God's Glory Church

Dear Pastor Sasha Koltukov, friends and members,

I bring you greetings from all of my family (Sandy, Melvin, Erica, Clarissa, Benjamin, Christopher and Nickolas) on this special occasion of the celebration of 25 years for your church! To God be the glory for all He has done and continues to do in and through you.

It doesn’t seem like it has been 25 years since that first tent meeting and we began meeting together in school 205. I remember those days as if they were yesterday. I remember so many of your wonderful smiling faces (no doubt significantly younger in my mind than you are today – I too have gray hair and have 10 grandchildren). I remember your laughter, your singing, and perhaps most importantly the wonderful times of prayer we had together as we worshiped.

Three things stand out to me from those early years of the church (’92-2000) when I was honored to be with you as your pastor.

1. We were committed to studying and preaching the Word of God. That is the only absolute source of truth as we struggle with the challenges of life – and you will remember that we all had plenty of them in those day.

2. All of you were so excited about what Jesus was doing in your lives that you were telling your friends and neighbors your stories and inviting them to Jesus too. That is why the church was growing so much. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself.”

3. Joyful singing and prayer were signature parts of our worship services. I remember when our prayer times sometimes often took up a major part of the service – occasionally lasting almost an hour – but seemed like minutes – as wave after wave of spontaneous prayer and praise rose to God from our collective soul as the Spirit led us to pray. I will never forget those times and neither will our children. I was reminded of it again in just the last week when in conversation, Melvin Jr (who pastors a church in Florida) and I were discussing together biblical accounts of and calls to prayer (there are many) and those places (also many) where we are told that people “cried out to God”. I pray for people every day – but honestly I don’t cry out for those in need every day. I got to thinking, if I learned that one of my children or grandchildren or anyone I knew was kidnapped and taken in to human trafficking, I assure you that my spirit would move from simply praying to crying out to God for them! And yet, everyone who is in sin of any kind is a prisoner, is being taken captive by Satan himself as he goes about seeking who he can destroy.

May God give us all a rekindled urgency and burden to cry out to him. He has not changed and his arm is not short that he cannot save.

May God bless you all on this special day and may the future of your church be more blessed than the past! We love you all!

Pastor Melvin Adams