MAY '26 PART 1: Training the Trainers

What was your favorite memory from your time in school whether it was high school, college, post-graduate studies or some other courses that you took later on in life? What was so special about this time? You may remember me sharing a while back about launching the Incubator for New Church Planters with City to City Russia. The Incubator includes over 20 different church planters representing 15 new churches in 10 different cities and 2 countries (Russia and Belarus). While I have received a lot of positive comments from various people about the news, I was a little bit surprised that no one mentioned that it’s a whole lot of church planters for just 2 certified facilitators of the Incubator. Since no one mentioned it, I will say it – it is a lot of church planters for just 2 trainers. 

Therefore, about a month ago we started a course called “Train the Trainer.” I wrote briefly about it a year ago when I completed this training myself. Now we have translated the course into Russian and have launched this training with a group of 8 new trainers that come from various cities in Russia and Belarus. 

The bulk of training is dedicated to reorienting future trainers from a traditional lecture format to a model that is more conducive for adult learning. It includes a series of video lectures, an assortment of readings and a practical project that learners go over at home in preparation for the course while the main session is geared to group learning and discussion of materials that trainees went over beforehand. We have used this approach to completely rework how we do our Sunday School for adults and would love to expand it to other courses in due time.

Our group of future trainers is quite diverse and includes those who teach in seminary along with those who shepherd a local church. It is a great group of guys. We have already done 2 online sessions with them and the response was overwhelmingly positive from them. I am very much looking forward to expanding our team of trainers in the nearest future and having them join us in facilitating the Incubator courses.  

Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia, 
Constantin and Alexandra

P.S. So now I am ready to share about a conversation that changed my take on the Candlelight Service.

THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:

Please take a moment right now, after you fnished reading this e-mail, to join us in praying for God:

1. To bless our Church Retreat. We are heading out tomorrow to prepare for a one day retreat that will start on Saturday. I shared a year ago about how impactful this retreat is for our community. Our church membership already grew by about 10% this year and this retreat will be a vital part in making new people feel more and more at home at Moscow Bible.
2. To raise necessery funds for us to purchase our own building. I shared in my previous newsletter about our capital campaign that we just launched. Check it out if you have not yet and if you can please share about it with as many people as possible especially with the missions board of your church.
3. To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries. One of the highlights for me personally of our training program is that one of the lead trainers in it currently lives in Ukraine. It is projects like this that give me hope for the future.