Angela Baker Update

Hello Everyone,I hope this email finds you all well. I am doing well. Freezing at the moment, but well. Spring came to Moscow and decided to leave again- it is supposed to get down to 34'F tonight and has been windy and cold all day. This weekend will be the big holiday for May 9th. I will write more about it and post pictures on my site this weekend if you are interested.

It is unbelievable how time flies. I have been in Russia six months as of the end of April and it has just flown by. Things have really begun to pick up here and I have been busy with a several different areas of ministry.For one- I am now working with a ministry to street children called Metro. We go out on "patrols" weekly to meet with kids, build relationship, give them food and any assistance possible and to share Christ with them. With the Spring and Summer months arriving it is harder to find the kids.

Tonight we went out and were successful in being able to meet with Olessia- who has lived on at the train station with her mom since she was a little girl. Olessia agreed to meet us on the 11th to go into a city government shelter. She told us she is expecting her second child. We were unable to find some of the other kids we were looking for, but we did have a great success when we found Zhenya. We found Zhenya squatting down next to a trash can near a little store outside of the metro station. She seemed so tiny sitting there it was hard to believe she was 22. We sat and talked with her for a while. It was really pretty cold outside- about 45'F and windy. We were finally able to convince Zhenya that going to the shelter was better than staying the night out on the street and she agreed to go. Zhenya was in need of medical attention- which she will get at the shelter in addition to hopefully- the extra help she needs to move towards life off of the street. We will maintain contact with Zhenya, but as Metro does not have it's own facilities- getting kids to a city center is the best we can hope for at this time.

I have also been very excited about a new possibility we have learned to work in city day centers for children at risk. The government has many centers throughout the city which are to serve the needs of children at risk. The problem is that they have no one to actually work with the children. We have learned that certain centers are open to Christian groups coming in and working with the children if they are able to present a quality program. I have been talking with the mission Youth for Christ, who is already working in one center, about getting churches involved in other centers throughout the city. This is a wonderful opportunity for churches not only to minister to children at risk, but to their families as well. The children at these centers will be from very poor families, multi-children families, families where their is alcohol or drug addiction or where one parent or the child himself suffers from a disability.

I have also been talking with several other people about the problem of human trafficking in Russia. I have pulled together several key individuals and this month we will have our first meeting to begin to talk and pray through what God would have us do concerning this area. It is exciting to see God bringing His people together to share their hearts and burdens for this area of need that is still virtually unknown to the vast majority of Christians. I look forward to sharing with you what God will bring out of this meeting.

One of the exciting things that has been happening too is the CoMission newsletter. I know, it may sound strange to say that working on a newsletter has some exciting elements, but it does. I put together and send out the CoMission newsletter twice a month and send it to over 700 partners. It is really exciting when we get response from people that were able to find a book or resource they had been looking for or found out about a training or conference through the newsletter. We are helping people get the training and materials they need to better serve children at risk and that is exciting!

We are also busy planning conferences and seminars for the Fall. We are hoping to have one in St. Petersburg which will focus on Foster Care and Adoption by Russian Christian families. We are also hoping to have an "Encouragement Conference" this Fall for those ministering to children at risk in Moscow. In talking with people from various missions and churches- I realized that they were often struggling with the problem of burnout and discouragement. We are hoping that through the encouragement conference we will be able to bring people together to encourage one another.

I am also working on a video presentation to be used as an element in our Children at Risk Awareness campaign for churches. We are hoping to be able to share the needs of children at risk, challenge the church to act, and provide tangible ways to do so. I recently was able to speak at the Russian American Christian University in Moscow about orphans and street children in Russia. These Russians students were completely unaware of the degree of the problem in Russia. It was exciting to be able to share the need, help them realize that we- the church, are supposed to be acting and then challenge them to act.

One young man came up to me afterwards with ideas of how to use his musical ability to help orphans. That was wonderfully fulfilling and I look forward to be able to have have a full presentation available to be used in churches soon.

So as you can see- there are a lot of exciting things going on right now! I would appreciate your prayers in all of these areas. They are greatly needed. There is one additional prayer request I'd like to share before I go. The visa situation in Russia is still unclear. It is now looking as though the government is indeed going to be applying the 90 day out of 180 days restriction to religious affairs visas after saying they would not. Campus Crusade for Christ was granted permission to issue worker's visas (the only visas not affected by this restriction) but the Baptist Union was denied permission. Ultimately, I will need to obtain a worker's visa. Please pray for wisdom and understanding as far as the best option for me to pursue in terms of visas.

I hope you all have a blessed day. Thank you again so much for your support- without your financial and prayer support none of this would be possible. Together, God is using us to make a difference!

Serving Christ,

Angela