BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

In the years since, Moscow Good News Church has added campus churches around the city. Today the church has 2500 people in attendance each weekend. On Mondays, it hosts an outreach to the elderly that is attended by up to 1,000 people. Denise, who now feels at home in Moscow, hosts a significant outreach to women. “Don’t believe what you hear about Russia,” Rick says. “Russia is doing well and the Church is getting strong. At present, we are broadcasting programs in 10 languages every week across the former Soviet Union. In addition to broadcasting my own TV program, we also broadcast for KCM, Joyce Meyer and Charles Stanley. We also do work for John Maxwell’s organization and for other ministries. My own TV program is recorded in Russia and is being sent to America. Who could ever have imagined a Christian TV program would be sent to America from Russia? In America, we broadcast on TV on KCM’s Believer’s Voice of Victory Network® and multiple other platforms. “Russia has a long history with Christianity that they veered from for 70 years during the rule of communism, but they are coming back to it. I believe the future for Russia is very bright.” It’s been nearly three decades since Rick and Denise moved their family to the Soviet Union. Paul and Joel help lead the church while Philip leads worship at a church in the U.S. Rick and Denise have eight Russian grandchildren—all born in Russia. At family gatherings, the loud, boisterous group speaks primarily Russian! Looking back over the past three decades, Rick reflects on his greatest faith challenges. “Dealing with the devil is easy,” he says. “Dealing with life is easy. We’ve been robbed. We’ve been swindled. We even had to deal with the mafia in the early years. But the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with is me. My greatest faith challenges have been using my faith to put down my flesh: staying in faith, keeping a joyful attitude and obeying God. Everything is easy if we can master ourselves. If we can conquer ourselves, we can conquer the world.” V _______________________________ _______________________________ CHURCH PARTNERSHIP Kenneth Copeland Ministries partners with churches in communities around the world—churches that, like KCM, teach the whole, uncompromised Word of Faith, boldly proclaiming that Jesus is Lord. Here’s one of our Partner churches: ______________ chooselife CHURCH Hobbs, New Mexico _______________ With a mandate from God to establish a training center where they could teach the Word of Faith, Dean and Kathy Shropshire started chooselife CHURCH in Hobbs, N.M., in 1989, in a storefront with only about 20 people. In the years since, they’ve seen attendance reach as high as 1500 in any of their three Sunday services and about 500 on Wednesdays in their newly renovated 50,000-square-foot, debt-free building. “We decided when we got married in 1978, that we were going to start serving God,” says Dean, “but we didn’t really know what that was like. We were blessed early on to be introduced to the teachings of ministers who helped lay a strong spiritual foundation for us, people like Dr. Fred Price, Kenneth E. Hagin, Charles Capps, Marilyn Hickey and Jerry Savelle.” But it was when Dean, who was then working for an automobile dealership as general manager, had dinner with Kenneth Copeland in 1982 to talk about a truck sale, that things really began to change. “That meeting with Kenneth made a lifelong impact on my life,” says Dean, who has partnered with KCM nearly 30 years. “I’ve always felt that our Christianity ought to have some down-home effect in everything we do, not just our church services. Hearing him talk about his love for people and his love for his family, I connected to him right then in my heart. “Among the things that endeared us to Kenneth and Gloria Copeland was their stability, sincerity, intensity and unwillingness to quit in the face of challenges—whether personal or external. Some ministers will blame God when they get in a hard spot, or at the very least they use Him as an excuse or reason for something going bad. Kenneth and Gloria have never blamed God. They have never preached a ‘God is the problem’ message. They’re never in such a hurry to do something that they let the world be part of it. They believe God for what they need, and they use their faith to trust Him to give it to them.” While remaining under the teaching of KCM, chooselife CHURCH has continued to impact the lives of many, as Dean and Kathy faithfully teach the uncompromising message of faith in Jesus Christ. They recognize the needs of people and provide the tools to help meet those needs through a wide range of ministries, including their KIDZ; YOUTH; Internship; and Bible school ministries, as well as meeting natural needs with food bag distribution after every service. They use KCM as a model for how they do ministry, says Dean.V “We love Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and we’re honored to be in partnership with KCM.” V To learn more about chooselife CHURCH, visit their website at chooselifehobbs.com, or call the church at 1-575-397-4604. BVOV : 17

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