Nikolai & Tia Devyatkin

Christ Our Hope Bible Church is partnering with a consortium of churches through Slavic Gospel Association’s Antioch Initiative, a program that coordinates partnering churches from the U.S. with a region within Russia.  The U.S. churches make a five-year commitment to collaborate in providing Bible seminars for pastors and leaders in the Russian region they adopt.

A Russian Baptist pastor for more than 30 years, Nikolai Devyatkin served as a faithful minister of the gospel under Communism.  Then he and his family lived in Moscow, Russia, but now Nikolai pastors a large church in the city of Arkangelsk, near the Arctic Circle.   Nikolai is also the regional pastor of the Arkhangelsk Oblast, an immense area (more than 226,000 square miles—in comparison Washington State has an area of 71,303 square miles) with a population of less than 1,500,000.

Three to four times a year the churches committed to the Arkangelsk Oblast send teaching teams to conduct Bible seminars for pastors and lay leadership who travel from throughout this large region to attend.  One group of church leaders must travel 18 hours by train to attend the seminars.

In addition to providing instructors for the Bible seminars, one of the partnering churches, Faith Bible Church of Spokane, is sending short-term summer teams to work with Pastor Nikolai in gospel outreach.  For the past three summers, FBC has sent a team to provide a music camp for unsaved youth.

Please pray for Pastor Nikolai and his family as they witness for Christ and labor to build the church in this atheistic region.   

 

Kevin Kimball and I shared about the ministry in Arkhangelsk we had in teaching through the doctrine of Salvation to Russian pastors and church leaders. What a humbling opportunity to see their deep commitment to Christ and desire to glorify Him. Thank-you so much for your faithful prayers. We were very aware of God’s sovereign working in helping the men to gain an increased heart and passion for the Gospel. Continue to pray for Regional Pastor Nikoli Devyatkin as he leads the pastors and churches in the Arkhangelsk region (1.5 million people, the size of Washington, Oregon & Idaho). Pray that God would raise up more pastors for this very needy and strategic area and that the churches there would be able to effectively reach out to the lost,

 

 

 

 

 

News from John and Kevin

Monday, May 10, 2010

We finished our last session today and were very encouraged by how God brought it together. It was obvious that many of you were praying. We dove full depth into Perseverance of the Saints (Eternal Security). All along the focus has been God’s sovereignty in salvation so this was the conclusion to His work in salvation. We walked through Hebrews 6 and though there were good questions it was not adversarial at all. They consistently respond very positively to just walking through the Scriptural truth. They are in process and working through the issue and we made it clear that our goal was not to change them, but to encourage them to focus on the Scriptures. Kevin did a great job walking through the doctrine of Sanctification and how it flows out of the Gospel of Christ. We closed by going through practical steps for living the gospel which they responded to very well. Without a doubt, the Lord graciously refreshed in each one of them a greater love for the Gospel and a desire to live it out. Over and over these men expressed how much these Seminars mean to them. There is few other resource for them to be equipped and they eagerly make great sacrifices to come participate. The men from Cotlas travel 19 hours one way by train to participate. We had a number of very in depth conversations with the men, talking through heavy shepherding and leadership issues they are going through. Most of them are very isolated and on their own, so they eagerly seek out advice for the issues they are battling with. Pray for them.

Thank-you for your prayers. Words can’t describe how strategic this is. Each of the students will take what they learned and apply it in their ministry situations. Some are pastors, others are deacons and lay leaders. There were even two young ladies from one of the churches that sat in on our classes. Many of them said to please express thanks and appreciation for our church’s involvement in this. The greatest need here is for church leaders, so we need to continue to pray that God would raise up qualified leaders. Pray for these men as they go back into their church situations that they would be able to apply what we learned to their personal lives, their families and their ministries.

Pray for our return travel. We have heard that the volcano is acting up again and some airports are closed to air traffic. Pray that St. Petersburg and Paris will be cleared which are our main transit connections.

Hoping in Christ,

John

 

 

 Greetings from Arkhangelsk—May 10, 2010

It has been a whirlwind here for Kevin and me. Today will be our final day of teaching. On Saturday we taught almost the entire day. We finished the doctrine of Man, went completely through the doctrine of sin and started into the doctrine of Salvation. There  are about eighteen students and they are very involved and responsive. We gave them a quiz first thing in the morning that covered what we had talked about the previous day. Our emphasis was on them being able to provide biblical support for the key doctrines. The class gets rather animated and energized when there is some disagreement or the men want to dialogue more. We are covering lots of material, so have to move quickly through some areas, but often must slow down when the men have more questions. Kevin had an excellent response and discussion to one of the student’s question/disagreement on the dichotomist versus dichotomist (Is man fundamentally two parts [material and immaterial] or three parts [body, soul, spirit]). The men don’t tend to hesitate at all disagreeing or asking very pointed questions which make for excellent discussions and learning opportunities. In addition, we have had very profitable discussions with many of the men during break times and meals. Though they enjoy the class times, they really have a great time fellowshipping and having rather heated discussions amongst themselves at these times. They always have tea or coffee and they laugh at Kevin and me when we just have water. One of the things that is very evident that for many of the believers—particularly the older ones there has been great suffering. Benjamin is one of the older students and we talked with him about his father who had gone through great suffering for Christ. When Benjamin was nine, his father was threatened with a severe beating if he did not deny Christ—he refused and was so severely beaten that he was left for dead. He was found by a neighbor and his family nursed him back to health. These experiences are not unique or rare, particularly amongst the older believers. There are also a number of middle age and younger students in our seminar. Both Kevin and I have had very transparent conversations with a number of them. Dennis is Pastor Nikoli’s son who just returned a week ago from his one year compulsory service in the army. When they say “one year” here compulsory service, they mean one year. In 365 days he only got one day free and he worked from 6 am until 7 pm every day. During that entire year Dennis said he never met another Christian. Of course it was impossible to go to church or find fellowship of any kind, but he was very thankful for the time and how God used this season to deepen his faith and create a sweet dependence in his walk with Christ. He has been an excellent student in the class and is prayerfully considering his future and the possibility of ministry. Kevin has had some very significant conversations with him on this.

