A changed life greatly encouraged us in our second year of language study. It is the story of an elderly lady named Elena Feodorevna, the mother of a young couple in our home group. Our group was meeting at Elena’s home, and one day Perry forgot his English/Russian New Testament at their apartment. Some weeks later, Elena had a great desire to share about something she had experienced. She asked if we remembered the day Perry forgot his Bible at her house. We did. Then she went on to tell how this particular version was interesting to her, especially the Four Spiritual Laws at the back of the Bible.
Coming across the prayer for salvation, she felt as if it exactly expressed her heart’s desire. Elena prayed the prayer for salvation, and in the same moment, she accepted the Lord as her Saviour. She thanked Perry for forgetting his Bible! Who could imagine forgetting a Bible could have such a redemptive impact? We did not play a vital role in bringing Elena to Christ. It was God doing the work. He was working through His powerful Word to bring people to Himself. We can testify to the truth of Isaiah 55:11, “… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
The Call to Missions
Lynda:
As a young girl, I never thought I would become a missionary. My dream was to be a teacher, but God led me to get a Bachelor of Religious Education from Canadian Bible College in Regina, Saskatchewan. After my second year, I had an opportunity to go to the Philippines for six weeks with the Alliance Youth Corps. It was a fantastic summer of seeing missionaries in action, having a chance to participate in missions myself by sharing my testimony, and talking about Jesus with other young people. It was truly a life-changing experience! After this experience, God spoke very clearly to me through Isaiah 6. I had read this passage many times before, but this time, the words came alive, and I heard the Holy Spirit asking ME, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” I responded in the affirmative, “Here am I, Lord. Send me. (v. 8)”
Perry:
I had no plans to ever become a missionary. I was already serving God as a pastor in Calgary when Lynda and I were married in October 1991.
Less than a year after we were married, God gave us an exciting opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip to Krasnodar, Russia. It changed our lives. In May 1992, the doors had just opened to sharing the Gospel in Russia. We passed out Bibles to school kids and had the opportunity to share the Gospel with Communists who had never heard it before. Explaining how to have a relationship with God, not knowing if we would ever see these people again, was spiritually exhilarating. We saw more people make commitments to Christ in those two weeks than we did in our entire lives. In short, we got “wrecked for the ordinary.”
We were ready to go back to Russia immediately, but The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) was not in Russia in 1992. Eventually, the C&MA set up partnerships in three Russian cities, one being Krasnodar. When Lynda and I heard that the C&MA was going to the same city where we had been, it seemed like everything was falling into place. We met with Wally Albrecht, Vice President of Global Ministries for the C&MA in Canada; he, too, was excited about new personnel to send to Russia. We were trained, had done our home service, and I was ready to go for one or two years. Then, Wally said, “Well, the C&MA doesn’t really do short-term missions.” I said, “What do you call long-term?” He replied, “Well, we’re looking for a minimum commitment of ten years.” What employer asks for a ten-year commitment? I walked away from the meeting like the rich man who walked away from Jesus, not able to pay the price.
Some weeks later, I had a life-changing encounter with God. I was praying for His direction, and He spoke to me in the still small voice, “Perry, what is it that you really want to do?” I said, “God, I want to make a big impact for your Kingdom.” And God said, “That’s a good thing, Perry. And just what are you willing to give up?” Those words cut me like a knife. I realized I was looking to make a significant impact without making much of a sacrifice. I wanted three dollars worth of missions. And God said, “Perry, it doesn’t work that way. Unless a grain of wheat dies, it can’t bear much fruit (see John 12:24). So come back when you’re ready to give more.” I thought about the words of C.T. Studd, who said, “If Jesus Christ is God’s Son, and died for me, then no sacrifice is too great for me to make for Him.”
I needed some mission courses at Canadian Theological Seminary (CTS), and we had to leave our native country of Canada and our family. But none of that was nearly as difficult as getting my will on the altar, agreeing to follow God wherever and however He would lead me. Jesus is worth giving up everything for, so those from every tribe, language, people, and nation will become worshippers of Him.
Language Study and Culture Shock
Russian is a complex language to learn well. There were many days we thought we would never learn it. The one hour each way on public transit to language school was exhausting. The oral teaching style was frustrating. We studied Russian full-time at an agricultural institute in Krasnodar for two years.
When other ex-pats were actively doing ministry through translators, we were covetous. They were doing ministry while we were just studying the language. But the approach of the C&MA to learn the heart language of the people God called us to was wise; “wisdom is proved right by all her children” (Luke 7:35). While it was difficult initially, it eliminated the need for interpreters for the rest of our years in ministry. Learning the language is an essential first step to ministry and friendships in a foreign culture.
