They are now one family and together will continue to serve God. We can’t wait to tell you about the events of that day.

May 12th from early morning on, the bride was getting ready to make vows with her groom.

And here the bride is ready.

Many of Dasha’s friends came out from Russia, to share the happiness with the young couple.

And then came the hour of the ceremony. Vladimir, together with Pastor Vladimir, who wed the pair, waited for the arrival of the bride.

Here is the long awaited moment where the young couple meets.

The ceremonial wedding was held in ancient temple in city of Haifa.

Pastor Vladimir gave a farewell word.

Dasha listened carefully…

Then the newlyweds gave each other words of faithfulness and love.

Vows and blessing of Vladimir and Darya.

Joyful event for family and friends of the newlywed couple.

They lit one candle with each other’s candles as a symbol of them joining into a single family.

Here the ceremony was over, and a new family was born.

To continue the celebration of this event, everyone went on to the grand ballroom.

The public met the wife and husband with loud applause.

Ahead was a long night of tasty food, fun games and a whole lot of dancing…

Guests.

Contest “Ensemble”.

The winner of the contest got a beautiful prize.

Friends supported Vladimir and Dasha in a dance “battle”.

Guests from Russia presented a beautiful song as a present.

The dance of the newlyweds.

Those who wanted left their wishes on the tree of well wishing.

More Dancing

Improvised contest “Lips of the youth”

The young family congratulated and thanked their parents.

Once again more dancing.

Present from Victor. A song.

A fun and festive day. Once more we congratulate and give blessing to Vova’s and Dasha’s wonderful new family.

The scale in the maternity hospital showed 2840 gram.

The happy mother and father named the daughter Shemesh, which in Hebrew means the Sun.

May 10th everyone in the church congratulated the parents and blessed little Shemesh.

The parents are very happy to have such a daughter and we are very happy for them.

We congratulate our whole friendly family of Living Israel in Naaria.

Those who took part in this evening shared that it was a strong presence of God in that place.

We invite everyone to participate in future worship evenings like this.

The participants of the Conference were given the opportunity to listen to different speakers on many topics: forgiveness, finances, cruelty, responsibility and many other important issues.

There was not enough room for everybody to fit the chapel, so the corridor was full as well…

After every sermon everybody were divided into small groups to discuss what they just heard and pray together.

Then there were the tea and coffee brakes with abundant fellowship

Some families came with their kids.

After the brakes there was a worship time.

And the teaching went on…

After the last lecture brothers and sisters made their own groups to discuss important particular men and women issues.
We were not allowed into women group, but men group looked like this:

In the conclusion of the whole day conference was a communion.

That’s the way how the First family Conference was held. Thanks to all the participants and the organizers of this wonderful event. Looking forward to the new ones.

From the very beginning the children were given the presents.

That holiday we were celebrating Segev’s Birthday anniversary and all together blessed the dear brother.

Then we had many merry competitions.

Poetry competition

Throes of creation:

The poet’s performances at last.

Of course the most favorite competition with the chairs…

At the end the delicious holiday dinner was served.

Here all the participants of the yearly celebration.

Here are Mia’s parents – Michael and Natalia, they minister in our church in Afula. Mia is the third child in their family.

Many friends came to bless and congratulate the fresh new parents and the baby.

Congratulations, Michael and Natalia with this most happy celebration in your big family!

Before the performance, the director and the conductor of the choir greeted all the guests,

and also devoted all in the concert program of the evening.

Representatives of «Living Israel» from many cities came to listen to the choir. The hall was almost full.

The program included the songs in Korean, as well as a few songs in Hebrew.

The choir sang accompanied by the piano.

And sometimes sounded various exclusive instruments.

It is interesting to note that for each part of the performances of the choir were in different costumes.

Wonderful dance.

Funny coincidence (Red Square on background).

The audience liked the performance.

In the conclusion of their performance guests from Korea performed one more song in Hebrew, not from the stage, but in the hall…

Friendship of nations…

After the concert’ guests gave us a few CDs with the recording of the performances.

And finally, joint photo.

Many thanks to all who came to the concert, and of course many thanks to the chorus of «Ein-Gedi» for their service!

In a sign of the engagement Alexei gave Vitalina a ring.

Congratulations to a wonderful couple with this significant event.

The hall was beautifully decorated by the young people from Krayot.

The festive service began. The Levites from the Monastery provided the audience to the worshiping God.

Kate is a mega-professional. She can play with her eyes closed.

Under cheerful songs of praise, many have begun to dance.

A more detailed look at the fun.

Next to the pastors and servants of all the churches were given the opportunity to congratulate those present on the Day of Birth of the Living Israel, as well as to share the news for the past year and plans for the future.

Sasha from Beer Sheva talked about the news from the South of the country, about the development of the churches in their region, and dance service presented everybody with the beautiful dance.

After the Beer Sheva Sergey, spoke of how things are going in Jerusalem, and about the young church in Netanya which started in 2012.

Michael from Tel Aviv has congratulated all on a holiday and shared the news of their Church.

Misha, “the Frenchman” told about the eventful life of the Monastery.

Yura and Dina have devoted all the news from the life of the Church in Haifa and the Church in Kiryat Ata.

Also in Kiryat Ata in this year began another Church. Andrew told everybody a little about their meetings.

Alex congratulated all with the day of birth and shared what was happening in the Youth of the Church in Hebrew.

Youth Church has prepared a short film to the 17-th anniversary of Living in Israel. Look:

In Nahariya everything is OK too, this all has assured Andrey.

And then brothers and sisters from Nahariya congratulated everyone with a cheerful song about the peculiarities of the Jewish people.

On the Church in Maalot told Vitaly.

And the guys from Мaalot showed a scene about how important it is to obey God. The scene is based on the history of Jonah with an admixture of modernity.

Happy end of the story.

Eli from Karmiel shared joy, that now they have a worship team in their community.

After the praise group of the Кarmiel gave the hall of the song of the praise.

Men in black Sasha and Leonid told about the events of the life of the Church in Migdal & Kazrin.

Sergey told about the news of the Church in Krayot, and praise group of the «Only Life» performed a few songs.

After all congratulations blessed birthdays.

Also all with one accord blessed Ruslan and Olga for the opening of the new congregation «Living Israel» in Beer Sheva.

In conclusion of the meeting all took communion.

During the communion praise group of Haifa gave thanks to God.

Well, and what is the General meeting without the «First love»?

Also, not to change the good traditions, General photo of all of us, in any way connected with the Ministry of rehabilitation and School for Disciples.

Finally some photos from the column “Find yourself”.

We congratulate all with the 17-years anniversary!

Young people gathered at their usual place on a warm winter day, divided into two teams: Dynamo & Field Mushrooms and the amicable match began.

Dynamo

Field Mushrooms

Some time later the Field Mushrooms turned to be the champion & leaded in the score of 4 to 1. And that time on the football field appeared new players and it was decided to create 4 more teams and to continue the Football Day in the form of the tournament.

The youth team from the Monastery missed the tournament , so, it has got the 5th place :).

So, the captains of the rest 4 teams are recruiting their teams.

The team “C” took Milly as a talisman.

And the tournament began: 4 teams, 7 minutes for every game, one winner.

The results of the first matches.

Press is watching at what is happening.

For the teams with the same score there were organized the penalties for the definition of the winners.

So, all the games were over and the results were:

1st place – the team “Armageddon”
2nd place – the team “Drovosieki”
3rd place – the team “Bronieviki”
4th place – the team “Chuvaki”

Milly was very upset by the loss of her team.

And some photos of everybody who was present at the tournament.

General photo of the last.

John 7:53

For the new football meeting in 2013…

On November 10 Lika attended the church for the first time.

The church leaders blessed the newborn as well as her parents. She is the fourth child in this wonderful family.

We congratulate Sergey, Nadya and all their big family.

On November 18 the second youth picnic took place. In the meeting in the open air participated the youth of Haifa, Krayot, and the guys that came to our northern area from Beer Sheva, where the massive bombardments from Gaza are taking place.

First of all, those who were not well acquainted got to know each other closer.

Then some of the guys went to the “kitchen”.

There some delicious things were being cooked.

The migrating birds from the previous report were coming back from the South…

Some were having rest,

Some were having fun,

Some were messing around,

Some were playing games,

And a guitar,

Some were taking pictures in the picturesque places,

Some were preparing the tables.

There was enough room for everybody on the huge meadow where we gathered.

After a prayer everyone was invited to a table.

After a delicious lunch the majority of people including sisters and the little ones went to play soccer.

The brave goalkeepers:

And those who had not gone to play soccer became mosquitoes’ victims… The picture is taken from the height of a mosquito’s eye:

How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity…

It is always a great joy to see how God unites the hearts of brothers and sisters, and how new families of believers are being created.

On October 24 there was David and Sveta’s wedding. Once God set those guys free from their addictions and gave them new lives.

The wedding ceremony took place in the garden of the monastery in Haifa, which was very beautifully decorated.

According to the tradition, the groom was the first to appear by the altar.

Then the beautiful bride came into view.

The wedding ceremony was led by Valerian, the pastor of the church where David and Sveta are serving now.

He said some instructing words to the newlyweds.

After that David and Sveta exchanged the wedding rings.

Pastor Valerian blessed the couple in front of the Lord.

The newlyweds lit up a candle which symbolized their unity.

Then the parents blesses the newlyweds and pronounced their wishes.

Here the official ceremony was over, and everyone was invited to the festive table.

After the most delicious shish kebabs and other treats the entertainment part started.

First there was a story of David and Sveta’s acquaintance.

Everyone liked the story a lot.

Then there were various funny competitions.

Lisa was the one to get the bride’s bouquet.

At last, there were very many delicious cakes.

Now, we offer some more pictures of this wonderful couple for you to see.

Congratulations to David and Sveta. May God bless you richly!

We congratulate Slava and Ira with the addition to their family. We wish Shirelle to be with God always, and to be a joy to her parents.

Two teams were fighting for the victory in the autumnal cup: the select team from the monastery and the select team of Krayot.

Despite the unusually for this time of a year hot weather, and for the strong khamsin, all the players came to the field on time and were looking forward to starting the game.

At last, at 10:20 the game started!

On the field, which the players were acquainted with because of the previous match, they started to run for the ball disorderly…

It was a joke. There started a real struggle, even fight for the victory.

Now, the ball is in the play:

The lightning attack of the team of Krayot, but… the goalkeeper of the monastery manages to repel the attack.

Everyone is full of strength and desire to shoot the first goal.

Yoni, one of the Krayot team’s goalkeepers, watches the ball attentively. Much depends on a goalkeeper!

Again, a dangerous moment at the monastery’s gate…

And the Krayot team leads in score.

