2007 Lottie Moon Week of Prayer

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer

Who was Lottie Moon?

Who was Lottie Moon?
Lottie MoonLottie Moon - the namesake of the international missions offering - has become something of a legend to us.  But in her time Lottie was anything but an untouchable hero.  In fact, she was like today's missionaries.  She was a hard-working, deep-loving Southern Baptist who labored tirelessly so her people group could know Jesus.

Why was the offering named for this early China missionary?
Throughout her career, Lottie Moon wrote numerous letters home, urging Southern Baptists to greater missions involvement and support.  One of those letters triggered Southern Baptists' first Christmas offering for international missions - enough to send three new missionaries to China.

Lottie Moon Fast Facts

Tell Me the Story

International Mission Board vital stats

Status of World Evangelization

Lottie Moon past and present

Former Soviet Union focus

How much does it cost to support a missionary?

IMB budgeted income 2007:
Lottie Moon Christmas Offering - 52 percent
Cooperative Program - 36 percent
Investment income - 6 percent
Hunger, relief and other income - 6 percent

Total IMB expenditures 2006
-$282.2 million

Frequently Asked Questions

International MissionsLottie Moon Christmas Offering
What is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering?
Southern Baptist Churches collect the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for the sole purpose of supporting international missions.  Every penny of the offering goes to the International Mission Board's overseas budget, thus supporting our missionaries and their work.

What is the goal of this year's offering?
The goal for the 2007 offering, which will be received until May 31, 2008, is $165 million.

What is the 2007 theme?
The 2007 theme, "TELL ME! the story of Jesus," recalls for us the most powerful story ever told: the story of Jesus.  It also serves to remind us to give generously to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering so the lost of the world can hear that same story that changed our lives.

What parts of the world are being spotlighted this year?
During 2007 the International Mission Board is focusing on the former Soviet Union.  One of the world's largest mililtary empires, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, opening doors for Christians to share their faith.  But those doors could be closing, and 350 people groups remain unreached.

What planning materials are available to help church leaders prepare for the offering?

What materials can I order for my congregation?
FREE resources carrying the giving message and storeis of God at work around the world include Lottie Moon Christmas Offering editions of:

Does the IMB have offering resources for youth and children?
Yes.  The free Lottie Moon Christmas Offering 2007 video will contain segments for childrena nd students as well as adults.  Also, a special Kids On Mission newsletter, Lottie Moon Christmas Offering edition, will be available.  Sermons for children accompanied by activity/coloring sheets are available to download from www.ime.imb.org.

What region will be the focus next year?
The focus region for 2008-2009 is South America.  Find out more about coming dates, themes and focus regions at www.imb.org.

Lottie Moon giving opens doors in former Soviet Union

Worship in the Soviet UnionBy Erich Bridges

RICHMOND, VA (BP) - When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed two years later, the world changed.  Southern Baptists responded rapidly, sending hundreds of missionaries and thousands of volunteers to spread the Good News and help local Baptists.

Hundreds of millions in the former Soviet Union search for God but are ignorant of His love and mercy.  Their hearts have been brutalized and corrupted, first by communism and later by the free-for-all greed that swept post-Soviet Russia and its satellite nations.  Hearts literally are starving for the story of Jesus and the liberation that faith in Him can bring.

Fifteen years after its fall, many doors remain open.  But they could close at any moment.  Some doors already are shutting as governments in the region restrict ministries, deny visas and send foreign workers home.  Yet more than 280 million people in 350 unreached people groups - more than 90 percent o fall people groups in the vast region - still don't know Jesus is Lord and Savior of all peoples, including them.

ACTION NEEDED
The time to pray passionately, to give sacrificially, to act boldly is now.  Southern Baptists missionaries in the 15 nations of the former Soviet Union rely on your giving through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions (2007 goal: $165 million), on your praying and on your strategic partnership with the work.

IMB workers in the former Soviet Union ask for hundreds of new missionaries, thousands of volunteers and many local churches - like yours - to work side by side with them in telling the story of Jesus to all the peoples of this region of 11 time zones.  They vitally need your growing financial support through the Lottie Moon offering to continue and expand the work.

