For the majority of SGA friends and supporters, the experience of living in a vast, apparent wasteland where the usual means of communication and travel are scarce and sometimes totally absent, and where temperatures plunge regularly below -50c, is happily a ‘non-experience’.
The absence of mobile phone networks, internet access, and the very idea of using frozen rivers as ice ‘roads’ to enable travel, are acutely unappealing to comfort-loving Westerners!
However, one member of staff of our sister SGA family in USA, has visited there on a number of occasions. Eric Mock, Director of Field Operations SGA(USA), recently reported to our Conference in Abingdon by video, and reminded us that in this far-flung corner of God’s earth, there are those who have never heard of the saving work of Christ, and we have a duty to reach them.
Only six and a half million people live in a land mass equal in size to the USA, and only an estimated 3,500 are Christian believers. The vast majority there are steeped in shamanism and folk religion introduced to the region by the two sisters of Genghis Khan. They are in the darkness of paganism, trusting in their rituals and superstitious practices to protect them from evil spirits and give them a safe journey to the next world.
It is normal for them to worship the sun, moon and stars – to carve and display and invoke their handmade wooden idols. How they need the light of the Gospel to truly deliver them!
A further serious challenge for Gospel workers is the isolation of the widely scattered communities and villages in which these people live. Some are almost entirely inaccessible for large periods of the year, and when they can be reached it is through rough terrain and poor roads, where these exist.
How can we bring the needed Light to such scattered and isolated people?
Eric Mock is excited about the partnership between SGA(UK) and SGA(USA), for he sees how this is being used of God in the salvation of precious sinners.
He tells the story of Valery Sidorenko and his wife Valentina, who are supported through our Project 70 funding. As newlyweds they moved to an isolated village and for years were the only believers there. Between 1984 and 1991 they did not see one convert, but they were convinced of God’s call to that area and to the ‘Yakut’ people.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, several came to faith in Christ. Two were abused women; the other was Stas Efimov. All three were ardent witnesses of their faith in Jesus.
Today Stas himself is an evangelist, with a burning desire to take the message of Christ to the unreached. He is the regional pastor and leader of ministry in Yakutia, zealously dedicated to the ‘Reach Russia Now’ initiative, and thankful to God for progress in evangelism and church planting.
In their region it is now estimated that there are about 800 believers. What began many years ago with one dedicated couple has resulted in a thrilling Gospel harvest.
SGA is supporting 11 other missionary couples under its Project70 initiative, more than half of all the SGA international funded missionaries in the region.
Perhaps the most ambitious part of the Reach Russia Now project, humanly speaking, is the developing aeroplane evangelism ministry. With many hundreds of villages isolated and inaccessible by ‘ordinary’ means, the vision to reach them by plane was born.
The five SGA families across the world, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and UK, are in partnership to finance and prayerfully support the carrying of the Gospel to the remotest parts of this region by air. Kingdom Air Corps of Alaska are facilitating this ministry, supplying and registering the aeroplanes, a task of considerably complexity since the operation is in Russia, and worldwide SGA supporters are praying and giving for the expansion of this outreach.
The aim is to add to the aeroplane fleet as God enables, and expand this ministry with pilots and pastors flying from various bases in the region, to evangelize unreached communities. Despite many logistical and administrative complexities, we praise God that two aeroplanes are now fully operational.
Pray for Michael Tsvirinko, one of the pilots, and Irina his wife, and their two children as they live and work here. Michael is also a qualified air mechanic and is able to service the planes and keep them in the air.
Those hundreds of villages within his area alone cry out for a Gospel witness which will liberate them from the darkness of paganism and superstition, and bring them into the light and life which only Christ gives.