The fans of both teams supported their players, and we want to thank them very much for it.

The smallest fans watched everything that was going on the battle field out of their own transport.

After the first goal the Krayot team sent to the Monastery gate some more balls. 3:0

The tension is growing, the end of the first half comes soon.

Slava immediately reports about everything…but to whom?

A lot of players came to support the team of Krayot and to play… That’s why the decision was made to divide the teams into several scrubs. While some of them played, the others were analyzing the opponents’ play, and elaborating the victorious strategy… and, at the same time, were having some rest.

So, after the earned break, the teams are ready to play again. An important person, the judge Anya, announced the beginning of the second half.

The Monastery is trying to retrieve.

After the wonderfully played combination of the Haifa’s team, the ball visits the Krayot’s gate for the first time.

The Krayots are not slow with a return visit.

Again, the monastery’s attack.

Goal. The Krayots are scratching their heads…

Matrix.

Because of the outrages the judge “proscribes” a penalty.

A strong kick… But Stas is a great goalkeeper. The ball is turned away.

Krayot continues a mass attack.

The judge proscribes a penalty kick to Yoni’s gate.

Do you think there was a goal?

Sometimes the Monastery players teamed up with the Krayots

The change of the Krayot goalkeepers. Igor.

Oriental dancing.

The second scrub of the Haifa’s team attack.

Igor catches the ball.

Reverse attack.

The ball is in the gate.

By the way, the Monastery’s gate is now defended by Roma.

A new attack. Lev, pretending to be a plain, got to the very gate of the Monastery.

Kick…

Goalpost… Oh, it was such a combination.

The Monastery starts a new attack.

But, unfortunately, all in vain.

Fathers and sons.

The Krayots significantly lead in score, but there is still a desire to make a few more goals.

Thanks to their insistency, they managed to do it.

Now, after the final referee’s whistle, the game is over. The result is 10:6 in favor of the Krayots. This is the second victory of the Krayot team in a row. The monastery, brace yourselves!

Finally, the common picture of everyone.

And, for the very last, so to say, for dessert, the video selection of the best moments of the game. Nice watching!

The girl was called Michal.

Here are the happy parents.

On Saturday, on October 20, Michal attended her first service, where she was blessed by the whole church.

From all our hearts we congratulate Alexander and Svetlana with the birth of their 3rd child.

Last Friday the baby’s parents Venya and Olya brought her to the church. All the brothers and sisters blessed Mirelle.

We are happy together with you, Venya and Olya, and join the blessings.

Recently together with all the Jewish people we celebrated the beginning of the New Year-5773. For the celebration of the event we decided to organize a picnic in the Haifa yacht club.

Chronicle of events:

Closer to the evening, after we’d bought some food, we came to the “Fishermen’s Bay” in the Haifa’s Gulf, where the Kishon river (where Elijah once drowned the Vaal’s prophets) falls into the Mediterranean Sea. Meanwhile birds headed to the South, evidently, to warm countries.

We found a nice place and started having rest.

Some were cooking

Others were relaxing, having fellowship and waited for fried sausages.

Meanwhile, the children enjoyed the park freedom.

Yoni was attentively watching everything what was going on.

Now the meat is ready, everyone is called to the table. The meal in the open air.

After the meal the rest and fellowship continued.

Then came the time for the active rest. Some played soccer…

Some were doing acrobatics…

The frisbee also was in use.

The sisters were helping with the tables.

At last everybody went to see the yachts.

That was the end of the story, and those who ate – were smart!

The wedding ceremony of the wonderful couple took place on September 15 in a monastery in Haifa.

Ruslan came to the Lord, having a hard past behind. Jesus gave him a new life and set him free of drug addiction. Ruslan successfully finished the Bible School of discipleship, and now he is happily serving those desiring to go the way of Salvation.

Olga became a terrorist attack victim in 2004, when a female suicide bomber exploded a bus, and 17 people were killed as a result. Olga was hospitalized in a bad condition, and, six months later, after a wonderful restoration, she was helping a rehabilitation ministry, that just started.

So their lives became closely connected with the rehabilitation ministry, and there the Lord got them acquainted.

The morning of the wedding day Olga spent in a beauty parlor.

At last the highly anticipated meeting took place.

Before the wedding ceremony the newlyweds managed to take a walk along the seashore and in the gardens at the top of the Carmel Mountain.

The marriage ceremony took place in the evening in the monastery park. A lot of friends and relatives came to share Ruslan and Olga’s joy.

By good tradition the garden was beautifully decorated.

The groom Ruslan was the first to appear before everyone.

Then, to a storm of applause, appeared Olga.

Pastor Vladimir, who led the ceremony, said the instructing words to the newlyweds, as well as for the audience.

The groom and the bride exchanged the marital vows and signed all that was said.

Then they exchanged the wedding rings as a symbol of eternal covenant.

Pastor Vladimir blessed the family union and pronounced Ruslan and Olga husband and wife.

The new couple is receiving a matrimonial certificate.

The relatives were given an opportunity to congratulate the newlyweds first.

Then, when everyone tried the wedding treats, the time came for numerous competitions and performances.

Backstage…

Especially for congratulations Adriano Chelentano was invited. He performed his new hit in “pure” Italian. Since the hit was new, he could not remember all the words.

He was followed by other A-list stars.

A sketch about family life.

The concert program was finished by the first dance of the newlyweds.

The Living Israel congregation heartily congratulates you, Ruslan and Olga. May God bless your family union, as well as your further serving in the rehabilitation center in Beer Sheva or any other place where He guides you. We are very happy about the formation of a new family within the big family of the Living Israel.

The Lord united the hearts of the two, and gave them a wonderful sunny day.

The tender decoration of the ceremony place harmonically fit in the wonderful nature of the lakeshore.

The newlyweds exchanged affiances in front of God.

They exchanged the wedding rings as a symbol of eternal alliance.

They shared the communion for the first time as a unit in front of the Lord.

Among the closest friends and relatives pastor Gleb married the young couple.

The essential part was the most delicious and beautiful wedding cake.

Continuing the celebration, the newlyweds were overblown with rose petals.

Beautiful white balloons were romantically released into the sky. They were rising up for a long time, especially attracting the children’s eyes.

Andrey and Maria met while studying in the “Living Israel” Bible School of discipleship.
They successfully finished the theoretical part together, and served their practices in different countries. Now their family continues serving the Lord in the “Living Israel” warm house in the city of Ashkelon.
We are sincerely happy for them. We congratulate them, and wish them to walk together the path of Jesus Christ, always with a hope and boldness!

We would like to share with you some pictures of the wedding of Garik and Lena that took place on July 23.

The marriage service took place in the chapel of the monastery in Haifa, and pastor Michael blessed the couple.

The newly married couple pronounced the covenants of love to each other in front of the Lord,

and exchanged the wedding rings.

We congratulate Garik and Lena. May the Lord blessed your family life and your serving Him together.

Here are more pictures taken on that happy day:

They named their son David, and here he is:

At the last service in Karmiel the whole church all together blessed this large family and the newborn David.

The family of “The Living Israel” of the city of Karmiel greets the baby and congratulates Marat and Lisa.

We wish this big and friendly family all the good from the Lord and big blessings on the life of the newborn David!

Arriving to the place a little late, we blessed our way and headed to the mountains.

The itinerary that we chose is called “A small Switzerland”, and now we are going to show you a bit of what we saw.

Our way went along the road near the gorge at a height of 300 meters above sea level.

Switzerland a-la Israel looks really beautiful.

Sometimes we came across pretty rocks and caves.

And also interesting trees.

Soon we reached the fork of the roads, and, as we were deciding which way to choose, we made a rest break and took pictures.

Some of the guys went to see the “green” way…

but soon they returned from the impassible jungles, and we decided to continue going along the “red” road.

We reached the next rest break. It was the bridge across the mountain river Nahal Kelach, which was, to our regrets, completely dried out because of summer heat.

At least, we found some shade.

When we got to the other side of the gorge, we found beautiful mountain walls. Pay attention to the high building at the horizon. Approximately from there we started our path.

Alex is thinking about our further way checking with the ground maps.

Vanya decided to sit on the cliff.

As we continued going, we started seeing the trees suffered from fire in Carmel in the late 2010.

Step by step, we saw more of such trees, until we came to the point where the fire embraced the whole wood.

The spider’s gorgeous apartments.

We continue going.

The wood starts restoring after the fire.

As we reached the beautiful top with an eye to the Mediterranean Sea, we decided to turn around and start our way back.

Our way back was also very beautiful.

All the hikers had to drink a lot of water.

As we reached the fork of the “red” and “green” roads, we decided to go along the green one towards the exit.

The way turned out to be shorter, but we had to climb up the huge rocks. Literally in 10 minutes we climbed about 100 meters up.

When we came back, we made a picnic, and had a great time together, relaxing after the 3-hour march.

We hope to organize one more march soon. Praise God for the wonderful day outside.

At the last service in the monastery the whole church blessed the parents and their new baby.

We congratulate Victor and Luda, and wish David all the best.

Pastor Ruslan blessed them.

The groom and the bride invite all brothers and sisters to their wedding, which will take place on September 15 in Monastery, Haifa.

Congratulations to the bride and the groom!!!

Welcome to us in Galilee.

Our congratulations and blessing to the young couple!

On the very same day those who were baptized had their first communion!

We thank Lord Jesus Christ that His hand has not diminished, and He continues to add the saved to the church!

At the last worship service of Hebrew-speaking church in Krayot we blessed the baby and his parents all together.

Congratulations to Oleg and Luda and the newborn Yoav!

Ruben was ordained as a deacon.

Valera and Sveta were ordained for the ministry in Wilkes Barre House as assistants in the Senior House.

On May 25 three people celebrated their birthdays – Irina, Sasha and Dima.

For the overall joy the cakes were set on fire! :)

There was a lot of meat and many other tasty foods.

Hello to everyone from America!

We congratulate Michael and wish him and his family to bring much fruit on God’s field.

They named the girl Emilia.

On June 5, at the Friday service, the baby was blessed by the whole church.

We heartily congratulate Roma and Diana!

Qasr El Yahud is situated near the board with Jordan. The borderline goes in the middle of the Jordan river.

Churches and warm houses from the cities of Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Dimona and Ofakim participates in the trip. The goal of the trip was water baptism.

Before the baptism we were worshiping, and pastor Ruslan shared a message.

The team of those to be baptized is ready to leave their sins and to devote themselves to the Lord!!!

The baptism of the church and warm house of Beer Sheva. Our brothers Sasha and Misha are baptizing.

The baptism of the church and warm house of Ashkelon. Sasha and Vlad are baptizing.

The church and warm house from Jerusalem are being baptized.