MANY CHALLENGES
The former Soviet Union is a volatile and sometimes chaotic region.  Harsh regimes are returning in some nations.  Secularism and hollow religious traditions dominate some ares; Islam is making a comeback in others.  Telling the story of Jesus there won't be easy in the coming days, but has it ever been easy?

At this moment in history, much of the world presents us with the same challenge.  Militant Islam and Hinduism, tribal religions and secular ideologies still rule more than half of all humanity.  The global population numbers 6.5 billion and rising.  Of the world's more than 11,000 people groups, more than 6,000 - containing more than 1.65 billion people - remain unreached with the Gospel.

TASK UNFINISHED
Yet, Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners are seeing amazing breakthroughs.  Last year, they ministered among 1,170 people groups worldwide and engaged more than 100 peoples with a combined population of nearly 100 million - for the first time.  They started more than 23,000 churches and baptized nearly half a million new believers - about 1,300 each and every day.

The Great Commission task is far from finished.  And no great task is accomplished without sacrifice.  Telling the story of Jesus to the world requires the participation, the passion and the sacrifice of all Southern Baptists believers and churches.

"When I became a Christian, one of my questions was, 'Why didn't this happen 20 years earlier?'" Russian believer admits.  "But now I thank God for that, because I can understand the man who is suffering.  God has a plan - and I'm happy to be in the midst of it!"

What about you?  God is moving through the former Soviet Union - and everywhere else in the world.  How will you join Him in telling the story of Jesus?

EDITORS' NOTE: This year's Week of Prayer for International Missions, Dec. 2-9, focuses on missionaries who serve int he former Soviet Union as well as churches partnering with them, exemplifying the global outreach supported by Southern Baptists' gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Day 1 - Greater calling draws mafia-connected businessman

Genady KrechinSee Genady Krechin, subject of this story, talk about his journey to Christ - and watch a video dramatization of his life - at http://www.ime.imb.org/.  Resources also are available on the site for download as part of the 2007 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering emphasis on the former Soviet Union.

By Erich Bridges

MOSCOW (BP) - Genady Krechin preaches with quiet earnestness to the 20 worshipers crowded into his cramped third-floor apartment.

His voice fills the room with God's Word.  His eyes flash with intensity and soften with warmth as he appeals to his listeners to follow Christ.

Why would a hard-charging businessman in his prime trade wealth, influence and ownership of several companies for this humble pulpit?

"I wanted to buy happiness, but true joy is only received as a gift from God," says Krechin, 48, hugging his young children after the service.

Besides, now he has a greater calling than making money: God has led him to spread the Gospel among the 85,000 people of the Golovinski area in Moscow's Northern Administrative District.  Krechin started out as an ambitious, idealistic young man.  He never completely lost his ideals, but the free-for-all capitalism that flooded Russia as communism collapsed in the early 1990s led him astray.

Descent into darkness
"As the Bible would say, I decided that I would serve mammon as the ruler of my life," he recalls.  "I would be rich."

Thus began a rise to power - and a descent into shady deals, bribes, tax dodges, relationships with Russian gangsters and corrupt politicians, even a flirtation with the occult.

At his worldly peak, Krechin owned several businesses that employed about 130 people.  He drove nice cars, dined at fancy restaurants, associated with powerful people.

"At the time, it seemed worth the risk," Krechin says.  "We had stores (under communism), but there was nothing to buy.  Suddenly you could buy anything you wanted - if you had the money.  But as the money became more and more, happiness and joy became less and less.  I was drinking.  I was partying.  I was destroying myself.  I was divided against myself.  My spirit was struggling."

Krechin's conscience had never completely died, and it gave him no peace.  He knew one day he would pay for his misdeeds.  In 1999, he met a missionary and a Russian Baptist.  Their words about God's love and mercy moved him.  When the Russian prayed for him, he sensed a peace he had never known come over him.  One night, before he even fully understood what he was doing, he repented and gave his heart to the Lord.

"The next morning when I woke up, my heart was free," he remembers.  "I could hear the birds singing songs.  I saw the blue heavens above, the skies.  I saw the leaves in the trees.  And I saw that God had solved the deepest problems of my life."

When he told his relatives, they laughed at him.  When he refused to pay any more bribes or sign dishonest contracts, his business associates were aghast.  How could he make a profit or even stay in business?

