It is a joy and an honor to participate in the growth God gives. Stoneworks is growing, and this means that new people are being set together with us as Living Stones. Today we introduce new partners, and we’ll announce even more soon. We thank the Lord for these great people:
Stoneworks is very happy to announce our new partners Dima and Elissa Bahtin. Here are a few words from them:
We are Dmitri and Elissa Bahtin, and we represent the ministries of Jõhvi Methodist Church in Estonia. Those ministries include the church and Sunday ministry, children and youth programs, support for local youth and orphans, Sunbeam school for children with disabilities and of course our biggest project and where most of our energy is spent lately: Camp Gideon.
Dima
I became a Christian nine years ago, and the logical next step for me was to begin serving in the church where I found Christ. That began as being the sound technician and helping at orphanages whenever we had a group going. I also began serving as a team leader in camp Gideon and I still help there today alongside our camp director, Artur Põld.
Elissa
I found Christ at a young age, but I specifically heard His voice calling me in a real way to ministry during my time in University. He told me to go to Russia, and I had no idea why or what for, but I was ready to be obedient. Later, a friend spoke over me that she felt that God wanted me to work with orphans, and quoted James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” This was in Fall of 2012. So I immediately began plans for a trip to Russia. Little did I know, this step of faith for a 2 week trip would lead me into my new life with my future husband!
Since 2013, we have been serving together through our Church and Camp Gideon. We were engaged in January 2017 and married on the 19th of August, 2017! Because we have been spending our time some in America and some in Estonia, our involvement in ministry has changed, and our main focus of ministry in Estonia has become Camp Gideon. In spring of 2017, our pastor Artur Põld asked us to be his Camp Coordinators in Gideon. Our camp is able to reach people from many different lifestyles and many different countries, and we love serving there. However, we have seen the needs in our camp piling up over the years.
So in March of 2017, we asked our pastor if we could create a fundraiser to raise support for the camp. This is when we approached Mike Cantrell for advice, and Stoneworks was able to help us put a link to our fundraiser on their website, and we began an even closer relationship with Stoneworks partners. We saw that God clearly opened the way for us to be at the Stoneworks Conference this summer, and it felt just like catching up with old friends. We were so refreshed by it! We look forward to continuing in friendship and accountability with our partners for years to come.
Thank you and God bless,
Dmitri & Elissa Bahtin
You may support their ministry by donating through our Support Page and choosing The Gideon Project from the menu options.