Dear Friends,

A LOT has happened since my last letter to you (November 2021). I’ll try to briefly share the biggest highlights and prayer requests with you.

I am getting married!

In God’s providence while I was learning how to coach American football and attending Evergreen, a wonderful sister from Petropavlovsk (a town in Northern Kazakhstan) joined my church in Almaty! She came about 2 weeks after I left in August. Her name is Vera [means “faith” in Russian], and her former pastor recommended her to join our church after she moved to Almaty for work.

No one at my church told me about a new girl (mind you, we only have 24 members!) and I was surprised after meeting her for the first time in November. That first Sunday Vera won me over with 2 things: she sang like an angel (she is a musician) and made the best plum cake I’ve ever had! That Sunday one of our members had a birthday so many folks brought some desserts – and Vera’s cake made it to the top of my list!

I asked her out in mid-December and proposed 2 months later. Lord willing, we’ll get married on March 26. I have never met anyone who loves so sacrificially like Vera! We went to visit my mom in Oskemen (Eastern Kazakhstan) a couple of weeks ago, and my mom absolutely loved Vera! She calls her “my little daughter”, and Vera calls her “mom”. My eyes are swelling with tears as I type this, because in the past mom was radically against interracial marriages, and that she fell in love with an ethnically Russian fiancée is solely God’s miracle!

Please pray that together we’d bring God many times more glory than we would have apart! I hope that in the future you’ll get a chance to meet Vera in person. Also pray for the wedding – we expect dozens of our friends and relatives who’ve never stepped into a church building – pray for the gospel to be preached clearly and for the conversion of many!

Ministry.

Church.

Our church is doing well in the midst of some hard things. We went through riots in January, and one of our members (a young single lady Aisulu) lost her dad to illness in December. Then in January her grandmother died, and a month ago her mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The church has been faithfully ministering to Aisulu and her family. Among other things we spent dozens of hours reading and explaining the Scriptures to Aisulu’s mom. About 2 weeks ago she professed her faith in Christ! She said that God used the pain and suffering to save her – and she immediately started sharing her faith with the relatives.

I am again crying as I type this. Mrs. Lena is such an example of courage and quiet spirit to me and to our whole church! Never even once she complained against God… Last Sunday our church voted her into our membership. About a dozen of us went to her home and baptized her there. Lena’s legs stopped responding which is why we held baptism in her room.

I don’t know how long she’ll last on this side of heaven, but I pray that God would use this frail sister to save many! In our minds it is the strong and confident preachers whom God should use to draw many to faith, but God so often chooses to use the unlikely vessels mightily to get all the glory. Please pray for our dear sister Lena! And for Aisulu (her daughter) – she’s been deeply depressed and has been having suicidal thoughts. Other sisters are taking turns staying at their apartment to serve them. Aisulu doesn’t have any siblings – church is her last family here…

I started preaching through Revelation. Lord willing, I will be preaching on the seven seals this coming Sunday. This book brings so much certainty and comfort in the middle of chaos: The Lamb won! Christ rules over everything and He’s the One who gives suffering to His church for their purification. Please pray that I preach faithfully and that the Lord would use His word to build up His church.

Football.

By God’s grace our team (The Almaty Horde) has been growing both in numbers and quality. After most of our veteran players left and we shrunk to just 5-6 guys in November, we have been slowly recruiting new players and now have 15-18 guys. We are dealing with the challenge of training new recruits but it’s a great problem to have.

I focus primarily on coaching [3 practices a week] but I also decided to play one more season. It will take some time to build up the new guys and we don’t have anyone to fill in the position of safety.

Every Saturday morning before practice I share a quick word from the book of Proverbs with my team. Please pray that God uses His word to change their lives. Two 2 guys started attending our church on a semi-regular base (Rustam [RB, LB] & his wife Olya; and Turgyt [CB]). Several others came to our Christmas service. Pray for the conversions!

Also, I expect about 30 people, related to my team (current and former players with their wives/girlfriends; I also invited some players from other teams) to come to the wedding – pray that God softens their hearts to receive the gospel!

I am very excited about the future of our team! Unfortunately, due to the unrest in our region the coaches from LA won’t come this spring to run a camp for us but hopefully they will later this year. Pray for that!

Christian publishing.

