A Tithe to Build Two Churches Instead of One!

God’s Finger Prints on Two Churches

Geneva Presbyterian Church, Canton MI members learned many lessons during their ten days in Divnogorsk, Siberia last summer. As they traveled across the globe to help build a church, they learned that it really does get hot in Russia in the summer! They found that Russians feared us as much as we feared them during the Cold War and that all people are the same when they are on their knees in prayer. God was at work long before the Geneva folk ever got to Siberia. Just as their church decided to tithe their building campaign money to a church overseas, God brought a congregation in Divnogorsk to the point where they desperately needed a stable meeting place. Church member Barbara Ficktenberg, who with her husband had done a SEND missions trip to Alaska 15 years earlier, called SEND to find if there was a church Geneva could help.

Just the day before SEND had an urgent request from John Wicker in Siberia. The new church plant in Divnogorsk needed to buy land to build a place where they could meet regularly. This little city of 30,000, nestled along the river surrounded by mountains, has no other body of believers.

Barbara came to the SEND office, listened to the Divnogorsk proposal and went home with her arms full of ideas and suggestions.

Within a month Geneva Church called to say they approved the $50,000 project and wanted to send a team as well. Terry and Linda Harder, and Verona Dutton (SEND staff) went to the groundbreaking for the new church in Canton. Meanwhile, David Givens, traveling in Siberia for SEND, wrote to reinforce the urgency of the Divnogorsk church. They were so moved by a North American church partnering with them to build that they immediately wondered aloud if someday God would let them partner with a new church plant in another country – maybe they could build another church too!

Terry read part of Givens’ email to the congregation, waiting with anticipation to see what Geneva Church wanted to give for their first installment. What he didn’t read was that the Divnogorsk believers had again been denied access to their rented meeting rooms that week and needed $5000 to seal the land purchase on property they had just found.

Ah, you guessed already. Pastor Bryan Smith handed Terry a check for $5000 as a start.

Summer 2000 saw a team from Canton MI working on the church in Divnogorsk, Siberia. Another team of three carpenters from Pennsylvania were there waiting for the Michigan crew. A church group in New York had put in a basement and the trusses before they arrived. Money is a great gift, but life and hard work bind the hearts of believers together across language barriers.

How does short term missions impact a local church? Pastor Smith says it brought a profound spirit of joy and celebration, a sense they they were part of a grand divine design. Every time they look at their expansion, they can think of how God used them in Siberia.

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The Amazing Story of Sergei #1 (The Hunter) & Sergie #2 (the Hunted)
by Mark Winheld

SERGEI #1's unique resume landed him a job offer while he was still in prison. The ex-soldier had accumulated an impressive body count in Afghanistan, worked as a bodyguard for Moscow government officials and killed two men for their interest in his wife. On completion of the term for the double homicide, he was to kill Sergei #2 (pictured at left).

It's not clear what particular crime earned Sergei #2 his death sentence. His dealings as a corrupt businessman included a faith-healing scam. He said his customers included Russian Mafia members, police officials and other high ranking men. Meanwhile, Sergei #1, still in prison, found a compelling reason to change his plans. "He heard the Gospel, believed and came to Christ," writes Frank M. Severn, general director of SEND International.

Sergei #2's life was also changing, for the same reason. He canceled a million-dollar debt somebody owed him. "I realized how much God had forgiven me, and I told him, "I forgive you", he said in an interview through a SEND interpreter. He stopped scamming people: "I felt so good I went sledding with my sons."

In the bad times, he couldn't look at his wife and children, and they couldn't look at him. "From childhood, I was never taught to tell children, ‘I love you,' or ask their forgiveness. Now we've become great friends." He was soon to have another friend. In 1995 after his release, Sergei #1 enrolled at Krasnoyarsk Bible Institute. During a lunchtime conversation with a fellow student he soon realized they had something in common, and told him. The other student was Sergei #2. He hadn't even known there was a death contract on him.

The two Sergeis laughed and laughed as they realized what God had done. Severn writes, "God arrested two enemies, neither of whom was living a life in any way pleasing to Him. God saved them and turned them around." Both men are now church planters in Siberia.

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