Pray for another record Christmas—needs are growing!

During the last quarter of each year, preparations step into high gear for SGA-supported Immanuel’s Child Christmas outreaches across the former Soviet Union. By God’s grace and provision, the past few years have seen record numbers of children reached with the Gospel, and we are praying for an even greater number this Christmas season. 

We get back hundreds of exciting reports at the conclusion of each year’s outreaches and we simply can’t share all of them. But here is one from Alexander, an SGA-supported missionary pastor in Belarus, who praises God they were able to reach two families where children had physical challenges: 

“Greetings! . . . Children and church members staged a presentation about the birth of Jesus. Between December 24-25, then January 7 and afterwards, there were visits to the homes of children who for various reasons could not participate in the outreaches. 

I want to tell you about two different families with similar difficulties. The kids are raised by their grandmother as the parents are in prison. In one family, the little girl in the arms of the boy is disabled. She cannot walk on her own. These children are especially poor and we try to visit them and spend time with them. They love it very much when we come—we are not forbidden to come, and we can talk to them freely about Jesus. We have sent them greetings from you and in return they send them to you.

We also visited another girl with physical challenges whose name is Kamila. We wished her a Merry Christmas, sang a song and talked about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Kamila was at the Immanuel’s Child celebration and after the service, her parents brought her up and asked us to pray over her and bless her. I was a little surprised by this request, but then after reading about how Simeon blessed Jesus, I prayed over Kamila and asked the Lord to keep her safe and protect her from dangers and evil, so that she could grow in faith in Christ the Savior and belong to Him. Kamila’s parents promised to come to church services and to send her to Sunday school as their daughter grows up. 

After the outreaches, the children and their parents felt a lot of joy and varying emotions, and they also expressed a desire to attend church and Sunday school. Children who had never been to the church before came to the festivities even from neighboring villages, for which we give glory to God. Now our prayer to God is for the Word that was sown to bear fruit, and we do not miss the opportunity to continue fellowship with those who came. Thank you again for your prayers, and may God bless you all!”

We join Alexander and his church in praise and thanksgiving to God. Please intercede in advance as the preparations continue for this year’s Immanuel’s Child!