News

Dear friends!
Because of your prayers and gifts we with the help of the Lord continue to build our half-way center for former prisoners. Now we have half of the first floor wall.
In last 7 weeks we had many trials. Sister of my mother (my aunt) died because of cancer. Also my son-in law died. So, now 3 of mine grandchildren live with us. They are 3 and 12 years old. Yet, we are not depressed and continue the work that Lord called us to. We work together with brother Yura, whom God freed from drug dependency. He is with us for last four months. He is very involved in building of the half-way house. His wife before wanted to divorced him, but now everything is getting better in their relationship and family is united. Praise the Lord!

Dear friends, now Lord speaks with us through prophet Haggai and scribe Ezra: Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezr. 4:1-5)

For some period of time we felt the same way, but now came the time to continue building house for the glory of God: In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD. (Haggai 1:1-12)  

Now we are calling to all of our friends with a request of help in continuing of our building project. We would like – and we pray to the Lord for it – to finish up the walls, set the roof and install windows and doors before winter. To do it we need 17 000 dollars. Next uear we expect the release of few of our brothers, who wanted after prison have a process of adaptation to society in our half-way house. During our fellowship we introduced them to Westminster confession. Therefore they have a desire to join Presbyterian Church. We give thanks to the Lord  for their dedication to serious relationship with God.
Dear brothers and sister! Lord gives us insurance in our calling. When we pass trials with His help, we continue the task… Lord Jesus said that nobody who prows and looks back is good for the Kingdom of God. We find a great support and comfort in these words, also in our gifts and prayers, in our common task for the Glory of the Lord.
May the Lord bless you and your homes! Shalom!
Chaplain Igor Krutogolov.
 

     Brother Yura has been living with us since March 17. In 1995, when he was serving a sentence, he turned to God from his way and got the gift of the faith. After his discharge he worked as a superintendent at the centre for social adaptation of former prisoners sentenced before 2000. From the beginning of 2000 he lived on his own, rented a place and earned his living by repairing flats and cottages. He worked with atheists and spent the most of his time talking to them. Little by little he ceased to go to the church. In 2005, he started to take heroin. He tried to stop taking drugs on his own several times. 

      He has been living in our centre for 2 months. He reads the Bible every day, gets medical assistance. He attends our church. He eagerly improves the look of our centre of social adaptation. He has a wife who wants to divorce him. The trial took place on April 18, and it was postponed until May 4. Please, pray for us to understand God’s will concerning this problem. His wife is a Muslim.

We wish everyone a Happy Easter! Thank you for your hearts and big gifts for us in your prayers! Blessings, Chaplain Igor.

Dear friends,
At the beginning of 2011 we got some blessings from the Lord. I had a problem with my old computer and I began to think where I could find money to buy a new one. Suddenly one brother from Moscow called me and offered a new laptop for our ministry. His name is Valery Ten. I met him last year when I was on conference in Moscow. The Lord provided our need before my application to Him. Praise to the Lord!

As you know we are going to build a dormitory for ex-prisoners. Recently we got a shower cabin for our dormitory through our brother Dmitry Kupch. This cabin costs $2,500. Dmitry was converted to Christ when he was in prison together with me. He helps us to improve our half-way house for ex-prisoners for a long time. God blessed us through him many times. He continues to be a faithful to our ministry. This shower cabin bought one officer of police for his house. But when he knew from Dmitry about our ministry he gave it to us. Praise to the Lord!

Now we have a special car. This car we used for "Dental Project for Prisoners" last years ago. A head of Department of the Prison Ministry in the Association "Unity of Christians" asked us to take it for keeping and we did it. But we have an agreement with him that we can use it for our ministry. This is a great blessing for us from the Lord!

 Today we have a great problem and we ask you to pray for this problem. We have some problems to get permission to visit prisoners in prisons. Now we can have fellowship with prisoners to support them by short visits only. In during that visits we can give food, books and clothes to them.
Dear brothers and sisters! We thank you sincerely who continue to support our ministry for prisoners "Chaplain". When you sacrifice oneself and your time and prayers for us you help us to glorify Jesus Christ in prisons.
Please pray for:
•    Completion of dormitory building's for ex-prisoners.
•    To get a permission to visit of prisoners in prisons.
•    Faithfull helpers for this ministry.
•    For everyone who continue to support and help our ministry here in Russia because of Jesus Christ.
God bless and gives His peace, joy and love to you!
Igor Krutogolov.

Dear friends!
Glory be to our Lord and thanks to you for your participation in our ministry to prisoners in Russia! As a resuld of our common work we laid a strong foundation for new dormitory, which will be occupied by those who will be released from prison. Now the fudament is ready, so the building project can continue. Unfortunatly the time of active constructing work passed away - the rain season came and it would be impossible to do quality work now in present circumstances.
Now we are continuing to repair the house where I live with my family. Because of great help of our beloved brother and friend Mike Forster, we installed a new stove. This will keep us warm through cold winter night - we are prepared for low temperatures outside.

Lord has blessed us a lot through Mike in our ministry. So, I am asking all of you to pray earnestly about his input. He turned his heart to develop prison ministry in St-Petersburg area for the glory of the Lord.
Now we have some time and some means to continue the remodeling in the house where I live with my family. We are also getting prepared for a large Evangelism campaign in prisons and vilages around St-Petersburg. We gathered more then 1000 Bibles and more then 1000 devotional and thematical Christian books. Please pray for us as we are getting equiped to bring to the people the Good News of our Lord in Christmas season.
We will be happy if anyone of you will participate in our traditional "Angel Christmas tree" action. Good "Bible for Kids" with a color illustrations costs $6. For funding this project you may contact Mike Forster.
We thank all brothers and sisters for your open hearts and prayer support! May the Lord bless you with His love and pease!
In Christ's love, chaplain Igor Krutogolov.
 