One of the first things needed in our new home was a way to wash clothes. So we went shopping for a washing machine; there was only one small import model left in the whole city of a million people. Once we decided to make the purchase, we went with our friends who had a car, planning to take it home by tying it to the roof. We had one million and five hundred thousand rubles in a huge bag for payment, consisting of three thousand bills of five hundred ruble notes. We could not believe it when the salesman said, “We can’t sell it to you; it doesn’t have a technical passport (instruction manual).” We told him we were willing to buy it without one. He was adamant that he couldn’t sell it to us. That was a moment of culture shock. A week later, we went back and bought the same machine for the same price, without a technical passport. It reminded us that the rules of commerce are different in every country.
Finding a competent plumber to hook up our washing machine was not easy; there was no Internet or yellow pages. Finally, we met a plumber by chance and agreed on the price. After hours of measuring, cutting our pipes, him leaving to drink vodka and cut new pipes, and him sawing off a small piece of our bathtub to make everything fit, we finally got it installed!
Lynda: Having a Baby in Russia
Our first daughter, Sarah, was born in Moscow. Giving birth in a Russian hospital was a challenging experience. I discovered, when a woman is in labour, she can only remember her native language. Fortunately, we had a translator present, because my Russian flew out of my head with every contraction, and we did not know enough medical terms to communicate well. When we returned to Krasnodar, we proudly showed Sarah off to our Russian friends at church. We were confused about why they looked shocked to see us at church until we found out that a new mother and her baby are supposed to stay at home in Russia and not leave the house for at least a month!
Krasnodar: September 20, 1994 - June 1998
Church Planting in Krasnodar
After two years of language school, we were eager to begin ministry. We were partnered with two church planting couples in our region of the city, Misha and Nataha Tkachenko and Kostya and Albina Solovyev. They each had different strengths, but both began by trying to grow small groups in their homes.
One of the people who came to know Christ in those years was Luba Vinnikov. She was a Jehovah’s Witness, her mother-in-law was an atheist, and her husband’s grandmother was Orthodox. The spiritual conversations we had about religion were complicated since our level of Russian was basic. We tried to give Luba books explaining the heretical nature of her faith, but this only pushed her further away. In the end, we prayed for God to speak to her, and when God spoke, Luba responded. She was baptized and, along with her daughter, became a true follower of Christ.
Marina was a teenager who lived near us in our church-planting days in Krasnodar. At the time, her parents had forbidden her to get involved in our ministry. Years later, we helped send her to a Christian camp. While there, she got saved, became a counsellor at camp in 2001, and got baptized the following year. It reminds us, one plants, the other waters, but God causes the growth!
Baptism services were held in the Kuban River. It was inspiring to see the commitment of believers getting baptized publicly while there was snow on the ground.
During two years of church planting, we only saw a handful of believers baptized. Since we had seen literally hundreds of people come to Christ in a couple of weeks in 1992, a tiny fellowship no bigger than a home group of eight or ten believers after two years did not seem like very much. Before we left, our home group wanted to have tea and give us a gift. One man named Mikaelovich spoke. He was a burly old fellow, a sergeant in the army, and a former Communist. He and his wife had both repented publicly and been baptized. He said, “Thanks for coming to Russia because if you hadn’t come, we wouldn’t be here.” This was enough encouragement to make up for two more years of discouraging, challenging ministries. It was worth it. Because this is why we went to Russia, and this is why Jesus went to the cross; God’s divine plan.
If we had not gone, Mikaelovich and others in our church plant probably would not have come to know Christ. But using the logic of Romans 10, if C&MA churches had not sent us, we would not have been able to go or minister in Russia. True partnership.
Building of Lampados Bible College (Krasnodar Evangelical Christian University)
Training believers to become theologically competent leaders is an essential component of strengthening the National Church. Lampados Bible College started in two homes in Adegei territory, literally on “the other side of the tracks.” Multiple students shared dorm rooms. Power, water, and heat often did not work, but there was a hunger to grow in Christ in those days.
The C&MA in the United States and Canada made a significant investment to help build a Bible school in Russia. Of course, obtaining the proper permits for building and starting a college was not easy, with a city council holding the perspective that anything outside of Orthodoxy was heretical. It took years, but eventually, the doors were opened to students at a new campus. Genna Pchenishny, the college rector, received help with theological training in the USA and led the college’s transformation to become Krasnodar Evangelical Christian University.
