you know that I have been in Russia since April 25th, but before I left Infinitely More, my full autobiography, was released. Thank you to Kit and Whitecaps Media Company for doing an outstanding job getting this book available. Infinitely More can be purchased from three major vendors: Whitecaps Media, Amazon and Barns & Noble. (The book is also available for Ibook, Ipad, Nook and Kindle.) Thank you to all of you have read this and sent such encouraging words!
Visit to Germany
One my way to Russia I went to Germany and spent a week with our German partner OJC. OJC is a Christian organization geared towards helping youth determine what they want to do and how to be closer to God. OJC has been a faithful partner of The Harbor for three years and during my visit, I was able to share with the community about The Harbor as well as my testimony. While there, many shared their testimonies with me and it was such an encouragement to be with others called to minister to orphans. One woman told me she was moving to Ecuador to be full-time missionary to minister to orphans and another was ministering to orphans in Romania. Praise the Lord!
The leadership team of OJC also expressed a desire to help The Harbor by purchasing an apartment. In order for The Harbor to purchase any apartment, which is big enough to house 6-8 residents will require a minimum of $250,000. We simply do not have such funds. OJC has offered little bit more than 50% of that cost, so if we raise additional 47% or so then we could purchase an apartment for boys sometime in the fall. We are launching a special campaign to raise $130,000. Our mission agency CRM is also letting us borrow interest free some funds that we would have to pay back within a year. If God moves you to help us in this campaign, then you could send your tax-deductible gift to CRM - Account # 9970 and write in the memo The Harbor apartment purchase campaign.
Russia & The Harbor
This summer I am celebrating my 16th year traveling between two countries. All these years my transition period has been very smooth for the most part, but this year it was the opposite. First, my living arrangements fell through so I end up living in different apartments for the first month. Second, I was forced to register because I no longer live in Russia thus creating some major challenges. Third, this has been one of the most difficult years for The Harbor. We started with 27 residents, which is the largest number of residents in 10 years, but in 6 months more than 10 left our family. The last three months have been as challenging as the first 6 months. Some residents came & others left so now we have 4 girls and 11 guys. Some of our residents had major problems with drug & alcohol addictions, so we sent them to rehab centers. Two have successfully completed rehab, but
the other one is still struggling. Please pray for Ira’s transformation & for freedom from alcoholism. My heart truly breaks for her.
The Harbor is in the process of searching for a new group of residents who will join our family at the end of the summer. Please pray for the favor of the government & orphanage officials. Also pray that God would bring us more orphans than we would know what to do with.
Staff Changes at the Harbor
Ira who has been a vital part of our community of ministers within The Harbor since the beginning of our journey, is getting married and moving to America sometime this fall. It is a bittersweet farewell. Ira began her journey with us first as a girls’ mentor & then became the Director of VTC. She is an amazing & faithful servant of God. We are grateful to her from the bottom of our heart. The Harbor wishes her riches and blessings of God as she begins a new journey. God has brought to our family a new sister in Christ who will be our next Director of VTC. Her name is Raya. For a long time she has worked with International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). Raya is a natural leader and through training with Ira, will begin her journey as the new director of the VTC on August 1st. Raya desires to see VTC grow by finding 1 new orphanage every year.
Ina who was a girls’ mentor will become our new Assistant Director of VTC, and Sergey who has began to raise funds in Russia full-time, is our Russian Director of Development.
As you can see, there have been many changes in our family so we covet your prayers. Pray that God would use their gifts bringing glory to Him & transform many lives.
Spiritual Warfare Conference
As The Harbor continues to grow & lives are being transformed, Satan is being defeated daily, which certainly does not make him happy. I say this because in the last couple of years The Harbor has been experiencing spiritual warfare attacks. We have been seeking a way to better minister to our staff and train our staff in the art of spiritual warfare.
John MacArthur writes in his “The book on Leadership”, “We are not fighting demons in a face-to-face confrontation, or by spirit-to-spirit conversation, or with voice-to-voice communication. We attack them by tearing down their fortresses of lies. Spiritual warfare is all about demolishing evil lies with the truth. Using the authority of God’s Word & the power of the gospel to give people the truth. That is what will pull down the fortresses of falsehood. That is the real nature of spiritual warfare.”
I am in total agreement with this statement because I can see & know what orphans have gone through & what lies they had been living with. They are in spiritual warfare. Our desire had been to host a special conference that will break the evil lies so that orphans will be freed. The conference went exceptionally well. We had guests from Australia, United Kingdom, Chelyabinsk, Vyborg, Kaluga and St. Petersburg. There is so much I can write about the conference & how God touched many lives, but two special memories I have are when one of our residents, who for years did not like for people to even look at her, after a 2-hour prayer was freed & the transformation is beautiful. She is now a radiant child of God. Another resident who had been deceived by the evil lies of rejection & a horrible memory of her mother attempting to kill her as a child, was freed as she
prayed out loud to forgive her mother. Please pray for continuous healing & freedom in the lives of our staff, residents & grads.
I was crying & praising Jesus because I witnessed the power of God setting many lives free. Such conference was so needed & wished we hosted it long time ago.
Conference in Moscow & Kiev, Ukraine
Recently came from an orphan conference in Moscow that was hosted by the Commission Children at Risk. There were about 60 people representing about 20 or so orphan ministries. It was very encouraging to see 5 former orphans who are now involved in ministering to orphans. Irina was a former orphan raised in Siberia & now she is the president of a corporation. She shared her powerful testimony & such testimonies are inspirational because they show what a glorious God we have. I made new connections for The Harbor in OK & PA.
I was also invited by CBN to participate in another orphan conference in Kiev, Ukraine. I will be attending that conference from June 14-19th. Please pray for this conference.
Praises
Our graduate Tanya who is studying Master of Psychology at St. Petersburg State University was baptized two weeks ago. She has one more year and is currently helping as an assistant to Natasha our psychologist. Please say praises to God for transforming another life.
Nadia who is our missionary with YWAM has successfully completed additional Bible leadership & management classes in Latvia. She is returning to St. Pete this June and will be ministering in St. Pete.
Nastya, our graduate, has started a new outreach at The Harbor whose goal is discipleship to our graduates on an individual level.
Sasha our graduate quit drinking, found a job & returned to church.
Recently I saw Lena V. & Lena L. who graduated from The Harbor about 2 years ago. Both of them are transitioning into a different stage. They will become a psychologist and a social worker to work in an orphanage. Please praise the Lord because He is raising up a new generation of leaders among former orphans.
I can go on & on because God is moving major mountains in the midst of struggles.
Thank you for being a part of this fight. God is smiling & rejoicing every time another life is saved. May God bless & reward you abundantly.
Love & blessings,
The Harbor & Alex
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