For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Ron & Kathy Reasoner - NEW
Russia
Email: reasoner2russia@aol.com
Ron and Kathy Reasoner in Russia
February 2012 Prayer Letter
It’s -32 F outside right now. Moscow’s extreme temperatures have defeated many infamous world leaders. Napoleon was defeated by the cold after he conquered Moscow. Hitler didn’t fare much better with his soldiers. Nevertheless, we plow on to victory. God never said it would be easy but He did promise us grace to overcome- yes, even -32 degree temperatures.
The culture is so much different here. When the temperatures are low in America, we get excited about breaking records and children pray for a snow day. In Moscow, life goes on as if we are living in Hawaii. News sources often lie about the weather here and say it is warmer than it really is. Some sources say tonight it will be -50 degrees in our city. Moscow reports the record low as -33 degrees but those of us who live here laugh at that! The cold hard truth (no pun intended) is, when the weather gets this cold, you pray the electricity does not go out. If the electricity goes out, then all the pipes in your house will break and the heating system will need to be replaced because hot water pipes ARE the heating system here. The good news is, in a week or so, this bitter cold will be a distant memory. Russians have survived it for centuries and we will too.
Our church has been doing well with many visitors this last month. We had five visitors from our English camp. Another visitor was a lady that we gave a tract to on the street this past summer. She came again last week and brought another family with her. God’s Word will not return void, but God never promised it would have immediate results. Understandably, the weather this week discouraged many of the families that normally walk to our services. Those that had diesel cars couldn’t start the engines. One family’s car battery froze up. This is typical for this time of year.
We had a couple of interns here during the winter and it was a great blessing. They experienced some of the everyday trials of a missionary and wondered why anyone would be a missionary in Russia. I told them people need to be half crazy to come to Russia as a missionary. When they left, they said, “We believe you about being half crazy to live here full time.” We probably won’t do another internship in the winter. The culture shock is too much for most Americans to deal with. What’s so ironic to us is that life has gotten so much better over the past 20 years. We wonder how a person can get culture shock. Yet, every person that comes here seems to experience it.
On a personal note, all the traveling through radiation zones might finally have taken its toll on this missionary’s body. We are heading into the states for another visa trip. While I am there, I need to have some testing done on a tumor in my neck. We noticed it after a strange illness. I went to the specialist here in Russia and it was an adventure. I pulled into the parking lot and waited for this elderly lady in front of me to park her car. She smashed her new car into the snow bank and then backed the car into the door of the doctors’ office. She reversed the car and parked sideways taking up three spots. I felt sorry for her but wished that I had gotten one of those parking spots. I squeezed into a space far from the entrance. I went to the first doctor and they said, “Yep, you have a tumor but it is soft and that is good.” They sent me to the specialist and guess who she was-the lady who had just crashed her car into the building. She took an ultrasound and said that one neck muscle is four times the size of the other. It is a neck injury and I must wear a neck brace for three weeks. The problem is I have never injured my neck. It does not hurt but I am going to get it looked at in America. Please be in prayer for us about this health problem. We can not do a lot from this end because I don’t trust the doctors here and I need a second opinion. If that doctor does surgery like she drives, I might not come out of it alive.
The Frozen Chosen, Ron and Kathy Reasoner
Reasoners In Russia
Ron and Kathy Reasoner
December Prayer Letter 2011
Dear Pastors and Co-laborers in Christ,
Grace be unto you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The snow is finally falling in Russia. We were afraid that we would not have a White Christmas for the first time since coming to Russia in 1993. But, it started snowing yesterday and has not stopped yet! White Christmas, here we come!
It is a blessing to have all of our church families finally back from all their vacations and we are now full force in the ministry. We ourselves just came back from another visa trip in the States. While stateside, we try to visit some of our supporting churches. We were blessed to be in a mission’s conference in Eldorado, Kansas in November. What a blessing to know that God’s people are still excited about caring for their missionaries and sending the Gospel around the world. We also celebrated Christmas with most of our family in November. Now we are back in Russia and we look forward to a winter of ministry opportunities.
We have two young American men here for a two month internship. It is exciting to train new men for the ministry. This is the first time we have had an internship during the winter. It is the time of year in which we accomplish the lion’s share of the ministry. We have our Christmas play/Cantata on Christmas morning and again on Russian Christmas Sunday in January. Then, we head to Kolmykia for the fifth annual Bible Conference. We will be the catalyst to start two new churches in the Southern part of Russia. Each year since we have been hosting this Bible Conference, we attempt to start the New Year by evangelizing an entire city. After our mass evangelism outreach, a pastor-in-training will do follow up work with all the people that are saved during this time of evangelism. Eventually, those young Christians will become the charter members of a new church. After the Bible Conference in Kolmykia, we will host an English Intensive Weekend in Moscow where 15 selected students will live with us from 10:00 Friday morning until 6:00 Sunday night. They will hear and see the Gospel over and over during this time. They will also attend church with us on Sunday morning and act as our interpreters as part of their class assignment. Last English intensive, we had two people saved. We are looking forward to what God will do in this next English Camp.
