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So we are now back in Moscow, all three children are playing
soccer and enjoying the new school year. Our oldest, Hannah, is
now 16 and in 11th grade (time to start thinking about colleges!).
Christiana is 14 and in the ninth grade and glad to be in the
senior high category. Jeremiah is 10 and in 5th grade and plans
to invent the world’s greatest computer someday—nothing
will ever go wrong with it, you’ll be able to access any
game in the universe, and you will be able to maintain your level
of interest even after winning them all! I am still content to
be able to access my e-mail and reply to it without accidentally
deleting some important document! (Okay, so I am a people person
and machines and I are simply acquaintances of convenience. So
be it.)
As far as the OPORA ministry with which I am involved I need
to give you an update. (OPORA is an interdenominational Christian
ministry that trains church and other professionals to confront
the acute problems of alcoholism and drug addiction by helping
them start Christian twelve-step programs for addicts and their
families.) Now that our children are older I am able to be more
involved in ministry outside the home. I am often at the OPORA
office three or four days a week, unless we are holding a seminar,
which involves me for five days. The work of OPORA continues to
grow and develop in new and exciting ways. Two years ago we were
able to purchase an entire floor of a building in the north of
Moscow. This new center for our ministry has been a tremendous
blessing, as we can now hold seminars in our own center instead
of renting space, and we have greater visibility now that we have
a single identifiable location. When people come to our seminars
(which they do from all over Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Uzbekistan)
they learn where our center is and where they can access information
and assistance as they leave us and continue in the work of recovery.
We have added to our available seminars/courses. In addition to
the basic chemical addiction seminar, the family and codependent
seminar and the feelings seminar, we now offer seminars in prevention,
where specialists receive more thorough training to work with
"at risk children" and their families. This fall we
offered for the first time a seminar called "Sexual Abuse
and Other Traumas" led by Marilyn Murray from the U.S. This
uses art therapy and journaling as the main methods for therapy.
We had more than 30 students in the seminar (myself included)
and the response was more than enthusiastic. Marilyn Murray will
be returning this winter for three weeks to offer her basic seminar
again, and she’ll also do two more weeks of in-depth training
for those who completed her course this fall.
The prevention curriculum that is being developed for use in
the public schools is almost complete, and we will begin using
it in test groups in therapy centers in Moscow this winter. The
first group of specialists in this field will begin their advanced
training this month. The ARK project, which I have written about
previously, has developed into something bigger and with greater
possibilities. We have already been invited to come into two existing
centers where psychologists work with "at risk children"
and their families. Several of our OPORA staff members have begun
working in these centers, and they have been invited to use the
programs that OPORA has developed. In these centers (as opposed
to the public school system) we are welcome to work on the spiritual
component of recovery from a Christian viewpoint and have been
invited to start Bible clubs and mentoring programs. These centers
will provide an excellent environment in which we can begin using
the prevention curriculum to its fullest potential. If our results
are as positive as we pray and hope for, we will be able to demonstrate
the value of the full program, including the vital Christian spiritual
element to the Russian authorities and officials who are in positions
to make decisions for all of Russia. Just this past month there
was an article in The Moscow Times that quoted President Putin
as saying that there are no programs in use now in Russia that
are adequate or successful in dealing with the tremendous problem
of substance abuse in this country.
We are encouraged by the openness of the government in admitting
their "powerlessness" to deal with this ever-growing
problem. For us this points to the excellence of God’s timing
as we are in the process of implementing our new prevention program,
and He has provided sincere Russian people who are willing and
eager to be trained and also centers in which this training and
the curriculum can be put to the test.
To sum it all up on the OPORA front, we are growing in new areas
of ministry and still nurturing and supporting the areas that
have been so vital here from the beginning. OPORA has helped to
start more than 70 twelve-step support groups in more than 30
cities throughout Russia. Part of my call to work with OPORA is
to be fulfilled in visiting as many of these groups as possible
to maintain our connections with them and offer support, reading
materials and continuing education in the field of Christian recovery.
For many Russians, a trip into Moscow to a seminar is beyond their
financial capabilities, and so OPORA also travels to other cities
several times a year to offer seminars for those who otherwise
would not be able to attend. Those who can come to Moscow can
often only afford their transportation and so the cost of the
seminar, the materials, the housing and the meals falls to a scholarship
fund. As we grow, these funds become more and more in demand.
Until we can demonstrate the benefits of the prevention curriculum
we will not be given funds to provide the materials nor the psychologists
so we will also be supporting this part of our work for perhaps
the next three years. As you can gather from these needs, fundraising
is also a vital part of my ministry in OPORA. I offer here sincere
thanks to all who have supported OPORA since I began serving there
and I ask all to prayerfully consider if the Lord might be calling
you to support this ministry as you are able. In addition to the
seminars and programs we also employ eight Russian Christians
full-time, who serve as trainers, consultants, psychologists,
and administrators. Some of the funds I have received in the past
year toward the ARK project are now going to be needed to pay
the salary of one of our new child psychologists who has been
invited to work in one of the centers where she will begin using
the prevention curriculum. As this program has been developing,
your contributions have been saved to be used as promised, in
working with "children at risk." Thank you again for
your prayers and support.
If you would like to sponsor the work of OPORA, you can do so
by sending a donation to Central Receiving Service, Section 300,
Louisville, KY 40289. Write the title (OPORA-Christian Recovery
Ministry in Russia) and the ECO number on the subject line (ECO
#051637) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send
a copy of the cover letter to the Office of International Evangelism
at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396.
Or by sending a check to
The Outreach Foundation of the Presbyterian Church, attn. Linda
Patrick, 318 Seaboard Lane, Franklin, TN 37067. Be sure to designate
the check for the work of Opora Christian Recovery Ministry in
Russia.
Donald is busy in the work of among several other projects. He
will soon be writing you with news of his work.
In Christ’s love,
Laurie Marsden
The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94
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