International English Evangelism Event Updates

February 15, 2012 -- Poltava, Ukraine

Thank you for praying. You can imagine six long weeks when on some occasions I have preached four and five times a day. As you have heard, it has been an unusually severe winter. For ten straight days I never preached a single sermon with the temperature warmer than -10. It is some of the coldest weather Jan and I have ever experienced. It was so cold that it would actually burn your skin.

Now imagine 750 to 1,000 people coming every day to our special English language/evangelism events. It was absolutely unbelievable. The snow had frozen as hard as glass and even more slippery. I told them, “In Texas if it was this cold, everything would stop, including the clocks!” But in the last six weeks we’ve had about 1,000 adult professions of faith, and the weather makes this even more miraculous.

Why do I report this to you? Because I believe your prayer support had a direct influence on all of this, and I am attributing our success directly to your faithful prayer support. I just want you to know how much I appreciate what you’ve done through faithful and fervent prayer. May God bless you.

Michael Gott

February 8, 2012 -- Poltava, Ukraine

The extreme cold weather in Eastern Europe continues, but it has not affected our ministry in the city of Poltava. In fact, people marvel at the huge attendance we are having. We have had to move out of one building and move into the largest Baptist/evangelical church in a fifty square mile area, and we are still filling it full twice a day!

By Sunday we expect to have to move to another facility. All this with temperatures well in the minuses. However, the most amazing fact that I can give you is that the pastor of the church has said that possibly nine out of every ten people attending this English language evangelism event are non-Christians. This is a university town, and most of them are university students from 18 to 24, although we have a large number of professionals also attending this event.

Please continue to pray for us and the health of our team. Only today there are signs of common colds and flu symptoms, but it is nothing of a crisis nature. Also remember that our schedule is “exhausting” by most people’s standards. The team gets up at around 6 and gets to bed somewhere between 10:30 and 11 every night. It is a demanding and an exhausting schedule.

We continue to hear tremendous reports about our last ministry in Kiev. As you may know, it was the second largest ministry that we’ve ever held in Eastern Europe, and even more incredible was the terrible cold that gripped the city of Kiev causing all major schools to turn out. All that we’re doing here has the stamp of the supernatural on it, and we are very grateful for the incredible blessings of God. Jan and I want to express gratitude for your interest and involvement.

Michael and Jan Gott

February 1, 2012 -- Poltava, Ukraine

Thank you for being interested in our ministry in Poltava. As I may have told you, it is a city of about 300,000 with a very large medical school and with more than 95% of the population not being able to speak of a personal experience with Jesus Christ for forgiveness and new life.

It is our first visit to this city, and three churches are cooperating with us, and we’re using the largest central church for our ministry. It seems that we will have capacity crowds day after day. We are thinking about numbers from 800 to 1,000 a day.

The only negative is that it is extremely cold. Can you imagine -20! (That’s almost exactly the same temperature as Siberia.) And yet the weatherman says it may even get colder. It is so cold that all the primary schools and high schools are dismissed and now even some colleges. This extreme cold weather makes heating large buildings not only expensive but impossible. It is not unusual to see people wearing their heavy outdoor coats with their hats and scarves inside the building.

Recently in Kiev I preached twenty-one sermons in a ten day period of time. Not one sermon was preached in above freezing temperatures. I realize in much of America it is an unusually warm winter, but here in Eastern Europe it is the exact opposite. The death toll from the cold weather has almost reached 100. Simply, it is one of the coldest winters since World War II. Last week that did not hurt our attendance – pray that it will not hurt our attendance in Poltava. In fact, it could actually help the attendance with schools being out. We need your prayers. Please continue to pray for a great harvest.

Sincerely and Gratefully,
Michael