What if there was no physical death?

What if there was no physical death?

One of the most unpleasant tragedies in the world is the tragedy of Death. But imagine what the world would be like without this so called awful tragedy.

1. The earth would be exploded for the high dense of population.
2. People would have to see and tolerate each other forever.
3. There would be a high rise in the unemployment rate since there are too many people who are working on the fields dealing with death issue .
4. There would be no way of getting rid of daily sufferings and calamities.
5. …………………………………………………………………………………… .(Your thought)

 

So let’s accept this so called calamity as the beauty of the world and be ready to welcome it whenever our turn comes for that. But, how can we be ready for that?

 

Eastern Star Church with a new vision

The Eastern Star church was established in March 2001 with the goal of taking the Gospel of Jesus to Farsi speaking people in Kiev. Pastor Sam Taylor planted this church. He was a missioner in the international Baptist church. While he had a ministry among Iranians , he planted the church. He himself was the pastor for the beginning , then in one year Pastor Kim became the pastor and then Ali Taheri began to lead the church who after a few years was ordained for this ministry.

Today after more than 10 years, many people have been come to Christ. Many families have been restored. Many Drug addicted have been got ridden of drugs. Many have become ministers as the result of the work of the church. Some are leading groups and churches all over the world.

At the same time we have always had people who have not been satisfied in the church.

I have a new vision for the Eastern Star goal. I do not see very clear what God’s will is for me and the Eastern Star ministry. This is what I have in mind at present and invite you to keep me in your prayer and send me your thought as well. Your advice is very vital at this time for me.

This is what it think:

I think of beginning a new ministry called” All Nations For Christ “.
The corresponding language would be English. We will work among all nations and native groups beginning from the capital and going to other cities. We will organize English classes during the week to attract people in order to share the Gospel with them.
In the process when people from different ethnic groups come to Faith in Jesus , they can start their own church in their native language.

Meanwhile I will keep being in the Persian Church till God sends a substitution pastor for that.

 

We are not in Pukhova any more

After 8 months of conflicts , finally our church split. It is a sad news but i believe that our God will turn it to the goodness of those who love Him.

I the pastor of the church has been accused of some false accusations. Some people who looks at the church as a source of becoming rich without effort and those who consider the church as a cause for their misfortunes tried to consider themselves righteous. When they were told that they have to work and stand on their own feet, they began to complain.

The conflicts began from the side of 3 people who resided in the church building and motivated others against the Eastern Star church and it’s leaders.

We have stopped our fellowships in the Pukhova building since Monday 20th August 2012. Right now we do not know where we will meet for the following Sunday service.

car accident

On 30th of July 2012 at 10:30 in the morning , a Mercedes hit my car in the back. It happened while I was coming back home from metro Sevitoshen. I had taken my Afghan family friends , Amir and Shakiba and their children to Khreshatik. Praise God that nobody was in car except me. While I was waiting for the green light on the cross road, the Mercedes CPrinter hit me heavily on the back. It seems that my head was hit on the driver seat. At first I did not have any pain but after almost 15 minutes the pain began on my head. The car is badly damaged and my health in on the process of recovery. There was not any guilt on me and the police has already noticed that. I had different check ups on my head including Xray and MRT. We hope that the insurance company or the court will consider the case honestly. 

we are now 4 at home

On July 13th 2012 we got a boy to live with us as our son till he becomes to the age of 18. Ermias is from Eritrea. In 2 months he will be 18. He left his country a year ago, went to different kind of difficulties to emigrate to Sweden. Finally he was brought to Ukraine and let him go in the city of Vinetsya. We knew him while he was going to be sent to the orphanage house. My family and I decided to have him stay with us and be a member of our family. The United Nation in Kiev agreed and the people from children center of Kiev came and visited us and evaluated our apartment to see if there is enough accommodation for accepting a new member. They agreed and now Ermias is living with us. His father is in Eritrea and is the bishop of an Orthodox church. We hope that this time would be blessing period for Ermias especially in making a strong relationship with the Lord.

IT IS REAL

The US missioner was taken as a Hostage to teach the bible
We took a US missioner as hostage last night for our bible study group.

Sam Slobodian who is the director of BIEM was here and they asked me to take the professor who teaches at the Bible school to their office and also have dinner with them.

I was supposed to take DAD and the King of goats with me as well. But the problem was that on Tuesdays we have our Bible Study group. So what to do? I talked to the director of the school that we will be one hour late because of our bible study meeting.

