October, 2007 Russia Update

Hi,
This past January I went with twelve people from Crossroads Bible Church (Bellevue, WA) to the city of Anapa, Russia, on the Black Sea. While there we partnered with Victor and Luda Semukhin, Russian nationals, in their ministry of sharing the gospel and planting a church in Anapa, Russia. Pastor Victor is a graduate of a Bible college in Moscow that two missionaries from my church worked at. My group taught English at a family camp, using the Bible as a textbook. Through the English camp ministry we were able to encourage fellow believers and reach out to non-believers to share the good news of Jesus Christ. The ESL camp was held at the Mountain Spring Christian retreat center in Novorossiysk, about 2 hours drive from Anapa.

In August I returned to Russia and the Mountain Spring camp as a part of a construction team. I spent 2 weeks at the camp in Novorossiysk with 5 other Americans from Montana and Wyoming, primarily doing internal framing in the camp’s new 3 story medical building. After my 2 weeks in Novorossiysk I spent an additional three days in Anapa with Pastor Victor and the church, there. I had gotten to know several of the people in the Anapa church during my last visit and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit them as I was only 60 km away.

While working on the construction projects during my two weeks at the camp I began to feel that God wanted me to come back to Russia and stay for a longer period of time. This feeling continued to grow on me the whole time I was working at the camp, especially during the second week. I spent several nights praying about this: asking for guidance and reassurance. One of the Americans on my team suggested, one afternoon, that perhaps I should live in Russia for a year to really learn the language (I’ve been taking Russian classes at the local community college). One of the people at the camp also invited me to come back and help out at the camp the following year. There were other people, as well, who asked me if I was planning on returning to Russia. So, I had several people asking me to consider returning to Russia for a period of time. The period of time, though, that kept coming into my mind was a year: not exactly a short vacation. By the end of the second week at the camp I was really looking for confirmation. My last day at the Mountain Spring camp I spoke for a while with an American missionary about what was on my mind. He was very intrigued about my interest in coming back to Russia for a year, though it wasn’t clear what I would actually do. We prayed together that God would provide a clear invitation for me to return and would also provide work for me to perform. Shortly after our prayer Pastor Victor arrived at the camp to pick me up and take me up to Anapa. Another pastor, Ilya, from a church in Novorossiysk had arrived with Victor and we dropped him off at his house in the city. He invited us in for tea, so we sat down to chat for a while and were soon joined by Ilya’s wife, Tanya. After some chit-chat, Victor, Ilya, and Tanya outlined a plan for a long term project they had been considering.

The English camp my church group held in January went well, they felt, and they would like to hold an informal English language conversation club on a regular basis. They feel that English language teaching/conversation is a good way to reach out and interact with people in the community and share the gospel. Anapa is a large, summer resort city (think Hampton Beach multiplied by 10). With many European visitors, English is a common language and many Russians in the tourist industry would be interested in learning or practicing what they learned in school. Novorossiysk is a large shipping port and there would be a lot of opportunity to interact with people (through English training) there, as well. The pastors would like to make this a full time ministry position for one or two people that would be partially supported by the churches there. They would like to see this ministry program last for at least a year, hopefully longer. A native English speaker would be ideal, of course, to help out in this ministry and they asked me to consider partnering with them.

This conversation over tea occurred about an hour after I had prayed with the American missionary for clear guidance, so it was definitely an answer to prayer. When I got back to WA, I prayed a lot more over it and talked with two of my pastors, an elder, my Bible study group, my family, and several friends about moving to Russia for a year and doing missions work. Everyone was excited and said I should go for it. After a lot of thought and prayer I decided that I would accept the Russian pastor’s invitation and spend a year in Russia sharing the gospel through English teaching/conversation. At this point, I don’t have much more than a plan to return. I’ve spoken since with Pastor Victor, but we still don’t have a solid timeline or plan for getting me a 1 year work visa. There is a lot of work to be done on both ends, still. I could be leaving in 2 months or 10, I couldn’t say at this point. There is also the matter of raising financial support. A small, furnished apartment goes for ~$1000 a month in southern Russia, now (real estate prices are sky-rocketing). The churches in the area would be supporting my financially, but I will most likely have to raise support of my own, as well.

I’ve got some challenges coming in the near future (like selling my house), but I’m very excited to be taking part in this. Russia desperately needs to hear the gospel. The communists drove the evangelical churches underground for decades and the Russian Orthodox church is very rigid and tradition bound and doesn’t emphasize having a personal relationship with Jesus. There’s a lot of work to be done and few workers. The church in Anapa (about 30 people) is the only evangelical church in a city of 150,000. I know of three evangelical churches in Novorossiysk (population of 300,000), which have a couple of hundred members. I can’t say why, exactly, but God and everyone I know seem to think I should go to Russia and work for a little while, so I’ll go and do what God wants of me.

Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support. There are a lot of details to be worked out, I’d appreciate you continued prayer support.

Love in Him,
Ryan
Pictures from my trip:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwike77/sets/72157602077234674/