SEND International - Siberian Culture

James & Molly Leschied
Team Leader

On field since: 1995
From: Molly is from Baltimore, Maryland, USA. James is from Red Lake, Ontario, Canada.
Molly and I first met in 1995 in Kiev, Ukraine as single missionaries. We both grew up as missionary kids; Molly in France and James in a Cree village in northern Canada. Both of us accepted Christ at a young age and later felt God's leading to foreign missions. After our wedding in 1997, we joined the SEND team in Krasnoyarsk. Our family is quite international as James is a Canadian, Molly an American, and our dog a Russian!

Since arriving in Krasnoyarsk in 1998, we have helped with two church plants. For the first years, our focus had been evangelism, but now, with many new Christians, our focus is more on discipleship. Some of the things we do are: Molly and I lead a small group for couples focused on building marriage according to Biblical principles. Molly teaches in a monthly women’s group and James in a weekly men’s group. We also have each chosen a couple of people from the church to meet with weekly for prayer and teaching, as we want to help prepare new leaders for the church. A new church full of new Christians is a place full of opportunities.

We also see the need, when time allows, to encourage young Russian couples who are working as missionaries in outlying areas away from a strong support network.

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