Maikop: July 1999-June 2003
Perry: Lampados Bible Training Centre
Our second term of service was based in Maikop, the capital of Adegei, an autonomous territory within Russia for a predominantly Muslim people group. One of the Bible Training Centre’s goals in Maikop was to provide theological education for laypeople who could not study as full-time students at Lampados Bible College. We trained over one hundred volunteer youth leaders who were a part of the Evangelical Christian Missionary Union. Along with Edik Rokach and Alexei Dashko, we developed multi-level training seminars and resources for youth leaders. We published a Holiday Idea Book for youth leaders, which sold out and was reprinted at least three times in two different countries. Concerts of prayer were organized by us, and we published materials on how to lead a concert of prayer.
I will never forget one evangelistic outreach we held on a local school campus near Hope Church, the church we were connected to. The last activity of the outreach was a race to the church, and the winners got prizes. It would have been an amazing picture to capture as a couple hundred young people raced to church. Unfortunately, following close behind was the vice principal of the school. She threatened many of the students from her school with expulsion if they did not leave. When youth leaders confronted her on the private property of the church, she said, “I’d rather that my kids were drug addicts than to attend your church.” Her sentiment highlights the challenging environment of growing an evangelical church in the area.
One youth who came to Christ in those days was Vitya Trushov. He became an active part of the youth group and a worship leader. Years later, Vitya admitted that he first attended the youth group at Hope Church because he was so hungry. His family literally had no food, so he attended youth fellowship nights because they served snacks. If we had known how desperate the poverty really was, we would have fed many more people.
Lynda was a key organizer of the first summer day camp for children of Hope Church; sixty children attended, and four repented and came to Christ. Lynda also led an Alpha group for ladies. One came to Christ on the first night, and almost all who attended more than once repented.
Lynda was one of the first Canadian C&MA teachers to trial run homeschooling. She was an excellent teacher, and homeschooling is now a viable option for Canadian C&MA mission workers.
St. Petersburg: August 2004-February 2008; July 2009-June 2011
Going to the Urban Centres
Our third and fourth terms of ministry in Russia were based in St. Petersburg. Comparatively, there are far fewer evangelical churches in the large urban centres like Moscow and St. Petersburg than in some of the smaller cities in southwest Russia. This need moved our mission strategy to the large urban areas. Dima and Valya Frolov were the National Church planters we helped.
Church planting would be challenging enough in my home country using my native language. But to start a church in a city of five million people, with a core of two mission couples and a National Church pastor, was overwhelming. There are so many people, and they are all so busy. Since no one can greet everybody, most do not greet anyone. We believe the local church is the hope of the world, and relational evangelism is still the key to seeing people come to Christ. It is difficult to build those relationships in large cities, where relational walls are high.
Russia had some of the highest abortion rates in the world. In 2004 there were 1,500,000 children born and 1,800,000 abortions. One out of four Russians lived below the poverty line, and substance abuse was prevalent. More than three out of four teenagers between fourteen and nineteen use alcohol regularly. About half of adult women and two-thirds of the men smoke. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came so we might have abundant life (see John 10:10).
When doing ministry in a large megacity, it is essential to keep the faith perspective of Caleb and Joshua when they entered the Promised Land. Yes, the cities are big and fortified, but our God is bigger and stronger. Yes, large enemies live there, but we are God’s children. So problems became opportunities to see God at work.
We may have experienced the all-time worst response to a showing of the JESUS film. Two of our missionary colleagues, Ron and Wilma Priest, lived in another large city in Russia and had a pretty good response to showing it. Our thought was, Well, if it works there, it should work in St. Petersburg. So we asked the Priests details, like how they advertised, when they showed it, etc. If they put up 2,000 black and white posters, we would put up 10,000 colour posters. The goal was greatness. We showed the JESUS film twice on two different weekends and The Passion of the Christ three times during Passion week. In total, we only had ten visitors! But of those ten who came, three came to Christ, which is ultimately what matters.
Lynda:
Alyona lived in the same apartment building where Perry and I lived for four years in St. Petersburg. One day she and her boyfriend, Zhenya, found a crumpled-up piece of paper in the elevator. They picked it up and discovered it was an invitation to view The Passion of the Christ. Alyona had heard of this film and really wanted to see it. Zhenya agreed, and they came to the film sponsored by our church. They were deeply moved by it, and shortly after, they both gave their lives to Christ. It was a fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel in Joshua 1:3, “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.”
It was so much fun discipling Alyona. Everything about the Bible and Christianity was so new and interesting to her. For example, when we first discussed the concept of tithing, Alyona was shocked.
“You don’t really expect me to believe that God wants me to live on only 90% of my income and give 10% to the church, do you? That doesn’t make sense. I can barely live on what I make now.”