After the baptism everyone with one accord went to a picnic at the Dead Sea.

While the grownups were having an active fellowship and eating homemade food, the children attacked local camels.

The life is going in accordance with the Scriptures: the believers abide in the temple, praising and blessing God.

They devoted themselves to the teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

Fellowship in Migdal can be different, but always friendly and cheerfully, and building up one another.

This is how our Living Israel family from Migdal looks like.

Two weeks ago there was the last conference of the kind. Now we are going to tell you about it.

In the beginning everybody worshiped God.

Pay attention to the fact that now every school class has T-shirts of a different color: for instance, the 9th school that completed the full-time course has red T-shirts, and the new students of the 11th class has white T-shirts. Every T-shirt has a printing on the back that says: I am from a monastery!

“People in black” that danced so vigorously during the worship time are the students of the milestone 10th class.

After worshiping the ministers of the places that the new students came from were given a chance to introduce them.

So, everybody got to know the students of the 11th class a bit closer.

Up to the last minute the guys that start the practice don’t know where they will go. The new practicians pray and ask God to guide them where He wants them to be. So the students of the 10th class came out to define the location of their practice.

But getting an appointment to one or another destination was not so easy. The students were to pick lots out of a basket where except from the names of cities there were various funny tasks: to sing a song, to dance, and many others.

The conference combined preaching, competitions, worship, prayers, and many other things. For competitions 4 teams were organized. New students (11th class), practicians (school #10), graduates (school #9), and ministers of warm houses and churches.

Every competition was estimated by a jury.

For warming up the teams were suggested to jump in sacks.

Between the competitions the ministers shared short messages and witnesses.

Another significant point of the conference was giving diplomas to the graduates.

The school director Vladimir said many nice words about every graduate, and read the teachers’ wishes to them.

In order to really feel the atmosphere of that wonderful day we encourage you to watch the video where you can see some moments of the conference.

As usual, every last Saturday our church in Krayot helds a fellowship service. This time we got the service at a picturesque Monfort lake, in the town of Maalot in Northern Israel. At the lakeshore gathered brothers and sisters from Maalot, Naharia and Krayot.

Everybody praised God with one voice.

Then everyone had a communion.

Congratulated all those who had a birthday in April.

Then praised God once again.

In the beginning of a fellowship part there was a joint lunch, a meal at the shore.

Everyone contributed to the Sabbath lunch. Somebody cooked a bit of popcorn.

Someone else brought some sausage.

After lunch some of the guys decided to dislocate their leisure right to the water.

Everyone at the shore liked the idea…

… and the catamarans one by one started to fill by the representatives of “Living Israel”.

At last almost everyone moved on to the water.

Since almost no one was left at the shore, it was possible to preach on the water.

When the catamaran park was over, given way to our mutual desire to twist pedals in the water, canoe came to be used.

As the day was hot, the aquatic vehicles one by one started floating into the fountain near the shore in order to cool down.

After the hydrotherapy everybody slowly headed to our camp at the shore. There we were still communicating, relaxing, and enjoying the surrounding nature.

The Monastery team, as always, consists of the Bible School for Discipleship students (the 10th school graduates) and the monastery inhabitants, that are not indifferent to football.

And the Krayot team’s composition remains almost unchanged.

This time we decided to play on a more compact field.

The Krayot team started to play with the intense attack, which bore fruit quite soon. The score is opened, the ball is kicked into the goal of the Monastery team.

The Monastery tries to win back…

…but smart goalkeeper Vlad doesn’t let them equal the score.

The ball is into play.

The Krayot guys attack…

…and score another goal.

The Krayot fans are delighted, their players have never triumphed over the Monastery team. Will they be able to do it this time? The score is 2:0 in favor of the Krayot team.

But the Monastery guys muster up their strength and start to win back.

Even the Victory signs, shown by Yonick, can not help the Krayot players. The score becomes 2:1, and soon after that it’s 2:2.

The score is equal. It’s worth celebrating with dancing around the ball.

The fans like this performance.

The Monastery team attacks again, and another goal is scored. Apparently, Yoni had no time to finish his lezghinka dance. Assa!

The score is 3:2 in favour of the Monastery team. Will the Krayot players lose again?

The Krayot forwards rush to the attack, and the score becomes equal.

The Haifa team scores a return goal.

And there started a scramble!

Every team prepared its own tricks. Slava tried to blow the ball out of his team’s goal.

Ed kept kicking the ball into the basket, that was on the field. To the Monastery team’s regret, these goals were not counted.

The Krayot team answered with their own special tricks: intimidation of the goalkeeper,

…checking the abdominal muscles of the goalkeeper,

…kicking the opponent’s players out from the field,

…and other pranks.

The score is equal – 6:6. Players try to discuss this situation: “Maybe we should stop?”

But the Krayot team is close to the victory for the first time; it still has a chance to win.

The Monastery defence will not give up with no resistance.

Don’t go here, and don’t go there…

The fans are excited: can it really be a tie?

The Krayot juniors started to warm up: “Maybe we’ll overcome the Monastery team at the last minutes of the match?”

And there it is, the long-expected goal, scored by the Krayot guys! 7:6…

And another goal is scored.

The final whistle. The fans are happy. The Krayot guys win for the fist time. The score is 8:6 in favour of the Krayot team.

That is how close the Monastery team was to winning the match.

We congratulate the Krayot team with their first – and hopefully not last – victory! We thank everybody for the match.

Here is the team of winners:

To let you feel the atmosphere of the match we recorded this short video-clip (note that you can watch it in HD format).

On April 4th a new family arose – Nikolay and Yana got married. Nicholai is a minister of the rehab house in Naharia, and Yana is from the church in Maalot.

By good tradition, the wedding took place in the chapel of Haifa monastery.

The celebration started with the groom’s ceremonial entrance.

And the bride appeared in the chapel to the storm of applause.

The newlyweds took vows of love…

…and exchanged rings.

Pastor Vladimir blessed the family union of Nicholai and Yana.

The newlyweds signed a certificate to confirm their decision of becoming a family.

When the ceremony was over, a festive meal and a cheerful congratulatory program awaited everybody.

The first people to congratulate the newlyweds were their friends from the church in Maalot.

Borya, in the role of warrant officer Shmatko, congratulated the newlyweds.

His speech was supported by the squad of the monastery garrison.

Nikolay, a retired major, received the report and gave the command to stand at ease.

All guests relaxed and stood at ease.

The newlyweds were given medals for courage and marriage.

During the party a lot of congratulations were addressed to the newlyweds, and everyone could participate in contests and watch funny sketches.

An attempt to find a baby in the cabbage was not crowned with success.

As you see, the wedding of Nikolay and Yana was a great fun.

A few hours before the ceremony the bride and the groom took a photo-walk:

All Living Israel congratulates you, Kolya and Yana! We wish you a lot of love and God’s blessings in your family life and serving God together.

As always, comments are opened for additional wishes and congratulations.

And this is Nastya.

And together they are a married couple, whose wedding ceremony took place on March 31st.

Gleb and Nastya underwent rehabilitation and studied at the School for Descipleship, where they have met. In a while they realized that they were created for each other and decided to get married.

The wedding ceremony took place in the monastery. The chapel and the garden were beautifully decorated in lilac and violet colours.

Even the mircophone of pastor Vladimir was decorated with some lilac insulating tape.

Before the groom’s appearance friends of Gleb and Nastya entered the chapel dancing, to the great amusement of the guests.

Then the groom appeared – he is a great fan of dancing.

Pastor Gennady escorted Nastya to the altar.

The whole wedding ceremony went in a joyful, but at the same time grand atmosphere…

…in the presence of many relatives and friends.

The newly-weds exchanged rings.

They promised God and each other to be faithful in marriage and took vows of love.

After that pastor Vladimir blessed their marriage and announced Gleb and Nastya to become a husband and a wife.

The newly-born family took the Communion.

Gleb and Nastya received their marriage certificate…

… and signed it in the presence of witnesses.

When the ceremony was over, everybody was invited to the garden to enjoy food, drinks and numerous competitions.

We are pleased to provide you an opportunity to enjoy more photos of this beautiful couple.

We wish Gleb and Nastya to stay united, to help and support each other in their family life.

May God bless them abundately in serving Him. Warm congratulations from the Living Israel congregation!

Warm congratulations to Eugenia and Modest on their daughter’s birth!

According to our good tradition, we hasten to share some photos, that were taken at Purim celebrations in the churches of Living Israel.

This is how the joyful holiday was celebrated in the newborn church, where the services are being held in Hebrew.

A small performance and various competitions were prepared on the occasion of Purim.

The actors received their scenarios in just one minute before the beginning of the show, so everybody got a lot of fun.

The downtown church in Haifa also had much fun celebrating Purim:

Costume contest.

The tense situation in the south of Israel didn’t prevent brothers and sisters from Beer Sheva to gather together and celebrate Purim at their Friday service.

After all, Purim is such a wonderful holiday!

On Saturday, February 25th, Valera and Sveta got married. They both have gone through rehabilitation and decided to start a family.

They also decided to stay and serve God in the centre!

Their friends were invited to the wedding party, and everybody had much fun.

We praise God for Valera and Sveta!

Another happy event is that on Wednesday, March 7th, God allowed us to baptize four brothers.

Some of them are on rehabilitation for only one month, but the Lord touched their hearts, and they decided to enter into a covenant with Him!

These brothers are Gleb…

…and Dima.

Igor is already on the second level (he went through rehabilitation and stayed in the centre).

As for Yura, he’s on his second rehabilitation, but this time he took a serious decision to follow Jesus.

Brothers and sisters from three rehab houses gathered to celebrate this baptism.

These are the good things God creates in our lives here in America.

At present we have three rehab houses, in which more than thirty brothers and sisters live …

This is our house in Scranton – the place where it all began in January 2010.

Almost all general meetings are held in this house. Fourteen brothers and sisters live here.

Our second house is in Wilkes Berry. Only brothers live in this house.

At this point we have about twelve people there, some of them stayed for the second level, some still undergo rehabilitation.

The third house is also located in Scranton in a 10-minute walk from the first one. We opened the house a couple of months ago, and so far we use only one half of it. Sisters, as well as our guests from Kazakhstan live in that house.

Every Thursday we hold general meetings in Scranton in the first house.

Someone is mastering the instrument…

And someone is digging out the old talent.

One sister came to undergo rehabilitation, and three days later, when she still had withdrawal symptoms, there was her birthday. We congratulated and blessed her.

We have fun time within our family circle.

During these two years the Lord has blessed us with a beautiful little girl, who was born in the family of our ministers Ruben and Ira.

