Siberia is vast, difficult to navigate. The people are isolated.
Over the past months, Sergey, EHC’s Area Coordinator, has led his team to steadily work to reach every home in several regions of Siberia, including Buryatia and Irkutsk. Travelling extremely long distances under all sorts of conditions this brave band of disciples is seeing God at work, confirming His Word as they minister.
The villages in these regions are often difficult to reach. The roads and other communication systems are far from what we know over here. Add to this the challenge of sharing the Gospel with a diver se and superstitious people. Buddhism, shamanism and atheism are prevalent. Poverty is widespread. Lives broken by chemical dependency and every kind of abuse and deception are seen everywhere. Yet in the midst of all this, EHC has teams of believers who courageously face down the challenges and joyfully risk it all to take the good news of Christ’s love to places where, often, people have never heard of Jesus. And they are seeing great results by God’s grace!
The following two reports are snapshots of this vibrant mission!
[box]The seed of God’s Word is being sown and is being watered through prayer in order to bring fruit into God’s kingdom. Thank you for your support through prayer and literature! SERGEY[/box]REGION OF IRKUTSK
Evangelism outreaches were carried out in Irkutsk region, in Alarskiy district, in the villages called Ivanovo, Malinovka, Kutulik, Zabitui. More than 12,900 homes were visited and many people came to Christ.
The volunteers also visited prisons located nearby, distributing 1,500 booklets. Before the volunteers left, 50 people prayed to receive Christ.
Earlier in 2012, the Shalom church took a missionary trip to the Irkutsk region with EHC’s team. They saw the Lord work miraculously. They visited the villages of Bel’chir, Bayandai, Yelantsi, Kacha and Novolenino. New believers groups were formed.The Lord is touching their lives deeply.
As they study and pray, God has opened the hearts of men who were completely closed. As the team gathered in a home, the husbands refused to listen to the Gospel and locked themselves in a separate room. The Word of God was spoken and the Lord was praised with songs. As the message of God’s love penetrated through the closed doors, the husbands opened their hearts to the Lord!
REGION OF BURYATIA
Great Openess in the Kabanskiy District
A lady volunteer, Titiana K, has carried out home-to-home visits in 7 villages. In one area where people were invited to attend a Christmas program in the House of Culture, more than 40 people responded, many weeping as they experienced God’s love for them. Following this event, a person of influence in the area was able to arrange for a place to hold future meetings. They also invited the team to come back and do a Christian summer camp for children and teens.
Titiana prayed with one woman whose sons were in prison. A short time later one of the sons was released and repented expressing a strong desire to start a new life.
In another village a call came from an offi cial requesting that Christians come and tell the people in his village about Christ. Together with the House of Culture Director they planned for an outreach and saw 42 people respond to the Gospel. In th e village of Soldatskiy an evangelism service for children gathered 70 young hearts to hear the Gospel. They have since begun attending a Sunday School. Children took home gospel literature that now serves as “paper missionaries” to the parents who have yet to come to Christ.