He agreed. So, I went to the church at near 6 and saw the teacher was sitting in the yard.

I greeted him and said the story to him that before going we want to have our bible study group and ask you to lead the group.

Poor professor having no other chance agreed immediately.

please, let’s go to the room, here, now to the right , upstairs, now turn to right and follow the dark narrow corridor,  now to the left and room number 9, please here and take the sit. ( I led him by these phrases!!)

After the bible study we 3 I Ran ians took the US teacher and asked him to sit in a car which they call it Kopeik( Zhigooli ) and drove to some where nobody knew where.

Finally we were at the place where the people were waiting for us to arrive with Ferari, the nickname for Zhigooli. By the way Ferari in Farsi means ( the one who runs away, flea, escape)

So, Any way we had a great fun at the table as the professor suddenly began to pour out his heart by saying these I Ran Ians took me as hostage today. We all laughed and had a great fun for all the unexpected story. King of goat shared his testimony of how he came to God and how the Lord has amazingly changed his life.

I hope you liked the story.

The little 8 years old girl comes to Christ

On Sunday 5th Marry came to the church directly after doing the things in her plan for that day. She did not plan to bring her little daughter because of cold weather. Their friend was looking for her at home. The little 8 years old daughter began to ask the baby sitter to take her to the church to mom. She began to ask again and again and finally after talking to mom on phone they decided that she brings her to the church. Surprisingly, the Sunday school teacher did not come on that Sunday. For this reason the little 8 year old girl sat in the church all the time and sang the songs, prayed and listened to the sermons to the level of her understanding . At the end of the church she told her mother and her mother to our Deacon and the Deacon to me that she desire to become a Christian. Wow, It was amazing. When we asked her the basic question to see how she understand the Christian faith, we all were amazed when we saw that she understood sins in her life and the need for Jesus Christ to forgive her sins. She repented and accepted Christ as her Saviour. Praise God for this new birth. Please pray for Saina as she began her Journey with Christ and join us in this joy. Thanks for your permanent love, care and prayer to us

Some feedback from the friends:

This is a wonderful story about a young girl coming to Jesus. It is just like it is written in the Bible when Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me.”

   Sam Taylor

Children find it much easier to come to Christ than adults.  This is child-like faith.  She must now grow in her understanding and read the Bible daily!  Praise the Lord.

                                                                                                                           Beth Mahaphy

Mission trip to Sweden Jan 2012

From 10th – 25th January 2012, I was able to be among the Christian believers in 3 towns in Sweden, Norsjo, Boliden and Yorn.

The mission was full of blessing.

The flight to there was so exciting by itself  for me since it was my first time in life to fly. A person from Kazakhstan was sitting beside me and we had opportunity to talk all the time. we talked a lot in details about the Christian faith and she was amazed to see an Iranian Christian. She could not understand why a Muslim becomes a christian. She wanted to know the major differences between Islam and Christianity. It was the flight from Borispol to Riga.

From Riga t Stockholm a lady was sitting beside me who was not so interested in conversation.

From Stockholm to Shelefeo , a person from Afghanistan was sitting beside me. We talked all the way. He was so interested to find out facts about the Christian faith. Finally he said if he can become a Christian but still stay Muslims by doing the Islamic law? How do you answer such question?

At the Shelefteo Hamid with some brothers and sisters from the Iranian church welcomed me at the airport and we had Ukrainian Borsh at Hamid’s house which his wife ,Leila had provided. The first day.

 hamid, leader of the church in Norsjo                          

On Tuesday 11th we had a walking around during the day and in the evening we had our first gathering with the Iranian group in Boliden. 12 people were in the group. Among them was a person from Afghanistan. We got to know each other and mostly talked about the first verses of matt chapter 7 and chapter 18. the second day.

On Thursday and Friday 12th and 13th we had our next gathering with the Persian group talk about the redemption and the subjects related to Salvation.

On Saturday we joined with a Swedish church in which the let me to preach the Word of God. After the service two girls from Ethiopia became believers in Jesus Christ as their redeemer and Saviour of their sins. The fifth day.

On Sunday 15th we gathered in another Swedish church with all the Persian Speaking people. the sixth day.

