serious.extras

Gospel Hunger in Pro-Communist Areas

Note: the following was actually an email that was forwarded to me. It was a personal letter talking about how the Gospel is being spread throughout pro-Communist areas. It was not written for publication but I thought you would enjoy it. The letter is from Sergei Golovin of Science & Apologetics. He was describing to his friend, James Nienhuis how hungry people are in pro-communist regions of former Soviet Union for the Gospel of Christ...

Maybe this is just a conflict of expectations and reality, but it looks to me like the thirst for the word of God is considerably higher in general in the regions where procommunist pro-Kremlin mentality prevails comparing to the regions introduced to the democracy to some extend.

It is always great joy to teach at Donetsk Christian University - the best Christian school in former Soviet Union located right in the criminal/ideological center of the Ukrainian Red Belt. (Red Belt is the area so desperately longing for the times of Moscow totalitarian control - they outvoted the rest of the country at the recent elections bringing their illiterate twice sentenced criminal pro-Moscow fellow countrymen to the president office. Now every public school will have an official portrait of the guy posted at the place of honor as a sign for kids that one's prospects do not depends on one's morals)!

However what planned to be just a regular (though joyful) course on Systematic Apologetics course (biblical grounding, strategy, methodology, philosophy, history, ethics, science, etc.) teaching experience became a great adventure with new plans and opportunities coming every day! Definitely God's plan is much more exciting then any our one!

Firstly, the students ha ve invited me to share the message at the chapel, and after that a couple churches wanted it to be shared with their congregations as well. Then "Gloria" Christian school (the only one in entire region) finding out that our team is there has contacted the university administration and arrange the change in the schedule to allow me to teach on Creation for their high school students as well. And it was even a greater joy to find some kids there who are highly interested in Creation Science reading and sharing everything available on it! They are the part of our network witnessing Biblical truth to their friends and even to their teachers. Please pray fore them.

At the end of the first week of teaching we decide d to made a conference for the pastors of the churches (who can teach the congregations afterwards) of the area instead of accepting individual invitations to the churches since our schedule was full already. We expected about 100 persons to come but got twice more! Many of them were highly looking for the ways to reestablish solid biblical foundation of the Church. A pastor of the church at small coal miners settlement Oogledahr (literally - "a gift of coal") shared about deep inner renewal their church is going through now - the services last hours longer because of many believers praying and repenting their sins publicly. Who knows - may be not at the places everyone enjoys freedom to preach the Good News freely, but within small congregations of the Red Belt real awakening is about to come? Please join our prayers for that church at Oogledahr as well as for other churches at miners settlements of the area.

By the end, when we gave up any time of rest and had our schedule full up to the ears we got a call from... Public Schools Teachers Advanced Training Regional Institute! They also found out somehow that our team is in the city as well as got feedbacks on our previous seminars to their colleagues at other places and ask us to deliver seminars on Science and Religion to them! We contacted Christian teachers we had a commitment to discuss related issues with and ask if they could come to PSTATRI instead, so we can kill two birds with one stone. And again, the interest was extremely high. The auditorium was packed - people were seating in the aisles. After all having about 10% of Christian teachers within the general group helped to direct the discussion in the constructive way from the very beginning.

Besides of all that we had a lot of very productive meeting making all necessary arrangements for the Second Eurasian Apologetics Summit we are going to do in June right at the campus of DCU.

Wow! Never before we came back so worn out and so happy at the same time! What had to be a routine teaching trip turned into the most effective landing party we ever had! I still hardly believe we made it all! Please pray for all seeds planted there, and thank you so much, brother, for providing that opportunity - to respond in the most effective way on every invitation and every need. May the Lord richly bless you as you are blessing for many!

The Christian Center for Science and Apologetics is a non-denominational ministry to the subcultures of intellectuals unreached by the Gospel, founded in 1991 by Sergei Golovin. Visit the website here...