Knows true success
Ultimately, he didn't stay in business - not because it was impossible to do business honestly, but because God called him to ministry.  As he grew in maturity as a believer (with the loving help of the Christian woman who became his wife), he asked to join Southern Baptist missionary Brad Stamey's "Co-laborers Team" reaching out to Moscow's Northern district.

Today, Krechin knows true success.

"When I became a Christian, one of my questions was, 'Why didn't this happen 20 years earlier?'" he reflects.  "But now I thank God for that, because I can understand the man who is suffering.  The people caught up in the occult.  The people trying to find fulfillment from business.

"God has a plan - and I'm happy to be in the midst of it."

Day 2 - Vladimir Kuznitsov: 'walking evangelism machine'

Vladimir KuznitsovBy Erich Bridges

IZHEVSK, Russia (BP) - Vladimir Kuznitsov's father was a village shaman, a dealer in spirits and spells.

He drowned in a puddle of water one night after running down the street, screaming he was being chased by evil spirits.  Some say it was an accident, or that the old man was crazy.

Kuznitsov believes his father was killed by the spirits that oppress Russia's Udmurt (OOD-mert) people.  To order free resources related to the Udmurt, call (300) 999-3113.

Kuznitsov, too, once had a gift of "healing."  But it became a curse as he sensed the fear in those around him.  Alcohol also tormented him, and he nearly lost his wife and family as he battled darkness within.

He got a job as a fire truck driver in the city.  His boss was Alexander Popov, who would later become the leader of Baptists in the Russian region of Udmurtia.  The first time he attended one of Popov's informal lunchtime Bible studies, Kuznitsov's eyes rolled back into his head and he became violently ill.  For months he couldn't listen to the Word of God without a similar reaction.  But something drew him back.

One day he attended a showing of the "JESUS" film in a local theater.  "At the end of the film there was a prayer (to receive Jesus as Savior)," he recounts.  "I said, 'That prayer is for me.  God, I need you.'"

Through Popov's patient witness and more viewings of "JESUS," Kuznitsov repented and gave his heart to the Lord.  When the Holy Spirit entered him, he felt the old spirit of evil flee.

Within a month he was driving a bus for a "JESUS" film team going from one Udmurt village to another.  "When we showed the film, people didn't want tot leave," he recalls.  "We would say, 'Go home already.  We'll talk more tomorrow.'  They would say, 'God spoke to us in our language, to our people!'"

Fourteen years later, Kuznitsov is the national "JESUS" film representative in Udmurtia for Campus Crusade for Christ and a passionate member of Resurrection (Baptist) Church, which was started by Popov.

His team has shown the "JESUS" film in about 500 of the 2,000 towns and villages in Udmurtia.  They fully intend to reach the rest.

"The guy is a walking evangelism machine," says Southern Baptist missionary Tim Wicker.  "Whenever he's out with us, we're constantly waiting on him because somebody walked by that he just couldn't resist talking to."

Once, driving late at night, Wicker and Kuznitsov were pulled over at a police checkpoint.  Kuznitsov got out and began talking to the Udmurt policeman.  Soon he returned to the car, reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a New Testament and tract to give to the policeman.  When he cam back, Wicker asked why they had been stopped.

"We never got around to that," Kuznitsov said, grinning as they drove away.

He prays for the day when evangelical believers grasp what it will take to reach all Udmurtia with the Gospel.  It won't be easy, he knows.

"There's a spiritual battle going on everywhere," he asserts.  "So I don't live by my feelings.  I live by the Word of God.  Inside of me God lives, and He is victorious."

Day 3 - After escaping death, he finds life

Alexander PopovBy Erich Bridges

IZHEVSK, Russia (BP) - Alexander Popov, senior pastor of Baptists in the Russian region of Udmurtia, isn't in a hurry.

But he doesn't waste time, either.

By his count, Popov has looked death squarely in the face at least 20 times.  So he's more aware than most that he lives on God's time schedule, not his own.  He makes the most of his time in reaching the Udmurt (OOD-mert) people.  To order free resources related to the Udmurt, call (800) 999-3113.

