Section navigation

Evangelism In The Northern Provinces Of Russia

Author
Category Articles
Date December 9, 2005

Yuri Poltavets

Until 1991 Yuri and Larissa Poltavets lived in the Ukraine in a large industrial city called Dnepropetrovsk where the climate was warm and the surrounding land very fertile. Then in 1991 as a young couple with two small children they answered the call to serve as missionaries in Siberia to preach the gospel in the most northerly region, the Article Circle. They settled in the town of Labitnangi (pop. 18.000) on the banks of one of the world’s greatest rivers, the river Ob. There was no church there but they subsequently discovered that two sisters, unknown to each other, were praying for GOD to send a missionary to work among the people living there. They say,

“We found life was very difficult especially in the winter when the temperature dropped to -40°C and sometimes even -50°C with only four or five hours daylight. After serving the Lord for thirteen years the severe climate, poor water and lack of nutritious food began taking its toll on our health. By this time souls had been saved and an independent evangelical church built where we could hold our meetings. In the year 2002 we began to pray about the future of our ministry seeking the Lord’s guidance. We had an offer to return to the Ukraine but several difficulties presented themselves to prevent us from going there.

“Then in October 2003 we received an invitation to head a work in the northern provinces of Yaroslavl and Kostroma. (a vast territory of 55,000 square miles! In England it would be equivalent in size to an area stretching from the Isle of Wight in the south to Scarborough in the north and from Great Yarmouth in the east to the Welsh border in the west). In the whole of this region there are now only eight Evangelical Christian Baptist churches and six house fellowships. Most of these churches have no Pastors so lack leadership, teaching and a concern for the lost, thus they compare unfavourably with neighbouring Pentecostal and Charismatic groups. The cults are also much in evidence, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness and the Occult. The influence of the Russian Orthodox Church is very strong in our region.

“We were faced with a major problem; how to energize and motivate these almost leaderless and rather demoralised self-centred churches to become vibrant and more outward looking. During the last twelve months we have had some success in kindling the hearts of God’s people. We have had evangelisations in several towns which have brought new souls into the churches. Younger members are now eager to work in God’s field and organise their own meetings. We have organised special meetings also to help married couples in their relationships to each other and to the wider fellowship.

“Elderly members are now visiting villages without any gospel witness to distribute Christian literature and to tell people of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. We have encouraged churches to discuss and to share their problems honestly and openly. This has developed a spirit of love and unity which greatly encourages us. Once a month we hold meetings with our few Pastors and mission workers and we have a class for those who would like to be preachers and teachers. Now we are getting to know the Christians of this region the mutual fellowship and edification we enjoy encourages us in this huge field of work. We look with renewed hope for greater things than these, and thank you for your practical help and your prayers for us and the work we have set our hands to.”

Pastor Oleinik, Tobolsk

1) “First of all we want to exalt and glorify Our Lord and say, “Glory in the highest! Hallelujah!” Now our church is warm and comfortable because we have at last been connected to the natural gas supply. Our hearts rejoice and sing! Words simply cannot express our joy! May the Lord abudantly bless you for helping us and for your prayers”. (The large church building was so expensive to heat by electricity that it looked as if it would be impossible to meet there again this winter. The Fellowship received a large gift, thus enabling us to contribute £10,000 toward the target figure of £12,000 to bring in the gas supply from quite a long distance away. It was a tremendous relief to all concerned.)
2) “Evangelistic meetings held in a nearby village, Baikalovo, have been very positive and three people have begun to visit the church in Tolbolsk.
3) The extension to the small church building in the village of Zverosovhoz is progressing and we hope to finish it in the New Year. We praise GOD that a young couple have agreed to live in the flat as caretakers and be leaders of the meetings there. This will release brother Apkalikov, the previous leader, to work in the neighbouring town of Mendeleyevo.
4) Our daughter church in the old part of Tobolsk have moved to larger premises in a former bus garage. This involved a lot of rebuilding work which has still to be completed. We are also leading some teaching services there to correct some mistakes made by their lay-Pastor. We gave him your book on Basic Bible Doctrines to help him concerning the truth of Eternal Security. We rejoice that five people there were recently baptised.
5) We have been able to have meetings with a Tartar family (Moslems), the husband has recently accepted Christ as His Saviour but not the other members.
6) The eyesight of my younger son, Paul, is a bit better for which we are grateful to the Lord. In December he will need another operation six month after the one he had during the summer.”

From Pastor Boichenko, Tiumien

1) “Thank you for participating in our service and in my own needs. This summer I was diagnosed as suffering from Hepatitis ‘C’ contracted the previous year during dental surgery with contaminated instruments. I felt very ill and that God was bringing me into the valley of the shadow of death. For the past four months I have been having daily injections of Repheron at home and also taking several tablets. The expense has been enormous ($50 per ampule) so your help has been vital to my treatment which is now beginning to show good results, but I am still weak and unable to serve in the church. I go to the hospital once a week where the Doctors monitor my progress and blood.
2) At the end of April we rejoiced at the baptism of five new members and pray God will strengthen them as new followers of Christ. It is wonderful that people are continually turning to God in our services.
3) My co-workers continue to serve in visiting an orphanage, hospitals and also a hospice for the terminally ill distributing gospels to all who will accept them.
4) We pray for a spiritual awakening among the Russian people. In spite of the deepening social and moral crisis they remain hardened and closed toward God’s Word. However, before my illness, I received lots of letters in reply to our newspaper advertisement from people with spiritual questions and worries.”

Roger J. Weil,
The Slav Land Christian Fellowship

Latest Articles

Finished!: A Message for Easter March 28, 2024

Think about someone being selected and sent to do an especially difficult job. Some major crisis has arisen, or some massive problem needs to be tackled, and it requires the knowledge, the experience, the skill-set, the leadership that they so remarkably possess. It was like that with Jesus. Entrusted to him by God the Father […]

Every Christian a Publisher! February 27, 2024

The following article appeared in Issue 291 of the Banner Magazine, dated December 1987. ‘The Lord gave the word; great was the company of those that published it’ (Psalm 68.11) THE NEED FOR TRUTH I would like to speak to you today about the importance of the use of liter­ature in the church, for evangelism, […]