Last week Edward Grabovenko, Head Bishop of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith, initiated an evangelistic trip to the northern part of Perm region.

He and his team went on snowmobiles to remote villages. The entire distance was about 250 miles, more than 2,000 people heard the Good News.

Bishop Edward Grabovenko shared his thoughts about the trip:

– Thinking about this evangelistic trip I realize that it is absolutely necessary to do this work – to go to the farthest villages and towns and bring the Good News of Jesus. Our nation is spiritually starving. People are very open to us and to the Word of God that we share. I think we have a great opportunity now and we shouldn’t miss it.

Among villages and towns we went, was the town of Severny Kaspash. Some time ago it was a town of 11,000 people, today only 1,200 residents remained there. People are very open to the Gospel. We met some wonderful people. Right outside the local store we met an old woman who asked us to pray for her. She lost a grandson, a young man, who was the only one to take care of her. He went to the woods and didn’t come back. She sees him in his dreams and is very afraid. We prayed for her salvation and she received it. There were other people who came to us and asked to pray right there, outside, in spite of the low temperature. It was about -30C (or -22F).

We went to another village, it had about 40 houses, but all of them except one were locked and nobody lived there. We found just one man who was living there. He came to the village from Chechnya war and stayed there. No electricity, no conveniences, nothing… But he was so eager to hear the message of salvation… He got saved. We gave him the New Testament, he was very glad: there is nothing else to do there – no TV, no internet, no radio… And there was one more village like that where we found only one person who lived there.

Everywhere we went people were surprised that we came to these villages, they asked us how we found them.  But it was our goal – to visit every village and to bring God’s Word to everyone. The population of Russia is decreasing and I know that if we don’t put more efforts, people are doomed to spend eternity without God.

At the same time I see that it is very favorable time. People are open and hungry for the Word of God. It is harvest time. Here is a simple example. Several years ago in some towns of Komi-Perm district we could hardly gather 15 people to our evangelistic meetings. Today in towns Yurla, Kosa, Kochevo and others people run to these meetings. Assembly halls can hardly hold all that come – up to 300 people and more. And most importantly, they are so willing to hear the preaching, they sing with us songs of praise and worship, they get saved and we start new churches.

I thank God for churches that do evangelistic work, for the ‘One Year for Jesus’ teams that work all across Russia. We see that God is moving and I want to encourage every church, every Christian: continue to bring the Good News. Even if you evangelized in the past and didn’t see the results, start doing it again. I believe that this is the year of harvest and we will see the glory of the Lord, and thousands of people will come to Christ.

I urge you by God’s mercy not to stop reaching this world for Christ. Our labor will bring fruit in eternity.