In his younger years, the former geologist survived and airplane crash landing and a mine explosion.  Twice he was saved from drowning; three times he escaped job-site electrocution.  Once he was attacked by a bear in the woods.  He nearly froze to death in the wilderness on another occasion.  He drank some toxic homemade liquor that killed others, but he lived.

"Why am I still alive?" Popov started to ask himself.

An ethnic Russian, he was raised in a Baptist home in Udmurtia during the hard years of communism.  He read the Bible (smuggled from abroad) many times.  "I knew every chapter, but I was an unbeliever," he says.  He was a scientist, an intellectual, a businessman.  Yet for some reason he kept the Bible with him everywhere he traveled.

God answered his question with a dream: "He showed me myself, dead in a coffin.  The grave didn't have a bottom.  That terrified me.  God spoke to my heart and said, 'This is your last chance.'"

Popov repented and experienced God's grace and mercy through Christ.  A breath of religious freedom was returning to the dying Soviet Union at the time, and Popov heard God's call to bring the Word he now embraced to Udmurtia.  Bible school and seminary followed.

He fulfills his call today by starting churches, mentoring younger Baptist leaders and having a passionate commitment to Bible distribution.  Before Bibles were available in Udmurtia, he frequently made the long trip to Moscow (18 hours by train) to buy them and bring them back.

His evangelistic work and Bible distribution efforts extend beyond Udmurtia, too.  He takes several trips a year to Mongolia (six days by train) to spread the Word.

"I heard from some missionaries that there were 100 people in Mongolia to one Bible," he says.  "That gave me a desire to help.  Bibles cost $5 apiece there, a huge sum for Mongolians.  I started collecting money to buy Bibles for Mongolia.  Russia went through a time when we didn't have Bibles for believers."

In Udmurtia, meanwhile, he has plenty of plans and dreams: befriending Orthodox priests who need encouragement (and Bibles), starting creative community evangelism projects that connect believers to searching people at all levels of society, multiplying churches, unifying Christians in a vision for outreach.

Above all, "He's a man of prayer," says Southern Baptist missionary Tim Wicker, a close friend.  "When you're in the office with him, you pray.  When you get in the car, you pray.  When you get there, you pray."

When it comes to the Word, Wicker says, "Alexander doesn't just talk about it, he lives it - and God blesses it." 

Day 4 - Jesus shines through this busted, beautiful face

Vasily ZagrebinBy Erich Bridges

IZHEVSK, Russia (BP) - Vasily Zagrebin sports the busted grin of a boxer who's gone too many rounds: crooked teeth, broken nose, bent eye socket.

But the joy of Jesus shines through.

A Baptist evangelist in Russia's Udmurtia region, Zagrebin walks or rides his bicycle from village to village to share Jesus with the Udmurt (OOD-mert) people.  To order free resources related to the Udmurt, call (800) 999-3113.

Zagrebin was beaten and left for dead during a drunken binge years ago.  "Thank God I lived through it," he says.

But a life of drinking and carousing cost him everything else - his wife, his job, his health.

Born to an Udmurt family, Zagrebin and his five brothers and sisters were baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church, but it didn't mean much.

"We didn't believe in God, but we believed in spirits int he woods - bad spirits," he explains.

Argumentative and combative, he beat up other kids, began smoking at age 7 and drinking in grammar school.  He dropped out of school altogether in eighth grade.  Much worse followed.

"He was a hooligan," says Southern Baptist missionary Tim Wicker, who works among the Udmurts.  "A rough character."

After his near-death experience, however, Zagrebin heard the simple Gospel for the first time when Baptists visited his village.  He began attending their small-group meetings (under cover of night because of his self-consciousness about his disfigured face).  True to form, he argued with the Baptists and with God until he repented and gave his heart to Christ.  He quit drinking.  He also quit swearing: "I just couldn't speak those words anymore.  I had to learn how to talk again!"

Then he began the work of an evangelist.

"That was my call," he recounts.  "I knew I must tell others how to be saved.  I learned how to do evangelism through the (Baptist) church and I began to go door to door in my village."

Baptist leader Alexander Popov helped Zagrebin get reconstructive surgery for his ravaged face.  It will never look "normal," but it's beautiful.