As you know my main job is Christian publishing. Our ministry is located in Samara, Russia, and I manage it remotely. Last year has been tremendous for us. I think that we’ve become the largest Christian publishing company (not like there are too many others) in the former USSR, having distributed around 30000 books. I couldn’t have imagined that God would bless us in such a way back when we started Good News Publishing in my kitchen in 2019 😊

Please pray that God continues to use us to reshape the theological landscape of the former USSR! God blessed us with awesome partners like Desiring God, 9Marks, Master’s seminary, and others – and we hope to produce tons of solid theological resources in the following decades.

War in Ukraine.

I’ve been in Ukraine half a dozen times. I’ve travelled all over it, preached and taught there. We have a player from Ukraine in our team (he works for an agricultural company in Kazakhstan). I have close friends and ministry partners across Ukraine – and I couldn’t sleep well for a week since Putin attacked it. Almost all my friends stayed in Ukraine and are now either serving as volunteers or hiding in bomb shelters.

Tragically many (if not most) Russians (not only in Russia, but even in Kazakhstan) trust Putin’s narrative that Ukraine is ruled by the Nazis and that the Russian army is there to liberate the Ukrainians.

Please pray that God would stop Putin in his madness! And pray that He’d draw millions of people to Christ both in Ukraine and Russia! Also pray for the unity around the gospel of Christ’s church across the borders – there is much bitterness among Christians in Russia and Ukraine.

Coming to LA soon.

I was planning on coming to LA in January for a small conference for international Christian publishers, but my flight was canceled due to the riots in Almaty.

Please pray that I’ll be able to come this time for the Shepherd’s conference. Our team and partners from Russia and Ukraine won’t be able to come because all flights were canceled, so I will be representing our ministries alone.

I hope to see many of you on the Lord’s Day on March 13!

Your brother,
Arman

by Arman

It’s good to be back home! I have a little bit of jet-lag and there is fresh snow outside (definitely not L.A. weather). I don’t have the luxury of resting much – too busy with my church, publishing company and American football team but I am very grateful for a short season I got to spend in Cali, where I could rest so well.

I’d like to share with you just one most amazing thing that happened upon my arrival. It has to do with my football team. As you know I played for the Almaty Horde before coming to L.A. Our coach is a big and tough Kazakh guy, who absolutely loves American football. I’d say it’s his main idol. He’s ready to give it all on the field, he’d be happy to practice or watch football any time of day or night and he dreams about visiting the U.S. At the same time, he has big anger issues, gets easily provoked, and has a long track record of starting fights and beating players. He even tried to fight me back when I just joined the team in 2020 during one of our practices. I think it’s been his way of reaffirming his leadership. If it were not for the sake of making Christ’s name known, I’d never had chosen to play under (or work or follow) such a leader.

It took some time, but by God’s grace by the end of 2020 I gained respect and trust from my coach and the whole team. But bursts of anger and aggression continued although more rarely than before. As I was finishing my coaching internship in the US, I started questioning whether I’d be able to co-lead the team with our current coach. Reading our team chat, it looked like the team was falling apart. We had only 12 players for our finals in mid-October (our guys still played like lions and lost 24-6 against the team that had 25 guys). Then for the last game in September, we only had 8 players which meant they couldn’t even play the full game. On the average, 5-7 guys showed up for practices, and some practices had to be canceled altogether because just a couple of people showed up. I was watching all this happen from the other side of the world but every time I talked to the coach on the phone, he kept saying that everything was great. He blamed the players for being irresponsible and for the lack of discipline but was blind to the true reasons of the situation.

After much prayer and seeking counsel from various people (including Pastor Rocky), I decided I was going to confront our coach after I returned to Kazakhstan and if he was not to listen to my counsel, then I would start a new team. I talked to my little brother Aslan who plays as our lineman, and he confirmed my guess that the team spirit was very low, and he was considering quitting too.

This week our coach and I met to talk. I was confident that his response would be bad, and that there was absolutely nothing in my own strength to convince him for a need to change and allow me to start the reformation as a new coach. At first, he was very defensive. Somehow, he convinced himself that things were fine and that all we needed to do was to recruit a few new players. For all of the issues I brought up he had an excuse. The conversation was getting more heated, and I ran out of words and was ready to give up and tell him that I was leaving. But after a moment of silence he asked, “What do you think is the problem?” And that led to an hour-long conversation of me trying to speak the truth in love. It seems that these couple of points made him think hard:

1. That the coach’s job is somewhat similar to a pastor’s job. Would he describe himself as a good shepherd?

2. That God doesn’t care about his football accomplishments, but He hates the sin of unrighteous anger and violence against people He entrusts him to coach.