We all were so happy when our ministers Maxim and Xenia got married. God has given us a miracle – as it is usual for Him… Xenia could not have children, but God in His great mercy blessed the womb of Xenia, and she is in her third month now. We all are looking forward to seeing the baby…

Our brother Dennis and his wife Maria have effectively laboured for the Kingdom of God in the city of Wilkes Berry. After finishing their ministry there, they went back to Israel.

Now new Israeli ministers – Slava and his wife Irina – minister in this house.

Lord Jesus heard prayers of Slava and Irina and rewarded them according to the riches of His glory. Irina is expecting a baby soon…

At the end of February brother Valery and sister Svetlana are going to get married. They want to stay and minister in the church and in the rehab houses. They will be helping people with the same problems, which they have had before they got to know and accepted Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord blessed us with a permanent job – cleaning hotel rooms. This work is suitable for all ages, and it’s suitable for both brothers and sisters. Now we work in two hotels. In one of them we are the core staff.

On Saturday Ruben goes to New York to preach the Gospel in the places, where there are many drug addicts. In New York there is a district, called Brighton Beach – a residence of people from the former Soviet Union. There is a huge amount of alcoholics and tramps in that district. Almost every Saturday we bring people from Brighton Beach to our houses.

These are a few more photos of our life:

Water baptism of Sasha, nicknamed “Fila”, on February 6th, 2012 near our house in Scranton.

Christmas celebration at our good friend Pasha’s (he is in the center with his wife and their child).

Water baptism of Sasha “the Company Commander”.

On the same day Valera and Eddie were baptized (Sasha “the Company Commander” is in a baseball cap, Valera is on his right, and Eddie – a young guy – is to the right of Valera).

Water baptism of Sasha “the Conductor” in a very cold river near the house in Wilkes Berry on November 24th.

We continually give thanks to the Lord our God, that He allows us to carry on this ministry. Every time in prayers we remember the kindness of your hearts, and we pray for the Lord’s blessings on your lives, our dear family …

With the love of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Yours, Misha the Meek.

Now the young family came to Israel and decided to re-celebrate the wonderful event.

The celebration took place in the new building of the Living Israel church in Beer Sheva. Brothers and sisters meet there since the 1st of February. At the beginning of the service everyone glorified God…

…and received the Holy Communion.

After that the church ministers blessed Sergey and Tatyana and their family life.

Sergey invited all guests to sit down to the table.

Chopping the cake…

Everybody ate and was full. After the feast an extensive greeting program began. The church youth prepared a lot of funny skits.

The newlyweds received some valuable advice. For example, how to prevent shirts from being crumpled.

The dance ministry presented several beautiful dances to the newlyweds.

Everybody watched what was going on with great interest.

And even more competitions and tests awaited for everybody.

After preparation for the next competition…

…Sergey appeared before the audience dressed like that…

Everybody liked it.

Then there were more jokes and funny sketches.

So at the end of the evening it was painful to laugh.

And, of course, there was a dance of Sergey and Tanya,

which was joined by their friends.

That’s a cheerful wedding à la Beer Sheva!

Once again we congratulate Sergey and Tatyana on their wedding! Be happy!

Here is this wonderful house.

It is located on Katolu street, in a quiet area near the city center.

As you saw on the first photo, its neighbour on the right is the Catholic Church of St. Francis, and the neighbor on the left is the Orthodox Church of All Saints. So the guys are well accommodated.

Our youth haven’t missed the opportunity to visit the house on the way to Lapland. The report was made during that visit. So make yourself comfortable, we begin.

Two Living Israel ministers, Igor and Igor, met us early in the morning at the airport of Riga, and one hour later we arrived at the house.

Igor “the Bald”, the head of the house, hospitably cooked breakfast for the hungry youth.

Meanwhile Igor “the German/Hans/the Lett” guided us a little tour of their “little” house.

A kindergarten used to be located in the house, as evidenced by numerous details:

This is very comfortable…

The house is really huge. It has a large kitchen and dining room, and here are the corridors.

There are rooms for ministers and rehabilitants. Here is the modest bedchamber of ministers Igor and Anna.

Some “rooms” are much bigger. This hall had to become a venue of Christmas and New Year services a few days after our departure.

The hall was well decorated by the residents of the house.

Presents were prepared for all participants of the holiday service; it’s a pity we didn’t stay. :-)

On the ground floor Igor showed us a small apartment for ministers, with kitchenette and all amenities.

Basement of the house was stuffed home with humanitarian aid, which the guys have got from Germany shortly before our arrival. We also decided to join the German fashion.

While one Igor was offering tea to the youth, and the other Igor was guiding the tour of the house, Yura was diligently conducting the morning worship service at the so-called small hall. Morning worship is held daily at 7:00 am.

The area, adjoining the house, is also rather big.

This car was given as an addition to the house. Praise God!

There are all sorts of faulty vehicles in the yard – as well as in the monastery in Haifa. We wish our engineers would be there.

On the courtyard there is an entrance to the boiler room.

This winter the guys received some firewood as a blessing, so it’s warm in the heated part of the house (where the tour took place).

The main thing is not to forget to throw more wood on the fire. Here is how it happens.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And this is the place where all important decisions are taken – the office!

After touring the house and having some rest we went for a walk around Riga – the city of contrasts.

Later we took part in the evening service.

Here is a small fragment of the worship:

Click here to view the embedded video.

At the end of the service we received the Holy Communion…

…and took some photos:

Local ministers.

And here is the photo of all of us together.

We thank God for the wonderful house in Riga, opened for everyone who needs deliverance.
Thank you for your hospitality. We felt at home. The Living Israel in Riga – as well as in Israel – is alive.

Avital was born in the family of Alexey and Rosa from the Living Israel church in Krayot. In one week after her birth the baby was introduced to the church, and everyone blessed her with great joy.

We congratulate Alexey and Rosa with their daughter’s birth! We wish Avital, that God would grant her a lot of happiness in the course of her life.

At the beginning of the service we congratulated brothers and sisters from Kiryat Ata with the first anniversary of the Living Israel church in their city.

The whole congregation praised and thanked God for sending Jesus the Saviour into the world and received the Holy Communion.

Especially for children (and a little bit for adults) there was an extensive congratulatory program with Grandfather Frost Santa Claus and a lot of gifts.

It was a joyful and wonderful evening.

Of course, nobody missed the opportunity to be photographed with Santa Claus.

Here is a short video-clip about this wonderful night:

Once more we congratulate everybody on Christmas!

On the first day of the conference in the morning we were asked to help with the final preparations. Some guys were peeling potato for lunch, some were shoveling snow in the church yard so that all visitors could enter the building unhindered.

The conference was attended by guests from many countries, such as Russia, Belarus and Israel, of course. There were visitors even from Africa.

There was a lot of worship, good preaching, seminars on various subjects and of course a lot of communication.

We were also given the opportunity to serve, and on the second day of the conference we participated in the concert.

The “Epicenter” band, that was travelling with us, sang several Jewish songs and then led the audience in worship.

Our youth performed several Jewish dances.

Nobody in the audience remained indifferent. :)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Before the fireworks there was a contest for representatives of each country. Every team had to choose a song and sing it in chorus in a humorous way.

After the show the jury deliberated for a long time…

And, as you have already guessed, we came out on top. We received a valuable prize – a rubber chicken :)

This is how they congratulated us on our victory:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And then everybody went to watch the New Year fireworks.

Thanks to all, who organized the conference, for the excellent time of fellowship and worship.

Two days were left before our departure. The first day, or rather its second half (everybody was asleep till lunch after the New Year celebration), passed in a shop tour, and on the last day we went to ski and snowboard.

The snowboard team:

The skiers:

Conquering the snowy peaks, we got pretty tired, and in the evening we went to a Chinese restaurant at the invitation of our hospitable friends.

Well, and the next morning our plane was waiting for us on a snowy runway, ready to carry us back to Israel.

During the transit stop in Riga we slept away the whole day in the house of rehabilitation, resting from our intense rest…

And then we safely arrived to Israel.

We are very grateful to God and everyone who participated in this wonderful trip, to the church and Rovaniemi youth and, of course, to Tarmo and Lena. Thanks to them the whole trip took place.

At the end we’d like to show you a short video clip about our adventures and several views of Lapland.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our next report will be about the rehabilitation house in Riga.

On December 24th all churches of the Living Israel gathered together to celebrate the full age of the congregation.

The celebration took place in the church building in Krayot, which turned out to be very small.
Next time we’ll have to find a bigger place (or break the walls, restricting our freedom :) )…

The service consisted of three parts.

At first we praised the Lord, and then prayed together and blessed the churches, that were born this year, namely: the church in Naharia,

…the church in Migdal…

…and the church in Nazareth.

Then the Living Israel congratulated and blessed those who were baptized in 2011.

All together we received the Holy Communion.

Some significant events of the congregation’s life in 2011 are shown in a short video clip, that we bring to your attention.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first part of the service was over, and all brothers and sisters had a great opportunity to talk at the banquet table.

Our guest Vladimir Lemarenko sang several songs of his own composition, and we watched several video clips about the history of the church.

One of them was about the church in Haifa downtown.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well, and then an extensive – as usually – greeting program began.

The youth worship team named “Life” congratulated the congregation with a song.

The church from Haifa downtown showed an interesting sketch about Thomas.

The theatre from Kiryat Ata church, as usually, pleased everybody with funny miniatures.

The church from Naharia produced an excellent sound recording to “Winnie the Pooh” cartoon… watch and enjoy:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The youth from Haifa church showed a perceptive sketch about salt.

The students of the Bible School for Discipleship showed how, in their opinion, would the Living Israel look ten years later, in 2021.

Here is the video-record of the sketch:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sister Alla congratulated the church with a dance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Victor, Stas and Mityay sang a couple of songs of their own composition.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The dance ministry from Beer Sheva presented everyone with a wonderful dance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brother Anatoly from Haifa read one of his poems.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Adults and children watched what was happening on the stage with great interest, thank you all for such wonderful greetings.

At the end of the service we prayed for the family of Alexander and Svetlana, they were ordained to deacon ministry in the church of Krayot.

Thanks to all who contributed to organizing this common meeting. Everything was wonderful.

Congratulations to all on the 16th birthday of the Living Israel congregation!

On the way to Finland we made a transit stop in Riga and were met by two ministers of the Living Israel – Igor “the German” and Igor “the Bald”.

We had more than twelve hours between the flights, so we decided to use the Letts’ hospitality and visit the rehabilitation house.

The rehab house is really big. We’ll tell you about it in detail in one of the next reportages.

After having some rest we went with Igor Bondarenko “the Bald” to make a tour of the city.

There was a New Year atmosphere in Riga, and everybody enjoyed it.

