Maria traveled to Russia with an American team to share the Gospel in a few remote towns near the Ukrainian border. One of my classmates from seminary, Vasiliy, was one of the team leaders! What are the odds? Maria organized a team of translators from Kharkov to aid the team in evangelism. She describes her adventures:

"Are you sure we are in Russia? It looks like America," some of the team members were wondering, being awed by some of the more modern small towns. Instead of post-soviet old streets and houses we saw smooth roads, whole new neighborhoods and clean streets. Some Russian people know material wealth, but unfortunately they do not know God. In the middle of August, a team of translators from Kharkov and I spent a week in Russia working with a team from American mission board E3 Partners. Most of our time there we spent in a small town called Alekseyevka where we evangelized in the streets, visited the poor and the deaf telling them about the amazing grace.

Soon after the trip, Maria taught girls about relationships with boys at a teen seminar. Dima started discipling two guys and reading books on missiology and Islam in preparation for Muslim evangelism. We continue to wait for Maria's visa that will allow us to get married this winter. - Dima and Maria