After all this excitement, some of our team will head up to the Reindeer people with our son, Joel, as he seeks God’s will for a city to move to in Northern Russia where he can start a church and also work with the Reindeer people on a daily basis. God is faithful and watching over our ministries. We are setting out to do the impossible this New Year. In a time when most of our fellow missionaries in Russia are pulling back, we are surging forward.
Please continue to pray for our visa situation. We continue to look for a way to get out of the three month visa trips. We have found a few possibilities so please pray for wisdom in this area. Pray for our preacher boys as they strive to serve the Lord with us in Russia. Lastly, please continue to pray for open doors and souls to be saved as we continue to labor in the harvest fields of Russia.
Yours for Souls in Russia,
Ron and Kathy Reasoner
August Prayer Letter 2011,
We endured some persecution last month as we went North to the Reindeer people. Our friends at the "KGB" took us to their incarceration headquarters for debriefing. We were eventually able to convince them that we came North to preach the Gospel to the Reindeer people. They let us go, but mandated where we could go and what we could do. We took a train to a small village of 2500 that I had visited ten years ago. As we prepared to get off the train, the other passengers began to mock us, "Why do you want to go to that village? There are only five people there!" They were almost right...there were ten people. But, one of those ten people was a tank driver, Elijah that I led to the Lord ten years ago. We were able to spend the day discipling him and gave hime some materials to go with the Bible he still had from ten years ago. (He even had a tract I had given him with the name on it!) Elijah will be a great contact for us in the future as my son, Joel Reasoner, plans to have a ministry among the reindeer people. Elijah will be able to use his tank and knowledge to take us to many tribes on the tundra who have never heard the Gospel and have never seen a Bible.
Missionaries Ron & Kath Reasoner
June Prayer Letter 2011
Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,
We have been praying for someone- anyone to get saved. Our church has had a drought of salvation decisions lately. This is not supposed to happen when you are serving the Lord with your whole heart. Nevertheless, we at Bible Baptist Church of Domodedovo, Russia have not seen the kind of results that a soul winning church should have. We have been on the streets and in homes but to no avail. We have prayed tirelessly and faithfully for God to use us to see souls saved. We decided to set up a week long English/Bible Camp. The very first night the Devil, attacked us. The lock broke on the door where the men were staying and it was a three- hour fix to open the door. Then we had one of the older students, a woman, kick box a man because of an insult. I managed to get between them but it was a grueling evening. Later that night, the same woman who attacked the man, received Jesus as personal Lord and Savior.
We have a group of seven Americans here for a two-month internship. It has been a blessing to see this team minister to the Russians. We had a young Russian lady at the camp who has been searching for the truth. She had a traumatizing experience of her father’s sudden death this year. One of our American team members also lost a parent and was able to talk extensively and minister to her all day. Our Russian friend is interested in God and the Bible and needs to be saved.
Pray for our camps and our trips to the Reindeer people as well as Kalmykia. These will be our major projects this summer. We hope to see our church in Domodedovo grow stronger both numerically and spiritually as well as the churches in Kalmykia and the regions beyond.
On a personal note, my wife is in America taking care of our second grandchild. Reaia Joy was born June 1, 2011. She weighed in at 8lbs 4ozs and 22 inches long. Reaia is having a pretty serious bout of jaundice and skin discolor. Reaia is in the hospital having tests run as I write this letter. Please pray for the doctors’ wisdom to know what is causing Reaia’s health concerns. My wife should return right after our English intensive Camp is over.
Prayer Requests:
Pray for Tanya who was recently saved .
Pray for Anton who is a self proclaimed mad scientist and a communist.
Pray for Anton who is a country western singer and needs to be saved.
Pray for Sergai who is an interpreter.
Pray for Sergai who is an electrical engineer.
Pray for Ivan who is an auditor for the government.
Pray for Deanna who is an English teacher.
Pray for Valeria who is a traveling dancer and fitness instructor.
Pray for Alexander who is a problem solver for the travel industry.
These are some of our contacts that need to be saved or grow in Christ.
Please also pray for Kathy’s brother, Jim Longest, who will be going in for a major surgery this week.
Yours for Souls in Russia,
Ron and Kathy Reasoner