After our walk in the city we went back to the rehab house, conducted a common service, received the Holy Communion together with the occupants of the house and left for the airport.

Two hours of flight, and we are finally in Rovaniemi. We were brought to the church, which became our house for the next week.

As opposed to Latvia, there’s a lot of snow in Lapland. Especially for us the weather was not very cold – minus ten Centigrade on the average.

The next day we went beyond the Arctic circle, to the village of Santa Claus.

We visited Santa’s post office…

and met Santa in person…

Today they drove us to the forest. This place is very beautiful and unusual for us, Israelis.

Because of the warm weather the river has not frozen over.

There were nice candle lanterns on every path in the forest.

We came to the glade, where there were houses with some firewood. Here travelers can make a fire, warm up and eat.

We split up the firewood,

made a fire

and cooked some food.

In the houses there were guest books, in which we perpetuated ourselves…

and not only on paper…

Tomorrow the conference will begin.

Greetings from our youth from Lapland!

Click here to view the embedded video.

On December 4th was a wedding day of minister of our church in Beer Sheva Tatiana and Sergey.

A wedding took place in Russia, in Surazh town in the local church, with blessing of the local pastors.

It was a very joyful evening with lot of congratulations from relatives and friends.

Living Israel congregation wish you, Tatiana and Sergey, to have a lot of joyful moments in your life with Jesus Christ. Be blessed!

A second baby was born in the family of Stepan and Lera on November 14. Parents came with him to the house of God for the blessing.

Boy’s name is Jonathan.

Congratulations to Stepan and Lera!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Please pray for brother Victor for his total healing.

The long-expected wedding of Ygal and Milana took place on November 12th.

Having met the Lord, Ygal experienced miraculous deliverance from drug addiction.

He graduated from the School for Discipleship and is looking forward to serving God together with Milana.

The wedding ceremony took place in the chapel of our monastery, which was beautifully decorated.

Many friends and relatives of the newlyweds have gathered together.

Under a storm of applause the groom appeared in the church, and the bride’s father has escorted her to the altar.

Pastor Vladimir performed the wedding ceremony.

He blessed Ygal and Milana before the Lord.

Then the newlyweds exchanged rings…

…and took the Holy Communion.

After the ceremony everybody had an opportunity to congratulate the newlyweds and spend some time at the dessert table. It was really good and sweet!

The Living Israel congregation congratulates Igal and Milana. We wish them a lot of happiness, love and blessings in Christ!

We invite you to have a look at the newlyweds’ photo-shoot…

… Monastery…

… and Krayot.

Before the match both teams spent some time warming up and discussing the game tactics.

In the meantime their fans were taking places on tribunes according to the purchased tickets.

The match from the beginning and up to the end has passed at a dynamic pace and in equal skills struggle.

Forwards were forward.

Defenders were defending.

Goalkeepers were keeping the goals repulsing the opponent’s attacks.

They did a great job, catching the ball.

— What do you expect from me? They have such a goalkeeper…

The goalkeepers were kicking out the ball as well as flying opponent players.

Sometimes they defended the gates using very interesting tricks, which helped — strange as it may seem.

Judges were judging fairly.

In the most intense moments of the game one judge used to run out on the edge of the field and dance a pas from “The Swan Lake”.

Both teams rejoiced over the goals they scored…

… and sympathized with injured players.

The fans supported their teams in every possible way. Krayot fans were in the majority, therefore it is clear, which team received more support. Haifa fans, make a note of it!

The Monastery team opened the score and in a while was leading with the score 3:0. Everyone started to expect the same result as in the last game, but then the Krajot guys scored their first goal through the penalty and reversed the game course.

In the most intense moments of the game it was difficult to discern what was going on under the dust clouds.

The excellent play of the Monastery guys is well worthy of mentioning. Both times they played without substitution, because they had no reserve players.

At the same time some Krayot substitution players haven’t even appeared at the playing field and were only warming up on a bench.

By the end of the game the score was equal, but at the last moments of the second time the Monastery guys scored one more goal into the opponent’s gates and seized the victory with the score 5:4.

Despite the intensity of the game, the match has passed in a friendly atmosphere, and everybody enjoyed the time spent together.

At the beginning of the service all church glorified God.

After praise and worship a wedding took place. The newlyweds were Slava and Alla.

The new family was born in the presence of the Lord and the whole community.
Slava and Alla blew out their candles and lighted one candle as a symbol of their union and devotion to each other.

The newlyweds exchanged rings.

The church blessed the newlyweds and wished them to have long and happy family life.

After the wedding ceremony we congratulated the Kubarevs family on Olga’s birthday.

The third family that had a great occasion was the family of pastor Yury and Dina. They celebrated the 30^th anniversary of their marriage.

Everybody blessed and congratulated them in unity.

A lot of warm words was said about this family. Sister Maria hasn’t missed an opportunity to deliver a “short” welcoming speech.

Brothers and sisters from Haifa church performed three funny sketches about family life.

Here’s the all-star cast.

At the end of the service everyone received the Eucharistic bread and wine. Slava and Alla took the Communion as husband and wife for the first time in their lives.

The church joined hands, said the Lord’s prayer…

… and blessed the meal, which had awaited everybody on that happy family evening.

In several weeks after her birth Edeline visited the church, where all brothers and sisters had jointly blessed her.

They congratulated the parents and presented them with a cake made out of pampers. :-)

We congratulate this wonderful couple on their daughter’s birth and wish them all the blessings from the Lord!

The boy was named Rafael.

Brothers and sisters from other cities came to congratulate the family with this happy event.

All Living Israel congregation congratulates Gennady and Natalya on Rafael’s birth!

Before the performance all actors were busy, putting on the costumes and making the props ready.

Here the performance begins.

Once upon a time there lived a happy family of hares.

One day the dad hare went to the forest to get some food and found an apple-tree.

He gathered some apples, but a mean crow started to reproach him for it.

The dad hare left the crow, met his friend bear and gave him an apple.

Then he met a little squirrel and a hedgehog and gave them a couple of apples too,

then he shared his apples with a little she-goat

and a bee,

and he kept handing out the apples until he found himself empty-handed.

The hare decided to go back to the apple-tree, but an evil fox was there.

The hare pulled an empty apple sack over her head and fled away…

He returned home empty-handed, but the mum hare told him that they’d had a lot of visitors: the bear, the little squirrel and the hedgehog, and the bee. They brought a pomegranate, some honey and carrot, and a fish challah – all that is necessary for a festive table on Rosh Hashanah.

The next day all family gathered at the festive table,

and all forest guests were there with them.

Everybody loved the performance and we continued to celebrate new, 5772, year.

This wonderful baby is named Oliver. He was born on September 17th in the family of Sasha and Christina, ministers of our church in Tel Aviv.

On the last service Oliver was introduced to the community and blessed by the ministers and guests of the church.

We congratulate happy parents, Sasha and Christina, and wish Oliver long and happy life with our Lord Jesus Christ!

On September 15th a wedding took place in our monastery in Haifa. The newlyweds were:

Victor…

…and Ludmila.

The bride spent the beginning of the happy day in a beauty salon…

In the meantime the groom was patiently waiting and looking forward to seeing her.

The long-expected meeting occurred and the young couple went for a photowalk.

During the photowalk Luda, a fan of heavy motorbikes and an owner of a Kawasaki Ninja, has found an even more valuable exhibit and hasn’t missed an opportunity to use it for the photosession.

The young couple have also found a cannon of Napoleon times that proved to be very useful for the photosession.

After the photowalk the young couple went to the monastery, where the marriage ceremony took place in the presence of many relatives and friends.

Pastor Vladimir said warm words of encouragement to the newlyweds.

Victor and Ludmila gave fidelity promises to each other before the Lord and all present.

Pastor Vladimir performed the wedding ceremony and blessed the newly-weds.

Victor and Lyudmila exchanged rings as a symbol of their covenant.

The best men signed the marriage certificate…

…and the official part of the wedding was over; everybody went for a festive table.

The table was rich as well as the congratulatory program. At first the new family was put to test: Victor had to overcome a serious obstacle course.

To dramatize the test and check-up the newly-weds in extreme circumstances, Victor had to wear Luda’s motorcycle helmet with darkened glass. He had to rely completely on his wife and pass all obstacles of the course, following her instructions.

The newly-weds coped with the test easily. They proved excellent ability to work as a team and received a well-deserved award.

The newly-weds’ friends prepared a funny interpretation of the story of how the young couple met, which was based on “Let’s marry” TV show.
The bride on a motorbike looked very much like Luda.

Applicants for the husband’s role were worthy of attention.
The first was oligarch Abramovich, who presented millions poems to Luda.

Another was a great dancer Voldemar.

And the third applicant was a rap performer Victor.

As you have already guessed, Victor fascinated everyone, including Luda.

Victor and Luda enjoyed this sketch a lot.

A lot of surprises and interesting competitions awaited for everybody.

Students of School for Discipleship showed a funny sketch.

Highly experienced and wise old women congratulated the newly-weds and gave them valuable gifts, including money deposit in a three-litre jar.

Then old women called their friends and congratulated the young couple with a dance and a song.

Sasha and Katya sang a song for the newly-weds.

The newly-weds had barely relaxed when a new test began. Luda with flippers on her feet had to burst the balloons that were scattered all over the stage. There were coins inside of the balloons, so Victor had to put on special mittens and collect the coins in order to raise the family capital.

The young couple passed the test successfully.

Then there was the first dance of the newly-weds.

After the congratulatory program a rich dessert meal and an opportunity to talk to the newly-weds awaited for everybody.

The Living Israel congregation congratulates Victor and Ludmila on the happy day of their marriage and wishes them God’s abundant blessings in their family life and common service to the Lord.

We are happy to provide you with the opportunity to see more photos of this wedding.

On August 12th the firstborn son was born in the family of Segev and Svetlana.

The boy was named Jacob.

On September 7th the second son was born in the family of ministers Misha and Anya.

He was named Michael.

The babies were introduced to the church, which thanked God for them in unity.

At first the examination board made a thorough inquiry about the future ministers’ vision of their place in Living Israel. This is the highest point in each student’s eight-month study.

All graduates are very excited. No wonder: they have to state briefly and clearly their concept on one of the subjects of their diplomas, while the authoritative and strict examination board watches closely their answers. Each exam lasts for more than an hour. The board asks not less than ten questions; it expresses specifying and critical remarks and instructions, which then will be enclosed to the certificate. A serious test fell to the students’ lot, and not everyone managed to pass it. For instance, one of the students got the recommendation to repeat the practical part of the study, and another will have to repeat the graduation exam. Nevertheless, the strict, but fair examination board considers the fighting qualities of these two students (after all, some simply don’t even reach examinations!) and expresses confidence in their ability to succeed. All the rest passed the finals and became certificated ministers.

