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

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!

On May 26, 2020, Pastor Victor conducted an interview with Pastor Rocky via Zoom about his first year as Senior Pastor of Evergreen SGV. This is Part 4 of a 4-part blog series based on that interview.

Any final thoughts as you reflect on this past year?

It goes back to relationships. 

I’m grateful to our Lord for Sharla [wife] and the children. I feel like we've transitioned, but we're still transitioning. We still miss Washington. We still miss people from Washington. We still miss football and football life. I think it’s an ever-growing process for us. But I'm grateful that they trust the Lord and they trust me.

Having that trust from them is a ridiculous, extra motivation that the Lord gives me to be faithful to do this. I don't know how things are going to turn out, but I just want to be faithful. That’s my goal.

I’m grateful for the relationships at Evergreen [SGV]. People have been so gracious. Here's a brand new pastor, wet behind the ears and they’ve been so gracious. 

They’re just willing to listen to the preaching. They’re willing to be flexible. They’re willing to be open-minded.

It’s profound for me to think about it. 

That humbles me and that actually motivates me to want to be faithful to our Lord.