On Monday 16th and Tuesday 16th, I was invited for lunch at the house of Andy who is a British missionary who lives there with his Swedish wife and 2 children. We had time of fellowship together. I saw that both of us were encouraged a lot in our life ministry. I baked a kind of Iranian bread at their house and they liked it very much especially the kids. the ninth day.

Barbari at Andy’s house

In the evening the same day I was invited to our Ethiopian friend Tesfa for dinner. One of his friends who was Muslim was there. We had a long conversation after the dinner which at the end he decided to accept Christ as his Saviour. His name was Mertab which means “glory to father” This was the beginning of our talks.

On Wednesday 18th , I joined the women bible study group where I had the blessing of sharing the Word of God with the Swedish ladies at Andy’s house. the seventh day.

On Thursday 19 we went to the city of Shelefteo during the day to buy some gifts and in the afternoon and we had our another gathering with Iranians at one of the brother’s house. Arash and his wife Bahar welcomed us and we had our bible  study gathering till the very midnight. I spent the night at their house.  the ninth day.

The following day I spent the day with the couple encouraging them in their marriage and walking with Christ. the tenth day.

Saturday 21 the we joined a church service during the day. We had pizza at a pizzeria whose owner is an Iranian. We had the opportunity to witness Jesus Christ with him.

we were again at Tesfa’s house for his daughter’s birthday in the evening.11th day

Sunday 22nd we were in a church service among Farsi speaking people. some of the believers shared their testimonies and I had the opportunity to share the Gospel. After the service we had fellowship and a big feast. I talked to many people in different times. Many had questions and some came so close to knowing the real God. I had also time to talk a lot with an emigrant from another European country encouraging him in his faith.the 12th day.

Monday 23rd We went to the town and tried to pack for returning back to Kiev. the 14th day.

Tuesday night Hamid invited the dentist of the area who was an Iranian lady for dinner alongside with the owner of pizzeria with his family. It was the last night of me being there. We had a so good food which Hamid cooked and after that we had a great conversation about Jesus Christ with them. the 15th day

On Wednesday morning they drove me to the airport and I head for Kiev. On the flight back I had the opportunity to talk to an Atheist and Ukrainian Orthodox about Jesus Christ and the Creator. The friends( Abbas, Bahram and Amir) came to the airport to pick me. I had dinner at home.

Thanks a lot for your prayer and help that made this mission possible.

Nikolai in Milka is growing

Nikolai in Milka who repented a few months ago calls me and I call him every now and then. It is so amazing to see how he grows even though he does not have any mentors to meet regularly right now and any church to attend. But he reads bible every day as he claims. Just today we had a long telephone conversation. He has even talked to one of his friends and his friend now  also is interested in spiritual issues. Nikolai invited me to go to the village for the Nikolai Feast. ( It is a Ukrainian Feast celebrated on 19th of December.) I told him if God opens the doors I will come there. In such Feast usually the people drink. I asked him not to offer any alcoholic drink in the Feast and to my surprise he said to me” Brother, It is for 3 months that I have given it up,” . This is exactly from the time of his salvation. I see the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Nikolai. Finally he asked me to pray for him on the phone and we closed with a word of prayer. It is a great encouragement for me and I think It is for you also since you participate in this ministry with me which God has trusted us in this part of the world.

 

Growing is vital in Christianity

We are keep serving, growing , teaching and preaching the Good News of Salvation to the people. The church is going on well. We had conversions during the last weeks. Thanks for the prayer for Moji, He is growing and attending the bible study groups but not Sunday services since he is working till late at night on Sundays. The new converted sister the Beauty also is growing attending seriously both bible study groups and Sunday services. some friends who did not attend the church before have been restored and attending the fellowships with a great enthusiasm. We are teaching the book of Revelation on Sundays and for Bible study groups we go to different parts of Bible every time. I am keep learning Greek at the bible college this year and also keep doing the translation of the book ” All that the prophets have spoken”. Audio recording is kept being done as usual. Plus that we have begun to do some short video clips about bible stories. Just go to easternstarkiev in you tube ( Pesare Keshavarz) to see one of them which we just tried to see how it work. Today I plan to go the village with my family for the whole week. Please pray for us that I can keep sharing Jesus with the villagers and have fellowship with those who converted before. ( Babushka Pola and Nikolai). I thank you and thank you and thank you for your prayer , care , help and generous financial supports to us which are so vital in doing what the Father have trusted us to do. It is all because of your sharing that we are able to keep serving and growing. Your help is so vital for us.