3. That anger hurts people around him – not only on the team, but also in his family and at work.

Time after time I reaffirmed him in that the only reason I told him these tough things was my love for him and for our team. And by God’s grace when I finally asked him what he thought about me taking over the responsibilities of the head coach [without actually having the title] he answered, “What would you like me to do – just play or help you as an assistant coach?” – I couldn’t believe my ears! I told him that I needed him as a coach and not just a player with all his experience and knowledge of all the technical aspects of the game. 

My non-believing brother was shocked upon hearing what happened. Right before my meeting he asked me whether I was praying about it. Now I could tell him how God answered the prayer! At our elders’ meeting at church yesterday I told the brothers that I firmly believe now that God has His children on our team and that’s the only reason He wanted me to stay there and continue my ministry.

Please pray for the following:

1. God’s wisdom in how I lead the team. I think I kind of know what I need to do but without God’s wisdom I am doomed to fail. It looks like we’ll have 16 guys at our Saturday practice, and it will be my first time being there as a coach and not a player.

2. God’s continued blessing on my relationship with our coach and the whole team. It will be an interesting dynamic because our core group of players have played the game much longer than me. Pray especially that I’d have no fear of man as a new coach (and not pretend I know everything just because I spent a few months with an American team) but would display humility and show God’s love and care to everyone.

3. God’s glory and His name to be known by all my teammates!

By Arman

Farewells are always bittersweet. I am both excited to start my journey back to Kazakhstan (after I see some friends in Detroit and DC) and sad to leave California. 

God has blessed me with countless fun memories here over the past 2.5 months: 

• Tasting the art of tailgating for the first time with Chris and his family before a USC game as well as watching my first live college football with Stuart [USC] and Victor [UCLA]. Both teams lost those games so think twice before you invite me to watch your favorite team play.

• Making shabu and sushi with the Setos. Mako kept his word after I put him on the spot in my previous blog post [y’all should note this brilliant strategy]. It was a great night of fellowship.

• Too much great food [this was confirmed last week when one of my students said, “Coach Arman, you’ve been getting bigger every week since you came here”] and not enough time to hang out with so many of you! 

I have been surrounded by so much love and care from Evergreen and my football team at Rio Hondo Prep – I am praising the Lord for your faithfulness and desire to be part of my ministry to the lost in Kazakhstan, especially among American football players there. I didn’t have to worry about a place to live or transportation – you’ve provided me with everything necessary for a fruitful time of learning the craft of coaching during my stay. Hilda even took a role of a caring American mom – not only by helping me navigate through the mundane things like where I can do laundry but also by regularly asking me whether I have enough food 😊.

Among all these memories the most special ones were those where I got to witness God’s work in and through others. Like watching the elders of Evergreen [every Tuesday morning] think, pray and discuss of how to lead the church faithfully in accordance with God’s revealed will in His Scriptures. Like singing rich hymns with the saints on Sundays – many of which we sing in Russian back in Almaty – and sitting under faithful preaching of God’s Word week in and week out. Or how you’ve welcomed my Kazakh friends and football players from Rio Hondo Prep when they visited our church services.

I am especially sad to leave my high school football team right now – it feels like my students have just gotten to a point where they can trust me with some deep matters of their hearts. I’ll share a few examples of that privilege. One of the players wanted to discuss a question of how God’s sovereignty relates to human’s responsibility. Another was wrestling with the biblical texts on women’s role at church. One time after practice a student asked, “Coach Arman, can I talk to you?” I said, “Sure. What do you want to talk about?” – “Nothing in particular. I just want you to tell me more about God and the gospel”. And then we spent almost an hour talking about the beauty of Christ in the gospel. Maybe one of the most moving conversations happened a couple of weeks ago. We were lifting weights in the gym when a student asked whether I have time to chat with him. As he began talking, tears started pouring from his eyes as he said, “How can I be closer to God? I think that my soul is perishing…” I could barely hold my own tears as we talked about the ugliness and stupidity of sin and the unshakable hope we have in Christ. Oh, how thankful I am that the Lord allowed me to become a member of the Kares football team during these couple of months! 

If the Lord wills, this is not my last time in LA. I hope to be visiting you in the future and I am so excited to see what the Lord has for Evergreen SGV! I pray that you as a church keep pursuing Christ with all your heart and strength and that you stand firm in the grace of our Lord. I am privileged to be able to say that I consider Evergreen as my home in California. Please know that my church in Almaty is very thankful to the saints here for all the support and care you’ve shown me. And please pray for the fruit in my football ministry in Kazakhstan! May the Lord save many there for the glory of His name!