Eight years later, at age 36, Zagrebin will gladly walk miles through snow to share Jesus in other villages.  To speed up his travel time, visiting students from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary i Fort Worth, Texas, bought him a bicycle.  It suits him just fine.  He can ride 50 kilometers at a stretch without breaking much of a sweat.  Someone offered to buy him a car, but he politely declined; he couldn't afford the upkeep.  Besides, villagers wouldn't listen to his message if he drove up in a vehicle they could never buy.

Sometimes he gets chased away, but he keeps on sharing the Gospel.

"Like the apostle Paul, I was the chief of sinners," he says.  "Now I want to be in the villages.  I just have to tell.  I want so much for others to know."

Day 5 - Planting churches in a 'cold' country

Mel SkinnerBy Shawn Hendricks

IVANOVO, Russia (BP) - Southern Baptist missionary Mel Skinner keeps an empty whiskey bottle somewhere in his family's apartment in central Russia.

In the fall of 1999, local women at a restaurant gave whiskey and chocolate to Skinner and his family as a gift to welcome them to Ivanovo.  At the time, the Skinners had just moved from Moscow, where they had been church planters for several years.  Though he later dumped out the whiskey, he still tears up at the memory of the gift.

"They came up to the table and said, 'Excuse me for interrupting your meal,'" he remembers.  "We just wanted to say thank you for coming to our café.  We noticed that our day was better after you've been into our café than it was before you came in.'  God used all that to just confirm to us this is the place He wanted us to be."

Since 1992, Skinner and his wife, Nancy, who have two children - Sarah, 16 and Anna, 13 - have lived and ministered among the people of Russia.  They've lived there longer than any other International Mission Board missionaries since the fall of communism.  Though they have struggled to make the impact they had hoped for, they haven't wavered in their call to the country.

Skinner has been offered other missionary jobs throughout the region, but he believes he is called to reach Russia by starting churches.  The Skinners transferred in August from Ivanovo, near Moscow, to St. Petersburg in the north.

"Our second term, I was that strategy coordinator guy over a large area," he says.  And that was just enough for me to realize God hasn't put me together to do that  [type of work].  All I want to do is impact a population or a people - a city."

Skinner helped start a church in Ivanovo that averages 150 to 200 people each Sunday.  Out of that group a smaller church group started.  Since then, Skinner began Bible studies in other parts of the city, hoping to start more churches.  Now he will take that same strategic approach to planting churches in St. Petersburg.

Reception to the Gospel in the cities can be as frigid as a typical Russian day in January.  But in the middle of a welcomed Russian summer - with temperatures usually in the 70s to low 80s and the sun shining until after 10 p.m. - Skinner brushes off any thoughts about the harsh winters or the struggles to spread the Gospel.

His wife, however, remembers dark times when they first moved to Russia.  Nancy struggled with depression and the desire to pack up everything and go back to the United States.

"Only God's grace keeps me here," she says.  "It's His gracious hand upon us, because there have been times it would have been so easy to leave.  Somehow God always got us through that.  He's faithful, and His grace is very sufficient."

She keeps a piece of cardboard folded in half that rests on a shelf in the living room - a note from her daughter.  On one side id, "I love Mommy."  On the other side is, "Be happy all the time."

"The first thing in my thoughts when I get up is to thank the Lord for a new day... regardless of how it is outside," she says.  "There is true joy in the Lord."

Skinner and local missionaries visit areas of Russian cities where they hope to start Bible studies.  Skinner,a self-proclaimed introvert, appears to have a natural gift for sharing his faith as crowds of young people gather around him at an apartment complex.

A couple of boys quickly dismiss his efforts and walk away, but the rest crowd around him.  They seem to listen intently as Skinner shares the Gospel in their Russian language.  After finishing his presentation, a few in the group ask Skinner for an autograph since he is the first American they have met.  No one seems all that interested in the message.  Unfazed by the response, Skinner moves to another area of the complex.

"Somebody once talked about the number of times somebody needs to hear the Gospel to be saved, to make that rational decision to trust your life to Christ," Skinner says.  "I don't know what that number is but most of these people have never had any kind of Gospel access."

Many cling to the Russian Orthodox Church, which Skinner and local believers contend is more about tradition and obligation than true faith.

