After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the door for the Gospel opened and we started taking short-term trips to different parts of Russia. During those trips, God showed us the need for the Gospel in so many parts of Russia. There were large cities with very small churches or no churches at all.
Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we moved to the city of U — for the first time. The city's population was more than one million, but it had only one evangelical church with about 100 people. Our primary goal was to reach the young people with the Gospel and disciple them into strong believers, and church planting. During our two years there, God added 50 young believers to the church, and we were involved in starting a second church.
Many of the young people whom we discipled are now serving the Lord, and some have become pastors. Today there are several churches in U city and in the surrounding region. The regional pastor and the pastor of one of those churches were two of the “kids” who came to Christ and were discipled when we first lived in U. And interestingly, both of these men have roots in the cultures of two of Russia's unreached minority people groups.
And so, God is moving us back to U. After decades of serving in Russia, this move will mean learning a new culture and language. We feel very privileged that we have been invited to serve with these two pastors and their churches to bring the Gospel to these two unreached people groups.
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