Much love in Christ,

Arman

By Arman

As a follow up to our introduction to guest Arman from Kazakhstan, Arman here shares about his initial impressions about one month into his stay.

What are your initial impressions of Southern California?

I've been here several times before, and can say that colder seasons are a little bit easier for life. I am more cold than heat-resistant :-) Probably because I grew up in a very cold part of Kazakhstan. 

But I love the church and my coaches and the team at Rio Hondo Prep –hot days fade in comparison to all the blessings here.

What are your initial impressions of high school football in Southern California? 

Coming to Rio Hondo Prep feels like being thrown into high school straight out of kindergarten. Everything is so structured and well organized. I am impressed by the discipline and speed of our team. Even though we have much bigger and stronger players in Kazakhstan, we’d be wiped out if we played the Kares team just like our first 2 opponents at the beginning of the season :-)

What are your initial impressions of our church, Evergreen?

By God's grace I feel like I've been a part of the church for a long time. I am very thankful for the warm welcome. You've provided me with your friendship, a place to stay, a car and a ton of great food :-)

I am also very encouraged by the faithful preaching of the word and by God's work in bringing new people to church. May we see dozens of people come to know the Lord this year through the ministry of Evergreen!

What are you most looking forward to for the remainder of your stay?

One of the members is taking me to a college football game – this will be my first big game to watch at the stadium! 

I also started exploring the sport of surfing. It's very challenging but I hope I will be able to try it a few more times while I am here since I won't be able to do it in Kazakhstan.

I'd like to learn about football as much as I can but I feel like I'll be able to only scratch a tip of the iceberg. 

I look forward to making shabu-shabu with Pastor Mako.

I look forward to an undefeated season for the Kares team so that I could claim a little part of their success. lol :-D

I look forward to getting to know the church better and being able to encourage the saints.

How can the church family be praying for you?

We have one Muslim student at Rio Hondo Prep, he and I became good buddies. He says that he wants to understand the Bible but his family doesn't allow him to read it. He is interested in studying it together with me at school. Please pray that we do and that he comes to know the Lord!

Dear Church Family,

My name is Arman. I was born and raised in Kazakhstan in a nominally Muslim home. The first Christian I met was an American missionary, Jon. I met him at a gym during my sophomore year of university in 2006. Through my friendship with Jon, studying the Bible and history of early Christianity and observing the life of a small local house church that I began to attend, I was becoming more and more convinced that the claims of Christ as presented in the New Testament were true. By God’s grace in November 2007, I turned away from my sin and trusted my life to God in Christ. I was baptized at my house church in May 2008.

Most of my background has been in business and project management. Currently I run a Christian publishing company that is located in Russia. Our goal is to equip thousands of Christians (and especially pastors) with solid theological resources.

I’ve served as a lay pastor or preacher for most of my Christian life. In God’s providence, sports has always been one of the primary platforms for my personal evangelism and discipleship. Maybe it’s because I myself got to know the first Christian at a gym.😊

In March 2020, I started playing for a local American football team in Almaty, Kazakhstan [Almaty Horde]. Their coach came to our church service because he heard that the preacher (me) was a good athlete, and he wanted to recruit me. At first, I hated that sport, but I loved the team and wanted to serve the guys who desperately needed Jesus. At my first practice, I got nicknamed “Padre” and that nickname has stuck.

By God’s grace, all of my teammates have heard the gospel and about half of them have visited our church. To make this ministry long lasting, I wanted to learn how to coach and along with my church, started praying for an opportunity to intern in the US. 

In March 2021, I came to California for the Shepherds’ Conference at Grace Bible Church. There in God’s providence, I met Pastor Rocky. He immediately offered his help! Later he helped set up a coaching internship with Rio Hondo Prep School. After overcoming several logistical hiccups related to COVID-19, I came to LA on August 8 and will be here for a couple of months.

I am so thankful to our Lord for the hospitality of Evergreen SGV’s members! Brother Baldwin took me to the church service straight from the airport and I immediately felt loved by you! Quite a few people came to say hi and told me that they’ve been praying for me after watching a video I recorded a couple months ago. Thank you for providing me with housing and a car. My church in Kazakhstan also praises the Lord for your generosity! 

My coaching internship started well. The staff and the team showed me a very warm welcome. I need to learn a ton of things as I feel like I went from kindergarten to high school, but I am very excited about this invaluable experience. Please pray that I learn well and that I can serve the team well in any capacity I can.

I look forward to getting to know you better while I am here.

Much love in Christ,

Arman