From now on each of them will carry out an independent ministry in one of the Living Israel divisions, both in Israel and abroad. We wish them good luck!

The next day there was a final exam for those who had completed the theoretical part of their studies. The same strict, but fair examination board, which consisted of the school teachers, checked the level of knowledge, that was received by the students during four months of studies.

The students had a hard time. At first they had to share a short personal testimony in Hebrew or English, and then, after 15 minutes of preparation, they had to answer the examination card questions. Some of them felt very nervous and were drinking one glass of water after another, up to six glasses.

Sometimes it helps.

Everyone has successfully passed.

The students were presented with diplomas, assignments to the practical part of the studies and subjects for their graduate works. We wish them successes!

Then the examination board put on an air of strictness and gravity and went downstairs to conduct the entrance exam for the 9th school entrants (ninth guys for short). Not to stain the image of the strict, but fair board, the teachers decided to entrust the exam to a computer; the more so because the XXI century has penetrated even into the ancient building of the monastery. The entrants were offered to answer some question from the Bible. The computer program checked fifteen levels of knowledge, as in «Who wants to be a millionaire» TV show.

It was required to pass five levels in succession.

Some students failed, but “mercy exults victoriously over judgment”, they were given the second chance. The teachers received the evidence that the test was quite serious: they decided to answer the questions of all fifteen levels by themselves.

And they succeeded.

On this photo everyone looks upwards because the questions of the computer test were projected onto a wall…

Everybody has successfully passed. Both – entrants and examination board members (not to become too lazy and relaxed) have coped with the test. A hard, but interesting time is awaiting the new students – time to study, time to humble and overcome themselves. Let’s wish them good luck!

After lunch and a short rest everyone was invited to take part in the conference, where the results of all exams were announced. A lot of parting words and good wishes were said.

Many couldn’t hold back tears, and one can well understand that: the studies are over, the year of exciting and friendly student life is behind. New milestones in difficult but interesting life of young ministers are in store for them. Let’s bless all the graduates and wish them every success and progress in their ministries and relationships with God.

On August 4th, 2011, the long-expected wedding of Veniamin and Olga took place.

The bride spent the whole morning in preparations for the important event. In the meantime the groom supervised preparations for the evening celebration in the monastery.

When everything and everyone was ready, Veniamin arrived for the bride on a white horse in a green Renault.

The young couple went on a photowalk.

By the evening friends and relatives of the newlyweds gathered in the monastery in Haifa to participate in the joyful event.

The wedding ceremony begins. The bride and the groom made their vows, which they have composed in advance.

Before the Lord they gave fidelity promises to each other.

Pastor Gleb performed the wedding ceremony and blessed the young couple.

Veniamin and Olga exchanged rings as a symbol of their covenant.

And gave each other the first family kiss.

The couple signed the marriage certificates, confirming their decision to become one family.

The official ceremony was over, and a festive table awaited for everybody.

After dinner the entertaining congratulatory program was offered to the newlyweds and their guests. A funny sketch gave a detailed description of the young couple’s acquaintance.

All guests were welcome to participate in humorous competitions with valuable prizes.

The rehab house from Kiryat Ata congratulated the newlyweds with a short musical.

The guys from the monastery sang several songs for the newlyweds.

Congratulations from Beer Sheva.

A lot of competitions and performances awaited for everybody that evening.

Olga’s friends from Russia had also prepared an interesting sketch.

After the congratulatory program a rich dessert meal awaited for everybody. And of course there was dancing, which opened with the newlyweds’ dance.

A lot of people gathered to catch a bouquet of the bride.

The evening, filled with congratulations and best wishes for the young couple, went on for quite a long time.

The Living Israel congregation congratulates Venya and Olya and wishes them all God’s blessings in their family life and common service to the Lord.

We are happy to provide you with the opportunity to see more photos of this wonderful couple.

The wedding consisted of two parts. The first one took place in the Registry office of Orenburg on July, 8th in 12.15 PM. The marriage has officially been registered.

These are the newlyweds’ photos:
Zart

and Nina.

We spent the rest of the day walking in the parks of Orenburg, sightseeing and taking pictures.

It was abnormally hot, 43 degrees above zero. It was rather uncomfortable in our suits.

The second part of our wedding was much more interesting. The church wedding ceremony took place on July, 10th at 10.00 AM in Zhdanovka – a village 150km from Orenburg – in the prayer house of the local baptist church.

We went from our parent’s house to the church on foot without any escort of honour. ;)

The ceremony was held by pastor Alexander Sharapov, the bride’s father.

After praying and getting pastoral and parental blessings

Nina and I made the vows, that we composed before the wedding, and exchanged our rings.

Pastor Alexander gave some pastoral and at the same time paternal instructions to the newlyweds, and the congratulations began.

This photo shows Lyoha Mitrophanov (he is on the right) playing goblet drum, which he had obtained especially for our semi-jewish wedding.

The congratulations lasted for five hours. We had only one half an hour’s break, which allowed us to take some more photos.

During the break the tables were laid, and the congratulations continued, when we were sitting at a table. At 5 PM Nina and I thanked everyone for the congratulations and presents given and prayed that God would bless the guests on their way back. Then we said goodbye and left for Orenburg.

In the end I’d like to show you the family photo. In the front row from left to right – Nina’s mother Nadezhda Andreevna, Nina, myself, my mother Irina Tadeushevna. In the back row from left to right – Nina’s sister Tanya, Nina’s brother Dennis, Nina’s sister Olya, Nina’s elder brother’s wife Masha, Nina’s elder brother Andrey with his son Philip, Nina’s father Alexander Alexandrovitch. My father was the photographer, that’s why he’s not on the photo.

The churches from Zhdanovka and from Orenburg – not only pastors, but all church people – send their best regards to the Living Israel congregation.

Much love, Zart.

This community became independent in January of this year. Yura and Dina have been devotedly ministering to needy brothers and sisters of Haifa downtown for quite a long time. On the service Gleb has blessed and ordained Yura – as well as Dinah, as his faithful assistant – to pastor this church.

Several years ago everything has begun with a small group of people that gathered regularly in an apartment and had the purpose to search for the Lord and to fulfill His will. During this time God has greatly blessed the ministry and has brought many new souls to the young community.

Another joyful event of the service was the wedding of Alexander and Tamara.

All brothers and sisters were happy to bless the newlyweds.

Alexey and Olga celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary.

Another happy moments of this wonderful family service are depicted on the photos below.

Prayer for children

Pastor Gleb’s sermon

Playing with children

Shulamith is searching through the church library for something interesting to read at leisure.

Brother Igor and sister Valentina praise the Lord.

What a wonderful family of Living Israel in Haifa downtown!

Pastors Gleb, Michael and Yury have ordained brother Veniamin to pastor the Living Israel ministry in Germany. For the last two years Venya has been a representative of our congregation in Germany and has ministered to the lost sheep of this country in the fulfillment of the Great Commision.

We also have blessed the young generation of our church in Krayot. These guys are the FUTURE of the Living Israel and we wish them to stand up firmly and accomplish their journey with the Lord Jesus Christ!

In the autumn of 2009 the Living Israel congregation blessed Igor to start his service in Germany. In some time he went to Ukraine to contribute to the rehab ministry development. The Lord granted him to meet his future wife there. The wedding ceremony has joyfully passed in the presence of many friends.

It’s so nice to see this wonderful couple as well as all Living Israel representatives in Ukraine. As you see, pastor Eli from Israel was present at the wedding.

More pictures from this wonderful day.

Wedding ceremony:

Photo session:

Congratulations and wedding meal:

We congratulate Igor and Anna with the great day of their wedding and wish them a lot of happiness!

We decided to conduct a service in a beautiful and symbolical place – the Garden Tomb.

Pastor Michael shared a word with us.

At the end of the service we took the Communion. It was a great blessing to partake of the Eucharistic bread and wine in the garden that is considered to be the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We had some time to walk in the garden and see all the sights, including the tomb of Jesus (you can see it in the background of the photo). Brother Vladimir (Vovochka for short) was happy to share some information about this place.

After that we headed for the Mount of Olives. It is named for the olive groves that used to cover its slopes. A magnificent view of the Old City of Jerusalem opens up from this place.

Vovochka kept telling us a lot of interesting things, reading passages from the Bible in confirmation of his words.

Everybody was listening attentively, at the same time enjoying the view of the Old City.

In the broiling Jerusalem sun it was vital to drink a lot of water.

And it wasn’t a bad thing to refresh.

Our next stop was the location of the High Priest Caiaphas’ house. Jesus was imprisoned and examined in one of the crypts inside of the house. He was put there after He had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night from Thursday to Friday.

Two thousand years ago apostle Peter denied knowing Christ three times. The statue, erected in the courtyard, depicts this event.

It’s a pity our guys were not present at Peter’s denial. If they had been there we’d have had the most accurate picture of the incident :)

(in front of the Church of Saint Peter, which is also known as the Rooster Crow Church)

The wrought doors of the church covered with biblical reliefs. Jesus is shown prophesying the forthcoming denial of Peter.

There’s a model of Jerusalem in the church, and visitors can see how the city looked thousands years ago.

Our last stop was the Western Wall, where we have also learned a lot of interesting things.

And then we went back home to Haifa.

Thanks to everybody for this wonderful day.

Here are some more pictures of our travelers.

First we visited the Mount of Beatitudes, which is located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. About 2000 years ago on this place Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, relating the commandments of the Heavenly Kingdom to His disciples.

In the middle of the 20th century the Roman Catholic chapel was built on the top of the Mount of Beatitudes. It is a peculiarity of the chapel that each of its eight walls has large windows instead of icons. It lets the visitors see the authentic sites, where Jesus was walking and preaching.

That is how the chapel looks from within:

During the tour brother Edward shared a lot of interesting facts about the places we visited. The sightseeing was accompanied with reading proper passages from the Word of God.

Our next stop was a place called Tabgha. We visited the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. In 1882 the Benedictine order built it on the foundation of a 4th century chapel. The main highlight of the church are its restored ancient mosaics of amazing beauty and refinement.

The church commemorates Jesus’ feeding thousands of people with two fishes and five loaves of bread. The ancient mosaics round the altar depict this story.

After Tabgha we headed for Capernaum.
This town was founded 2500 years ago. Archaeological excavations demonstrate how it looked at the time of Jesus.

The modern Catholic temple is built on the remains of the Byzantine octagonal church, which had been placed directly on top of the walls of apostle Peter’s house.

Peter’s house is the place where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. It is also the location of the famous healing of the paralytic lowered through the roof to reach Jesus.

As we read in the Gospel it happened after Jesus’ sermon in the synagogue, which was near Peter’s house.