"Russia is an Orthodox country, but ask them what it means to be Orthodox, and they don't have an answer," says a local believer who accepted Christ after developing a friendship with Skinner.

"Why go to the church and light a candle when no one can tell you why they light a candle?" he asks.  "They light a candle, go get drunk and don't remember lighting the candle."

Rumors about Baptists - and any other group besides Russian Orthodox - often circulate in Russia.  Baptists are seen as a cult, Skinner says.  Some believe Baptists kill and eat their young.

"Generally I laugh," Skinner says.  "I basically say, 'You know if that were true, they would have closed all the Baptist churches.  They would have thrown all Baptist people in prison... or executed them.'  Generally, when [people in Russia] hear the truth, they know the truth."

Whether through walking their dog or running errands, the Skinners make friends and have seen signs of spiritual growth.  One friend credits the Skinners with helping her get through a difficult, lonely time.

"I had no friends, no one," says a missionary from a neighboring country.  She describes her friendship with the Skinners as a "miracle."

"God made a difference in my life through them.  They taught me God loves me despite my disobedience."

Skinner is optimistic great things will happen in Russia's cities - he just doesn't know when.  He looks around his home for that old whiskey bottle to remind him why he is there.

"What I want is for [God] to be honored and glorified in my life," he says.  "That's all I want.  It's really not about us.  It's about God and His glory for eternity."

Day 6 - 'Co-laboring' in Moscow

Brad StameyBy Erich Bridges

MOSCOW (BP) - Early on a chilly summer morning, Southern Baptist missionaries Brad and Lori Stamey shiver with a small group of Christians on the bank of the Moscow Canal.

They cheer as two women emerge dripping, trembling from the canal's frigid waters - and smiling with joy.  Anastasia, 80, and Mariana, in her 30s , are the first believers baptized through a mission congregation sponsored by Good News Baptist Church.

Mikhail ("Misha") Chekalin, pastor at Good News and leader of Moscow's 28-member Baptist church association, baptizes the women.  Genady Krechin, pastor of the mission church that meets in his apartment, stands on the bank with the Stameys.

"Watch what Misha's doing," Brad urges Krechin, who will soon be ordained.  "You'll be doing it next summer!" Krechin grins, several gold teeth flashing in the morning sun.  It's a moment to savor because the two have met at least weekly for more than a year in a Paul-Timothy relationship.  Now Krechin is ready to lead his young church - and mentor his own Timothys.

"You can talk about rapid reproduction, but that's about as rapid as it happens here," Brad explains.  "If the Lord starts a church-planting movement here, things will be happening so fast we won't be able to keep track of it."

That's a day Brad and Lori long to see.  For now, though, they're working patiently and methodically with Chekalin, Krechin and other Russian church planters to begin at least one Baptist congregation in each of the 16 sections of Moscow's Northern Administrative District - home to more than 1 million people.  Krechin's congregation, in an area where 85,000 people live, marks the third such church start.  Thirteen sections still lack a single church.

"It's overwhelming," Brad admits.  "You can get discouraged here, and we have - several times."  Reaching the district with its endless blocks of apartment buildings, however, is a lot less overwhelming than reaching all of Moscow.  That was the Stameys' assignment when they returned to the city in 1998 as career missionaries after serving a two-year term as journeymen in the early '90s.

"Winter here is just devastating for morale," Brad says of Moscow.  "It's not just the snow and the cold, it's the lack of light.  The sky is gray.  The trees are gray.  The buildings are gray."

They've learned, however, that God uses their presence to encourage others.

"He's doing more than we realize sometimes, working in peoples' lives and drawing them to Him," Loris says.  "We hope our presence will result in lots of churches being started, but our job is to be obedient to what He gives us to do.  It's His job to start the churches, and He will in His timing."

Meanwhile, more light is shining in the Northern district as the Stameys and their "Co-laborers Team" of Russians and missionaries spread the Gospel.  Aided by Southern Baptist volunteers, they have prayer walked most of the district and delivered thousands of cards to apartment dwellers, offering free Bibles and invitations to evangelistic events.  People who respond become prospective members of seeker Bible studies and prayer groups, which may, in turn, become churches one day.

The work may be e slow, but it's laying a solid foundation.

