American Film Festival

Two weeks ago we had an awesome outreach that we had planned here in the city. We had an American film festival that we hosted for Russian students. It was free of charge and a whole lot of prayer went into planning the outreach.

We had shown three different films at the festival and after each film that we had shown we would have a discussion. There were about 40 or so Russian students who came out to participate. It was pretty exciting. The first film "control Z" was a short film that talked about undoing things in your past. The second video was a french film called "liberte" that prepped a conversation and freedom. My favorite video was a Russian film that laid out the gospel metaphorically. The film showed a father having sacrifice his little son to save a train that was going to run off the road. This film was very moving for some Russians and we heard some crying through it. I was really surprised to hear this. Most Russians do not show their deep emotions so openly. There is a term we use here quite often in light joking with our Russian friends: 'use face control.'

My friend Yura attended and the next day Abe (a staff member here on our trip with us) and I went to follow up with Yura about the films he had seen the night before. This eventually lead us to a conversation to clearly share the gospel again with him. Abe was here this time to share with me. It helped with the language barrier and this time I felt like this time Yura clearly understood the gospel with the help of Abe translating some difficult things to understand for a foreigner to English. Although Yura did not make a decision he and I are both reading a book by Josh McDowell called 'More than a carpenter.' He is reading it in Russian and I am reading it in English. Pray that this stirs an urgency in his heart to accept the one true living God. I love this guy, but I know time is running short. Please pray for patience and understanding and that Yura continues to see the love of Christ.