Here is the synagogue. Unfortunately the synagogue of Jesus’ time has been destroyed; another one was constructed on its foundation in III – IV century.

After sightseeing in Capernaum we settled in a small grove near the synagogue and had a service there.

We praised God for giving us this wonderful opportunity to travel together.

The church elder Yury delivered a brief sermon.

And then we gathered around the Eucharistic bread and wine and took the Communion.

When the service was over, everybody took more photos in that beautiful place. Brothers and sisters from Naharia haven’t missed the opportunity of being photographed with apostle Peter. We think, he’s been all for it.

Sightseeing was not the only goal of our tour. We left Capernaum and went to the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
On the beach we settled a tent to have a shady place, which was most welcome that hot sunny day. The place for rest was gradually arranged.

Three brothers from Kiryat Ata received the water baptism.

And then everybody had a wonderful time chatting, bathing and eating.

Thanks to everyone who organized this informative tour and wonderful rest. We congratulate those, who were baptized, with this significant and happy event!

At the beginning of the service pastor Scott shared the word.

Then brothers and sisters from America ministered us with the gifts of prayer and prophecy.

When everyone received a blessing from the prayer group we continued our fellowship at tea.
Here are several photos of this evening.

We too have men of prayer among us

We don’t leave our guests hungry…

Yuriy and Diana are talking to Scott and George

Our worship team guy – Igor

Rony is talking to our friend father Roman, Catholic priest

Everyone is welcome to visit our united family in Haifa downtown!

After the first youth conference the Living Israel youth started to seek for opportunities to spend more time together. The guys from Afula loved the worship night at the conference so they decided to organize such an service at their church in Afula. Everybody was invited to participate in it.

The evening began with refreshment that was offered by caring hosts to all visitors.

During the meal everyone had an excellent opportunity to communicate, which was especially important for those who live in different cities and meet rarely.

After that the youth worship band arranged their equipment and everyone praised the Lord in unity.

Praise and worship as well as prayers for each other and for salvation of the people of Israel have lasted for several hours…

When the service was formally over brothers and sisters kept on talking and didn’t want to depart.

We thank the youth of Afula for this wonderful evening and hope such services will be held frequently so that our youth would have more opportunities to meet and praise God together.

The graduates made a wall newspaper which described their student days.

We are pleased to provide you with the opportunity to see it in details.

The blessing of the Lord – it makes truly rich and He adds no sorrow with it.

We are the children of God.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of us. Amen!

… and Dima was boiling pottage one day…

Rejoice evermore.

For whoever lacks these qualities is blind, shortsighted, seeing only what is near to him, and has become oblivious that he was cleansed from his old sins.

For wherever two or three are gathered in My name, there I AM in the midst of them.

A friend loves at all times.

Charm and grace are deceptive, and beauty is vain, but a woman who reverently fears the Lord, she shall be praised!

Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.

Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down and sleep – so will your poverty come like a robber.

Let me not be ashamed, for my trust and my refuge are in You.

Slothfulness casts one into a deep sleep!

It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment day.

He will feed His flock like a shepherd.

Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

When the disease of leprosy of sin is in a man, he shall be brought to the priest.

Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.

We congratulate the students of the 7th School for discipleship with successful completion of their theoretical studies. We wish them good luck and a lot of joy in the work of the Lord!

The great event has taken place at the monastery in Haifa in the presence of many relatives and friends that came to share the newlyweds’ joy.

At the beginning of the ceremony Slava and Irina made their vows of love and affixed their signatures to everything they said.

The young couple exchanged rings as a symbol of their eternal covenant.

The pastor of the rehab center Vladimir performed the wedding ceremony.

The newlyweds took the Communion as husband and wife for the first time in their lives.

After the official ceremony all guests had an opportunity to congratulate the newlyweds and have a wedding meal in the monastery garden, which was beautifully decorated.

That was not the end of the party. A wonderful greetings program with sketches, competitions and performances awaited for everybody.

Slava and Irina’s friends prepared an interpretation of the story of how the young couple met.

They even looked into the future.

Slava received a knighthood.

This event was depicted on an original painting…

… and confirmed with certificates.

The church from Katzrin in the person of Gleb, the rehab center minister, congratulated the young couple with “The Swan Lake” performance.

Brothers and sisters from Kiryat Ata showed several funny sketches.

Guests from Beer Sheva sang a funny song for the newlyweds.

The hosts of the party Andrey and Irina gave the newlyweds a piece of advice. For instance, how to prevent a shirt from being crumpled.

All you need is to carefully cut out those parts of the shirt that are easily crumpled. You will look fine as long as you wear a jacket over the shirt. To everyone’s great surprise several guests that were picked “at random” also used this way of having a neat appearance.

After that all the guests had an opportunity to participate in various competitions.

Those friends who were abroad on the day of the wedding sent their congratulations recorded on video. Slava and Irina received congratulations from pastor Gleb, pastor Genady, Michael “the meek”, the rehab house from America and the Living Israel ministry from Ukraine.

At the very end a rich dessert meal awaited for everybody.

After the wedding the young family will continue to serve God in our congregation. Together they are going to serve at our rehab centers in America.

We congratulate Slava and Irina with getting married.

You can see more pictures of the wedding in the photo gallery.

The first couple is the minister of the rehab house in Karmiel Victor and his bride Lyudmila.

The other couple is Veniamin, who ministers in Germany at present, and his bride Olga.

Veniamin and Olga’s wedding will take place on August 4th in the monastery in Haifa. The groom and the bride take an opportunity to invite all Living Israel family to share their joy.

Congratulations to the young couples!

The conference took place on April 24th and 25th. Within two days youth could praise God in unity, educate in the Word of God and be in fellowship.

On the first day there were about fifty of us: youth from Haifa, Krayot, Afula, Karmiel, Maalot, Tel Aviv, Naharia and even from Beer Sheva. On the first service we praised the Lord and greeted each other, and then pastor Gleb shared the word of encouragement for the young generation.

During the break visitors were settled in rooms and after that everybody enjoyed delicious lunch.

On the evening service the youth worship band led us in worship.

The band’s leader shared the word and everybody went on praising God till late at night.

In the morning after breakfast and prayer the guys watched an interesting movie, had group communication and, of course, lunch.

On the final service guests from Jamaica showed a fascinating sketch and shared their testimonies, and then pastor Eli shared his message with youth.

When the conference was over nobody wanted to depart. Everyone kept talking and making photos for quite a while. Here are some more photos of these remarkable days.

We pray that next time there would be even more of us!

He is the sixth child in this wonderful happy family. The boy was named Lior.

In one week after Lior’s birth all Living Israel family in Kiryat Ata has blessed the little one.

Congratulations to Igor and Galina!

The groom and the bride invite all brothers and sisters to the wedding which will take place on the 2nd of June at 17:00 in the monastery.

We congratulate the guys with their engagement and look forward to the 2nd of June!

There was a wonderful common Saturday service in the park near the rehab house.

Everyone has joyfully praised the Lord with songs, has talked about the Word of God and enjoyed delicious lunch.

It was so cool of the Naharia guys to get everything ready for dear guests and to grill such a huge amount of chicken wings.

Generally speaking we spent cool and funny time together in spite of the fact that changeable weather has forced us to move into the house where we have proceeded with our fellowship at tea.

Well, and certainly at the end of the meeting we took a photo of all the brothers and sisters who took part in this wonderful day.

With love, Andrey Nenashev (Madabuka).

Close friends have arrived to congratulate happy parents and to thank God for the baby.

And on Saturday the baby was blessed at the service in Haifa.

Naharian princess will turn seven months soon!

The pastor of the rehab center Vladimir conducted the wedding ceremony in the chapel of our monastery in Haifa.

He said warm words of encouragement to the newlyweds.

Alexander and Elena serve the Lord in our rehabilitation house in Migdal. Both of them became free from addiction and completed their studies at the Bible School for Disciples. God blesses their ministry; it was confirmed with cheerful slogans that accompanied the ceremony.

After the wedding ceremony the new family had an opportunity to take the Communion as husband and wife.

We congratulate Alexander and Elena with the joyful event and wish a lot of happy days in their family life and joint service to God.

It is a large international congregation that gathers representatives of fifty three countries. The services are being translated into seven languages. On this photo, for instance, you can see three Israelis, three Germans and one American.

Another German church in the city of Rainbach put the entire ground floor of a large house at the disposal of our ministry. Pastor Andreas opened his heart for the rehabilitation ministry,

brothers and sisters from the church often visit us.

Until now the rehabilitation ministry bears good fruit – a lot of guys came to seek help of Christ in struggle with dependence.

The church is going to give us the whole house in order to develop the ministry. Three guys who had finished their rehabilitation went to the Bible School of Disciples in Israel.

The Lord brings interesting people to our house. A priest of the Russian Orthodox church made friends with our guys and often visits our services.

Besides working in this house we have a lot of opportunities to labour in the Lord’s Field. We help the rehabilitation ministry of a messianic church in Dusseldorf.

Michael, our brother from Israel, has ministered for three months there.

Our ministers are expected in a Russian church in the city of Osnabruck.

The pastor of this church Jacob and his wife have invited us to help with the opening of the rehabilitation ministry in their city.

Also we were in Belgium,

where two more Russian churches desire to start their rehabilitation ministries with our help.

On a visit to pastor Jacques in Belgium

I started to conduct services for Russian-speaking people at the request of brothers and sisters from the church of pastor Mario.

All our guys say hi to the readers. Personal greetings from Garik, who is as a Jew among Jews and vice versa…

With love in Christ, Veniamin Sadovsky.

With our friends’ help we have almost got the third house. We have a vision to start a buffer zone in New York City which is in two hours’ drive from us. Our ministry is developing, we constantly receive new needy people. We put our trust in the Lord and believe He will provide us with everything necessary.

The team of ministers has already been formed.

Two of them, Max and Ksenia, have finished their rehabilitation and got engaged to be married. We are happy for them.

Ruben and Irina, ministers of the center, are expecting a child in June. Their daughter is the first baby to be born in the Living Israel ministry in the USA.

We receive a lot of visitors from neighbouring churches and states, they are happy to serve with us.

We travel a lot to witness about the glory of the Lord, to tell about Israel and to share our experience in the ministry.

If you have any question, feel free to ask and we’ll be happy to answer you in the next reports from Scranton.

Contact information for those who want to call or to visit us:
Phone: 1-347-4356415, 1-347-5147209, 1-718-9713982
Address: 1317 Washburn st. Scranton PA, 18504

On Friday service in Tel Aviv the children wore various nice costumes and showed a small performance.

On the south of the country, in Beer Sheva, both children and adults were in costumes.