I agreed with her; by human logic, it does not make sense, but in God’s economy, not only does it make sense, it works. So, with some reluctance, she agreed to try it. Her hand was shaking when she gave her first tithe. The following Sunday, Alyona got up in church and testified that the day after she gave her money, she had received a bonus from her boss that exceeded her tithe! God is so faithful. After her experience, Alyona was definitely convinced she needed to tithe. She inspired many of our other new believers to tithe, and they started giving testimonies of how God had blessed them.
Although Alyona saw many answers to prayer, she went through some challenging trials. She and Zhenya got engaged, and the wedding was scheduled for May 2006. Only a month before the wedding, Zhenya died of a heroin overdose. It was terrible since Zhenya was a prospective leader in our church plant, and we thought he had overcome his addiction. As you can imagine, Alyona was devastated. I was apprehensive she would turn her back on God and walk away from the church. But, praise God, she leaned in closer to the Lord and experienced the incredible comfort of the Holy Spirit. Then, only a few short months later, her alcoholic father committed suicide. It was another devastating blow for Alyona. Again, the church family rallied around her, prayed for her, and supported her the best we could. God proved Himself faithful, and Alyona’s faith grew even stronger and deeper. She shared her testimony in church shortly before we came back to Canada on home assignment. It was powerful; God refined her through suffering. She said, “God isn’t a pill we take that erases all our problems. But He is there to comfort us when we go through hard times.”
Train Ride to the Black Sea
In June 2006, I had a wonderful opportunity to travel with Alyona and four teenagers to a church camp at the Black Sea. It was a very long train ride, forty-three hours one way! Although it felt very long and difficult at times, it was also a great chance to get to know these young women and have many interesting spiritual discussions with them.
Two of the young women were not believers, but as they listened to the Bible being explained and heard the message of salvation, I could tell the Holy Spirit was working to soften their hearts. It was my privilege to lead both of them to Jesus. I remember the incredible feeling of joy at seeing them give their lives to Christ. I texted Perry, “Wonderful news. Both Tonya and Katya repented yesterday! I am walking on air. And crying tears of joy! I miss you and the girls, but this makes it all worthwhile.” I felt so thankful for every prayer partner who prayed for me and for the salvation of these young women.
Working with Central Asians
During our last term in Russia, we developed a growing vision for reaching the poor, oppressed, and foreigners. Many foreign immigrants from Central Asian countries live and work in Russia; most are nominal Muslims. They come to the big cities of Russia for work. Reaching these unreached people groups in their own countries is very difficult, as they represent some of the most closed countries to the Gospel. But the door to reach them in Russia is wide open. We were privileged to work alongside Babur and Dildora, who were persecuted in Uzbekistan, but dedicated to reaching their own countrymen and women in Russia.
Looking Back
Looking back after the many years since we left Russia, we can see the forest, not just the trees. When we first arrived in Russia, there were many preaching points, but only one church in the Russian C&MA had its own building. We always knew where the annual national assembly would be held. By the time we left Russia eighteen years later, many churches had their own building. They acquired a summer camp on the Black Sea. A Bible college had become a Christian university; it had its own campus with a library and dorm rooms. The National Church had grown to about fifty churches and had expanded from the more agricultural south to urban areas in the north.
Over our years in Russia, it became more and more challenging to get visas. When we first arrived, we were on year-long visas as mission workers. Eighteen years later, we could only get three-month cultural visas. Once, we forgot to get an exit visa for our youngest daughter. We were almost turned back at the airport, but God was gracious, and miraculously we were allowed to leave Russia without an exit visa or even paying a fine. We had our passports stolen one time, but God provided a way to travel without them until we could get them replaced.
We saw the responsiveness to the Gospel diminish over the years, inversely proportional to the economy. As Russia developed financially, responsiveness to the Gospel waned. Former Canadian C&MA President Arnold Cook used to say, “the good times have never been a friend of the church.” So maybe a crisis is good. The Russians have a saying, “The farmer doesn’t cross himself (repent) until the lightning strikes.” May God grant a new revival.
God’s story continues in Russia. It is not about us, but of Russians coming to Christ and becoming fully devoted followers of Jesus. There was no greater joy in our years in Russia than to see men and women, boys and girls, repent and get baptized. Churches were planted, grew, and multiplied. Someday we would love to go back and be reminded of all God did in us and through us in those years. It would be a great joy to know the believers and churches have stayed faithful to Christ. We gave some of the best years of our lives there and have no regrets; we count it a privilege to have served with the C&MA.