Pray for spiritual awakening in each of Moscow's major districts, for wisdom as workers "seek the seekers," and for the Russian church planters God is raising up.  Interested in working with the "Co-laborers Team" as a volunteer, prayer supporter or "church champion" dedicated to reaching part of Moscow's Northern district?  E-mail brasta@everyheart.net.

Day 7 - Uzbek Christians still wait to worship in freedom

UzbekBy Michael Logan

UZBEKISTAN (BP) - There was a time when Maksud's* heart raced with each telephone ring.  He recalls gripping the receiver and working up his courage to simply say "Allo" (hello).  He felt exposed and at risk even behind the locked door of his Uzbekistan home.

Usually, within a heartbeat, a friend's voice on the line cut the tension.  Yet Maksud had to steady his own voice to sound casual and normal as he talked into the telephone.

What is normal for a Christian believer living under a government that has grown increasingly paranoid?  In the current political climate, anyone who has religious convictions - Christian or Islamic - is often tagged as a threat to the government.

Uzbekistan became an independent nation in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.  Flags and state symbols changed, but the mindset of the ruling elite did not.  Immediately after independence, some political controls eased, but soon the nation's freedoms began to erode.  In recent years that erosion has increased, and for some believers, state intimidation has now replaced the short-lived freedoms.

"My heart would pump like crazy each time I picked up the phone or answered a knock at the door," Maksud says.  "When I knew it was a friend, I would just praise God."

For this believer, the world took a dark turn several years ago when local police took Maksud from his home and began questioning him about his faith in Jesus Christ.

"There is no law that says you can't be a Christian," he explains, "but the police will say that when a person becomes a Christina, he brings dissension to the family, and this is wrong."

Police held Maksud for a day, questioning him about friends, family, faith and the other Christians in the area.

"They let me go, but for more than three months, there was such fear in my heart," he says.

The police never visited again, and in time Maksud adjusted to his new status of living under state suspicion.

Maksud's story is not unique.  Uzbekistan has become one of the most repressive new independent states, according to a 1999 U.S. State Department human rights report.

"Only in Uzbekistan has the state formally criminalized religious dissent," the report says.  "Uzbekistan explicitly prohibits any kind of communal activity by such a group, even a Bible study in one of its members' apartments."

Yet, this has not stopped the spread of the Gospel, says Ryan Steward,* an International Mission Board worker, who, along with his wife, Lauren,* lives in Central Asia and works among the Uzbeks of Central Asia.

"Despite the crackdown, there continues to be growth in the church," he says of the situation.  "The growth is not in waves like it once was, but this is still an exciting time for the body of Christ in Uzbekistan."

In the early 1990s, the IMB launched a major initiative to help bring the Gospel to newly created nations in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.  This push included a focus on Uzbekistan where nearly 99 percent of Uzbeks are Muslim.

"We were seeing advancement in the early '90s, but between 1995 and 1997 we saw very strong growth for the churches," Stewart says.

Today, Southern Baptists working with the Uzbek church estimate between 4,000 and 5,000 Uzbek Christians worldwide.

"Things slowed down toward the turn of the century, but now we see several different kinds of growth," Steward adds.

The couple and their team have seen people come to Jesus Christ after literally years of witnessing efforts.

"In a recent month, we saw one man decide to follow Jesus after being witnessed to for 14 years," Lauren says.  "About a week later, a woman believed after 12 years of witnessing, and then another man after nine years.  "It was as if God let it all happen at once to let us see we needed to just hang in there."

The team has also seen church leaders go to a deeper level of trust in Jesus, which has deepened their trust in one another.

"We've seen (Uzbek friends be tested and come through," she says.  "The continuing loss of freedom makes it harder now, but we are more hopeful.  We've seen some of these leaders take a stand for our Lord.

"The church has seen the same thing happen in China.  It's not easy, but if they can make it through, they will be stronger."

Local believers share this conviction.  One pastor has asked the Uzbek Christian community to pray God will raise up more than 100 new leaders.

Lauren Stewart points to a new spirit of cooperation among believers.  She explains this has been a focus of prayer by supporters of the Uzbek team for more than five years.

"We longed to see churches look to each other for support, but that has not always happened," she says.  "It is difficult for Uzbeks, even Christians, to trust one another."

