About me...

My name is Marina. I am 24 years old. Today I serve Jesus Christ, but that wasn't always the case. When I was a child my parents never told me about God. Once when I was 8 years old I saw a cartoon about Jesus on TV and asked my mom who Jesus is. She said that some people think he was a legend, others believe He is a real person. After that we never talked about this topic.

When I was 15 my friends invited me to the Christian camp. I went there because I wanted to show my friends that Christians are stupid fanatics (because my father thought so). Life among Christians showed me that they were special people, they were different. Stories about God weren't interesting for me, but behavior of those people and love they showed to me - a girl, whom they knew only for a couple of days - shocked me. At the camp there was an atmosphere of love and respect. I saw a big difference between my life among unbelievers and the life at the camp. Then I became interested why they were like this. Why am I not like them? I found the answer at the Bible study. On the fifth day God touched my heart and I repented. When I came home, I was not alone any more. My new friends from the camp invited me to serve together with them. At first I visited villages together with the team, told poems about God, led games for the youth, participated in skits, worship, told about me coming to Christ. Then I began to sing in christian chorus,to do evangelic serving through sports, to take part in youth and children camps.

In 2005 year,then I was on a short mission trip to Jamal, I understood that God called me to be a missionary and to give all my time to serve Him.

In one town in Jamal,in January(2 weeks after Christmas) our team held a meeting with children. We asked them what holiday was 2 weeks ago and who was born on that day, but they were silent. Somebody behind us said:"They don't know!".We were shocked and didn't know what to say. Our goal for this trip was to congratulate people,who live in the North, with Cristmas, remind them of murcy that God showed us. But we understood that we should explain the meaning of the holiday itself before congratulating them with it! We had one more event for adults, where there were many people from tundra. And it was amazing because they come to this town from tundra for food very rarely.But that day, when we were there,was the exact day when they were supposed to come!

People from Jamal are actually open to listen the Gospel and they have the need of it!

That's why, I am studying in the missionary school and in a couple of months I am going to go to Jamal, to preach the Gospel to people,whose life is still in power of sin. I pray God will open their hearts, and help them see His love,which I once saw in a Christian camp.

God gives no peace to my heart reminding me about the people from Jamal. I know, that it is God's will and plan for my life, that's why I ask you to pray for:

• bringing me in contact with the local missionaries;
• God giving open hearts to the people I want to serve with;
• God providing all finances for fullfilling these plans;
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  God bless my studies in the missionary school and all the preparation for the internship.