Here is the whole lot of “Beer Shevers”:

That is how the church in Haifa downtown looked on Friday:

On Saturday morning in higher Haifa the service turned into a merry celebration.

The children had an opportunity to tell about the characters they represented…

and to congratulate everybody with a dance.

The students of School for Disciples didn’t miss a chance to dress up.

The same morning in Kiryat Ata brothers and sisters demonstrated their rich imagination.

Everybody loved the costume of Ruslan which was made of improvised materials.

On Saturday evening in Krayot the children and a large number of adults were in costumes.
Someone disguised as a front-door old woman and unrecognizable conducted several fascinating games for children.

After that there was a competition for the best costume.

CrocoDinah, Thumbed Bacon and Pharaoh Igor shared the first place among adults.

And among children the winner was Yoni the Pirate who plays bongos in the church worship team.

We could put up your advertisement here photos of your church celebrations here, if you send them to us.

That is how the party went off:

Also in our church in Tel Aviv, brothers congratulated sisters. Photo from the service in Tel Aviv:

The church joyfully offered prayers up to the Heavenly Father asking Him to bless the newborn girl and the whole family.

Living Israel congregation congratulates little Amelie and her parents and wishes them a lot of happiness on their journey with God.

Though Hermon is not really snowy this winter…

the guys had enough snow to make a snowman,

have a snowball fight

and toboggan to their hearts’ content.

After several hours of outdoors activities the youth went to warm themselves for a while. Everybody enjoyed lunch and fellowship
in a warm local café and then came back to the snow.
Here is a small selection of photos of what was going on that day.

At the beginning of the service everybody exalted God and celebrated His name singing psalms and waving flags.

After general discussion of the subject there was a game which demonstrated the nature of a church. Sisters were handing
a clew to one another, at the same time giving blessing or asking forgiveness or making a declaration of love.
Thereby the thread formed strong ties between participants.

At the end of the meeting everybody took refreshment and had an excellent opportunity to chat and pray for each other.

How good and how pleasant it is for sisters to dwell together in unity!

This photo is taken at the first common service in the lower city of Haifa.

Living Israel congregation congratulates all brothers and sisters on the new church birth. We wish the newborn a lot of joy, love and bearing abundant fruit in our Lord Jesus Christ.

In a week after Eva’s birth her parents brought her into the house of God. Brothers and sisters blessed the baby and congratulated the family.

The Living Israel congregation congratulates Marat and Lisa. We wish their big family a lot of joy, health and happiness.

At the beginning of the service the church has joyfully praised God’s Name with psalms.

All together brothers and sisters uplifted the words of gratitude to the Heavenly Father for the wonderful things that He does. One of the prayers was to bless the family of Marat and Lisa. They expect their fifth baby within the next few days.

The church elder Michael shared what he’d had on his heart. After that everyone received the Eucharist.

The children’s ministry of Tel Aviv community prepared an outstanding performance. The story of the earthly birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was snown in an fascinating and fine way.

The present company loved the performance. After that there were funny contests and surprises for everybody, and the children received their long-expected Christmas gifts.

At the end of the service all brothers and sisters had a wonderful opportunity to communicate at a cup of tea and taste
all kinds of festive delicacies.

Short video from this wonderful evening.

Everyone is cordially invited to visit our church in Tel Aviv.

Our rehab center has been in operation for a full year there, to date. This center has, happily, been successful in its’ development. It was here that God gave several brothers and sisters the desire to gather together in this city as a new church.

Our first service included guests from other Living Israel churches, to share the joy and to thank God for the great things that He does and continues to do.

We praised our Lord Jesus Christ right from the very beginning of the service.

The servers, Gleb and Yuri shared their visions, which God put into their hearts concerning this church. In a joint discussion
the various organizational issues associated with how the group needs to function were considered. Things such as the frequency of meetings, times and specific duties were dealt with and duly delegated.

Open communion was made available for all who chose to partake at the end of this first service.

After the Holy Communion we had lunch, which consisted of a very tasty soup and a side main course type dish.

God is blessing us with the opportunity to be fellow workers in His Mission-field. Here we can see the fruits of the fulfillment
of His will and enjoy the constant activity of this life in the Body of Christ!

Their wedding ceremony took place at our congregation in Krayot.

Denis and Maria committed themselves in godly faithfulness to each other.

The couple exchanged rings as a symbol of their covenant.

The pastor of the rehab center, Vladimir, performed the wedding ceremony.

After the official ceremony, on this wonderful evening, friends of Denis and Maria congratulated them with various performances via sketches and songs.

They prepared an interesting and funny interpretation of the story of how this young couple met.

All the guests had an opportunity to participate in an exciting competition, where they were asked to collectively draw a bride and groom.

Everyone seemed to have enjoyed this skit.

Then the students of 6^th group of the school for disciples congratulated the young family with a special song.

The rehab center from Kiryat Atta also performed a very funny sketch.

In a comic test of preparation for family life, the newly-fledged family was invited to take & pass a short test, which required their joint efforts.

The guests and the newlyweds had a great time with these competitions.

After the congratulations were completed, a wedding meal awaited for all of the relatives and friends.

After the wedding this young family will continue to serve God in our congregation. Their first common service will be via missionary service at our rehab center in USA.

We are pleased to provide you with this opportunity to see these photos of this happy and blessed couple.

We wish Denis and Maria a blessed family life together in Christ!

This important day began with common prayer.

After the prayer, the students who decided to answer first stayed in the classroom, and the rest went into the corridor, to await their turn.

Each student had several important questions to answer. Only 10 minutes of preparation time was allowed before their answers.

Each group prepared separately for their answers and took their turns accordingly.

The teachers asked their specific questions and listened attentively to the students’ answers.

After the exams, the teachers advised the students of their individual grades. The teachers then informed the students as to the place, where each student will have to successfully complete 4 months of their practical and continuing studies.

The exam results were very good. The students were very happy.

Perhaps prophetically, shortly before the exams someone wrote, on the dining table, the inscription:
“Student Group six is the best!”

A couple of days after the exams for our 6th group of Discipleship Students attended a conference, held at our monastery.

Many brothers and sisters gathered together. Also in attendance were some of those who have completed the school for discipleship long ago. Among those in attendance were former students who have already completed the theoretical portion
of their studies and have already begun their practice in different ministries of “Living Israel,” as well as those who have just begun their studies.

Altogether it was a great day of praying to God, listening to the various teachings, praising and giving thanks to God for everything He does in the ministry and in the lives of each of the students.

On this happy day, graduation diplomas were issued to the students of 5th group. These diplomas were awarded to those students who have successfully completed both their theoretical studies as well as the required, 4 month, practical portion of their training.

Here are the graduates:

We congratulated all of the guys who successfully completed their studies. We wish Gods’ ongoing blessings upon them all. We also welcomed the students of the 7th group, who are just beginning their studies and the acquisition of Gods’ wisdom.

The last time we’d played on this field was about 2 years ago. Since that time, the gates had disappeared, and the grass was replaced by weeds. So before the game could begin, the players needed to clean the field and make the gates from old empty paint buckets and branches. We managed to do this by utilizing the various existing materials we found available. Only after this ‘clean-up’, ‘fix-up’ was completed were we ready to begin our game.

The game began!
Early on it seemed that the players of both teams were fairly equally matched, based upon their displayed skills which resulted in no goals being scored by either team.

But, in spite of their seemingly equal skills, after some time the Monastery managed to score first.

After some more intense play The Monastery team scored again!

The Krayot Bulls gathered their strength, rushed to the attack and scored their first goal.

Maybe it was because the player who scored that goal was wearing a shirt with Ronaldo name and number ‘9’on it! Ha!

The Monastery team was temporarily disappointed by allowing The Bulls to score, but came right back and scored a couples of goals against the Krayot team.

A couple of Monastery players, as is seen below, celebrated this with a cool dance.

The Krayot Bulls answered this dance with an offensive attack which included some special moves.

Despite the funny looking footwork, they somehow managed to score their second goal.

The first period ended with smiles on the Bulls faces. The break between periods was appreciated by all and everyone used it to refresh themselves…

as well as to cool off.

In the second period the Krayot Bulls had ample opportunities to equal the score.

The fans high level of interest in and strong support for their team is clearly indicated below.

The Bulls attack wasn’t successful. Their shot on goal missed, but not by much!

The Monastery team tried to increase their lead but,

their efforts were perfectly repulsed by the defensive play of the Krayot Bulls.

Once again Krayot took the offensive and attacked with all of their strength and abilities. Once again they employed some of their special (and clearly incomprehensible) moves.

Crushing and smashing everything in their way

…and score a goal.

The team from Haifa answers them by another goal. They then asked the referee what the score was?

The response to the question was WOW!…

The majority of the younger fans watched the game on closed circuit TV. But, maybe it was just cartoons that they were actually watching!

The Krayot bulls tried several different styles of play to score against the Monastery team. Sometimes they even used tactics more so associated with American football.

But the Monastery team, after repulsing the attacks, bounced back with attacks of their own.

The Krayot teams’ goalkeeper did a great job by deft footwork and catching the ball.

But team Monastery didn’t lose heart. They kept on trying to score goals of their own…

and quite effectively! Goal!

Then they scored yet another.

Finally, the referee’ blew the final whistle.

The game was over. The final score was 10:5 in favor of the Monastery team. They were very justifiably happy about that.

The Krayot Bulls are not despairing. They’re looking forward to a victory the next time they play.

The 2 teams are shown here together, tired but happy.

Congratulations to the winners!

We welcome all who would like to participate, to join us in our upcoming games.

Everyone was happy to see each other because the majority hadn’t seen each other since the previous anniversary.

Click on the link for a larger view.

Together we thanked God for everything He has done for all of us during the course of 2010.

At this meeting we blessed all of those who came to faith and were baptized during the year.

In the beginning of 2011, 2 new churches will be added to Congregation Living Israel. One in Haifa (There is already a second Living Israel church in Haifa) and another in Kiryat Atta. We prayed for our brothers and sisters from those churches.

Believers from new church in Haifa

Believers from new church in Kiryat Atta.

Then we blessed the ministers of Living Israel congregation:

We blessed Yuriy and Dina for their service in 2 new churches, Michael for his continuing pastoral service in the monastery in Haifa and Sergey and Nadia for their service as elders in the church in Krayot.

After these prayers we had a common communion.

Congratulations from each church were conveyed by all in attendance. Then we had a regular meal together along with pleasant conversation and fellowship.

You are welcome to see everything that happened during this common meeting by watching this video report:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Once again we congratulate everyone associated with Congregation Living Israel on its’ 15th anniversary.

The report about this event we will publish later but now you can see a photo of all the players and a fans, who came to this game.

Wait for updates.