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Brooklyn-based staff members Peter Shirokov and Klaudia Zhelezny share about our latest ministries among Russian-speaking Jewish people in New York City. By Peter Shirokov I am a full-time student at the Charles Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies in Manhattan, and on the weekends I minister in the Brooklyn Messianic Center. Because I am Russian and Jewish, my primary focus is the Russian Jewish community. The Brooklyn Messianic Center is located in a neighborhood that is heavily populated with Russian Jews. In my estimate, 40% or more of the people walking the streets in this area speak Russian as their native language. The other significant population in the neighborhood consists of Orthodox Jews of various backgrounds. Every other Friday evening, I lead a small group of Russian Jewish believers in central New Jersey. On Saturday mornings I lead a worship service in Russian at the Brooklyn Messianic Center, and in the afternoon I counsel and pray for the individual needs of those who come to the Center. During the week, different community support groups and classes meet in the facility. Even though our evangelistic work is opposed by some of our Orthodox neighbors, others do come to the Brooklyn Center - some because of curiosity, some wanting to take a class, and some because they have questions or urgent needs. The progress is slow, but because our doors and our hearts are open, Russian Jews are responding to the message of the Gospel one heart at a time.
It is a great privilege to serve Messiah here in Brooklyn. I am so very thankful for the blessing of the Brooklyn Messianic Center, as we now have meetings and fellowships, Bible classes, events for the community, various educational classes and have even opened a bookstore with spiritual literature in Russian for both believers and seekers. The Lord is very gracious to us! I am thankful for all my co-workers and volunteers who are serving the Lord with us in the Center: Larisa, Jennifer, Inna and others. I ask prayer especially for a young couple, Vika and Slava, who are engaged to be married in August. They are both great helpers in our ministry to people with drug addictions. Some people from that group came with us to Simcha 2009, Chosen People Ministries' annual Messianic retreat, where they received much-needed spiritual nourishment. Four of them were baptized on the last day of the retreat. They prayed and asked God to protect them from evil and help them to become new creations. You might imagine how exiting this was both for them and for us! Please keep them in prayer. We now have two very successful Bible-based English classes - one for beginners and the other for more advanced students. During the High Holiday season this fall, we will teach about the Lord's feasts in our classes. I tell the students God's purposes for the festivals, and they could see how clearly Jesus is pictured in them. We also have art and music classes for children and adults, which help draw more seekers to the Brooklyn Messianic Center. Every month, we hold concerts, lectures, or other community events. We invite people from the community by advertising in newspapers and distributing posters and flyers. We are happy to invite those of you who are in the New York area to our weekly services and meetings:
Our support groups meet at the following times:
Our address is 1684 East 18th Street, Brooklyn NY 11229, and our phone is 347-702-9000 |
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