Ryan Stewart explains a new wave of leadership is emerging.  "These men are stepping away from old ways that depended on a heavy-handed leader.  These leaders want to work together more and encourage one another.  That just didn't happen.  There is a new spirit of unity among our fellowships."

The Stewarts' team often calls on Ephesians 5:8, "For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light."

"As believers we need to be light," Maksud agrees.  "If we live as honest and righteous people in the sight of God, this proclaims to our community the worth of our God."

It may be awhile until most Uzbek communities are free to openly consider the worth of God's greatest gift - Jesus Christ.

But Maksud believes the time will come.  He uses the collapse of the Soviet Union as an example.

"God was in the changes of the Soviet Union," he says.  "Has God changed since those days?  No.  It's the same God and He's raising  up from my people those who will serve and worship Him."

* Names changed for security reasons.

Day 8 - Moscow: Someone to believe

Valera ZhadanBy Erich Bridges

MOSCOW (BP) - For years, Valera Zhadan searched for someone to share his dream: a church for the Deaf in Moscow.

His search ended the day he met Southern Baptist missionaries Kris and Frances Courson.  Today, Valera stands as the third ordained Deaf pastor in all of Russia, his church born in the crowded living room of the Coursons' Moscow apartment.

Deaf since childhood, Valera experienced all the frustrations of a group that has long suffered second-class status in Russia - and in the church.  The Deaf number about 42,000 in Moscow and some 800,000 nationwide, yet only a handful are evangelical believers.  Little wonder, since few Deaf Russians have a chance to "hear" the Gospel in a form they can understand.

Attending hearing churches, "we felt there were two sets of rules: one for the hearing and one for the Deaf," Valera explains.

"The Deaf had ot be passive participants in worship and the whole church experience.  They would be falling asleep in the service because they might not understand.  Music meant nothing to the Deaf, and then there was three hours of preaching."

Nor were they allowed to teach or become leaders.  Many Daf, hampered by a Russian educational system designed for the hearing, also struggle with reading.  The Bible, in its classical Russian translation, presents a daunting challenge.

The deepest problem is a Russian society - including Christians - that sees the Deaf as "invalids" rather than what they are: a epople group with their own culture, language, needs and gifts.

The Coursons, however, arrived in Moscow in 2002 with a very different mindset.  Both are hearing, yet both sensed a call as young people to ministry among the Deaf.  They met while serving as summer missionaries in the United States doing just that.  Later, they served together as Mission Service Corps volunteers among the Deaf and (after getting married) as ministry staff members of Deaf churches.

Already fluent in American Sign Language, they tackled both Russian and Russian Sign Language (very different from its American counterpart) as new missionaries.  They're still learning.  But they wasted little time getting started on their ministry of encouraging Deaf believers - and they were quickly embraced.

The Deaf worship service that began in their apartment quickly outgrew the space and now meets in a Moscow Baptist church led by a supportive hearing pastor.  It attracts 80 or more people each week,, many of whom are non-Christian seekers.

"This has been Deaf-led from day one," Kris stresses.  "We were just there to encourage, to help, to provide whatever training we could.  They just needed someone to come in and say, 'Yes, you can do this.  We're going to help you do what God has called you to do."

On the joyful day Valera was ordained by the sponsoring Russian Baptist church, he baptized six Deaf believers in the river.

That's just the beginning.  Valera and the Coursons are working together to videotape 150 key Bible stories in Russian Sign Language to spread the Word to Deaf seekers across Russia - and beyond.

"We're looking for at least 10 churches in the city of Moscow," Kris says.  "But we believer every church needs to reproduce itself.  With 42,000 Deaf people, there will never be a building large enough to hold all the (potential) believers in Moscow.  We hope these churches will begin home groups, meet in local McDonald's restaurants, even in metro stations.

"With the video translation project, we have a target audience of 800,000 in Russia, but also Deaf people in Belarus, where the signing is very similar, in Ukraine and in the 'Stans' (formerly Soviet Central Asia).  We're looking at over 1 million people with no access to the Gospel in their own language."

Valera, who knows what it's like to get around major barriers, agrees.

"With the help of God," he promises, "we'll be able to do it."