 Dear friends!

 In June the Lord blessed us abundantly with fellowship with prisoners.

 In prison Knjazhevo we have regular listeners, who come with gladness to our meetings and ask interesting questions. Their questions directed to two ways: they are either concern about personal spiritual life, or about history of the Christian Church. The number of people who are coming on a regular basis now reached 35-40 people.

 In Fornosovo vice-director of the prison helped us to gather the meeting for 200 people. About 30 of them prayed the prayer of repentance after the main presentation. Interesting fact is that in a previous day in the colony was a break. We were ready that it would be a reason not to allow us to come. Yet, the Lord was so merciful that the door was not closed but our meeting let to results mentioned above. Praise to our Lord!

 In our Half-way house with God’s help we were able to do foundation. In a couple of weeks we will take of casing and start to install waterproofing.  

Few days ago in our center we had a meeting of pastors of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches with ministers of International ministry “MIR”.

 The purpose was to gather people for proclamation of the Gospel in spite of difference in church tradition. We had people from Korea, United States and St-Petersburg (Russia).

  From the bottom of our hearts we give you thanks for your gifts and constant prayers!

Let our Lord bless you from His riches in Jesus the Messiah and give you His peace and love! 

Dear friends!
In the beginning of June I started to build foundation for new dormitory.
 It became possible because of your great gifts. Unfortunately in June
 we have “rain season”, so the work is going not as fast as we want it.
 Yet, we proceed with God’s help.
                                                                                          Good beginning. There is a rain.               Covboy at job. The lorry.              

The design of the base for a new house.

June 5 we had an Evangelism concert in new prison Knjazhevo. We invited a
Christian music group from Tikhvin (Leningrad region). We had more then
70 prisoners. Some of them desire to come to Bible study with us.

Christian music group from Tikhvin (Leningrad region)

 Also in the beginning of June we started new web-site. I asked the firm to
create it and we had to spent unplanned money - $525. But now all of our friends
 have a possibility to know our ministry news faster via this technology.
 It is not completely formed, but now we have out news posted on a regular basis.
 The address is kapellan-spb.ru


Starting from June we got new brother in Christ in our ministry.
He graduated with bachelor degree from Korean Canaan seminary in St-Petersburg, Russia.
 Now he is helping us, but we pray together to the Lord about his calling.
 Some time he will be here anyway. Please join us in prayer about his call and
finding way to fix his documents – he is also former prisoner. His name is Andrew and
he is a member of Kingdom of God Presbyterian Church.

Igor Krutogolov  and Andrey Kuznetsov

Please pray with us:
•    about financial means to finish the building project
•    about financial help to run a gas and electric line to our new buinding
•    about needs of prisoners in Knjazhevo
•    about changing the stove in old house
•    about constructing the shower in old house
•    about strengthening me and my family in faith and love to the Lord


Blessings, In Christ’s love Igor Krutogolov

Dear friends of the Prison Ministry,
I want to share some good news about our prison ministry. Last winter my wife Valentina quit her job as an office cleaner and is now working full time with me. In addition, my 21 year old son Georgy also works with us. A Christian friend gave us a used van which we have been able to repair with the money you donated to us last year. The van allows us to earn money and also is very useful in our ministry work.

My wife Valentina and my 21 year old son Georgy are working with me in the prison ministry

God has now opened the door to another penitentiary for our work. It is 70 km (about 45 miles) from our little town of Knjazhevo, near St. Petersburg. We had our first visit this month at the prison, and they have 520 prisoners in total, with 120 of them being women.

I got to know the prison administration. They are very thankful to our work and very interested that we'll do spi-ritual ministry among their prisoners. This lockup has not been visited for years by any missionary group.

I've been shown the cells and the rooms where we could have classes and meetings. The rooms are in a good shape and very suitable for our use. I am also negotiating with some Christian musicians to do Evangelistic con-certs over there. I also have an agreement with 5 people, who would like to help us in this ministry.

God has now opened the door to another penitentiary for our work

At the beginning of this month I took part in Evangelism campaign, which we did in Tikhvin region of the Leningrad area - it is about 200 km from St. Petersburg. We visited and gathered together many people, shared the Gospel with them, and gave small Easter gifts. Many people confessed Jesus Christ as their Savior during our visit.

At the beginning of this month I took part in Evangelism campaign

Now let me tell you about the halfway house. The ground in Russia is no longer frozen and is drying out, so we are ready to start laying the foundation for our new dormitory, which will house up to 20 ex-prisoners. As you know this has been our greatest prayer since we began this ministry.
We have the advice of professional builders who tell us that for such a dormitory we need a very strong foundation. Our soil conditions are not so good so we need to invest much more than I thought in this «foundation project». It will cost around $5500 to complete. The foundation and roof will be the most costly work because we cannot do it all ourselves.
Thanks to your generosity during our visits last year, we have about enough to lay the foundation and to move forward with this work. We prayerfully ask that you consider helping us once again so that we can complete the dormitory over the next 2 summers. In total, we will need about $50,000 to complete the work. This will include the roof, the new gas line for heating, and the remaining materials to build the structure. You may remember that a local Russian man generously gave us the cement blocks to build the dormitory during last year.
Blessings and peace to you all in the name or our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Igor Krutogolov