Yesterday (Sunday) we had a very encouraging time worshipping with the Russian believers at their corporate worship service. Pastor Nikoli’s church does not have their own building (like COHBC) so they have to rent an auditorium downtown in the center of Arkhangelsk. Ironically, it is right across the street from the former KGB headquarters for Arkhangelsk. Like us they have to set up all of their sound system Video projector etc. There was a good cross-section of elderly, middle age, college and young people. Pastor Nikoli has a great shepherd’s heart as you see him interacting with the people and praying with them before and after the service. One of the other students, a Pastor from a distant city preached the first sermon and I preached the second on Romans 5:1. The people are very attentive and engaged throughout the service. The singing and music is amazing. They can really sing! Pastor Nikoli had selected several songs that have English counterparts so Kevin and I had some familiarity and could sing along in English. As a part of their service they have a time for people to extend greetings. Anyone visiting from a church from another area will stand and extend greetings to the congregation—I did this on behalf of COHBC and they extend greetings back. Then right in the service they have a time for sharing corporate prayer requests and Pastor Nikoli prays for these requests. He does a great job of being very personal and warm and people seem to respond well to His care and leadership.

After the Church service we walked around downtown Arkhangelsk central square and area.  It was a huge celebration for their “Day of Victory” in WWII. There were thousands of people walking around—it had warmed up quite a bit—even though it was rather cold on Saturday and even snowed some, on Sunday it was quite warm—about 50 and then at the end of the day was in the 60’s. There were many veterans walking around with their medals and at the War memorial they were huge piles of flowers that people had put there in memorial.

We had class the rest of the afternoon and until about 7:30. We dove deep into the doctrine of salvation and talked about the death of Christ and His substitution for us on the cross. It was a very encouraging time to reflect together with the men on these great truths. There still was lots of heat and animation though as we discussed various issues and questions. Sometimes it bordered on being out of control, particularly when arguments (heated discussions) arise between students. At one point somehow they got into a huge altercation about demons and it took quite a bit of coercion to get back on the main topic. Consistently we have sought to bring the men back to the Scriptures. They tend to have interesting ideas and opinions that often are not connected to the biblical text. Numerous times someone would express an opinion or disagreement and Kevin would say—but what does the Scripture say, then would guide them to appropriate biblical texts and let Scriptural truth guide the discussion. The men seem to be very responsive to this. A number of the men are very diligent students of the word. Yevgeni, the pastor from Cotlas (19 hours away by train) always has his laptop on and has Bible software going and asks questions at times about the original languages—one of the other students has his Greek New Testament in class with a Greek dictionary and I have had rather in depth discussions with him. I’m glad I brought my Greek New Testament along. Even though we have had lots of discussions and dialogue, we have been able to stay on a fairly good pace, though we have gotten behind some. Today we have a lot to cover—they really want to talk about the “Eternal Security” issue which certainly promises to be an animated and interesting discussion.

We have had many good conversations with Pastor Nikoli and have clearly sensed his heart for this city and entire region of Arkhangelsk. There are many, many opportunities for the gospel and countless cities and towns with no gospel witness. Even many with a gathering of believers don’t have a pastor. It is clear that the greatest need is for godly leadership that can equip the believers in the church to reach out to this field that is “white unto harvest.” Pastor Nikoli said that few people want to come and minister here because it is so cold and difficult to live during the long winters. He has asked countless times of the denominations leadership in Moscow for help, but no one has come. He also said that he is not aware of any foreign missionaries ministering in this region at all. There is a lot of activity in Moscow and across Siberia and Southern Russia, but here in the North of Russia  there is a great need with not many workers. Please pray that God would use the men in the classes that have been studying the last three years to effectively minister to the church and the lost. There is a great need—a strategic opportunity and we need to pray that God would do a work. What a privilege to be involved together with them.

Please be praying for our last day, and then we will start the long trip home right after class.

Thank-you for your prayers,

John

 

 

News from John and Kevin

Greetings from Arkhangelsk—May 8, 2010

 

Kevin and I are doing well and have completed our first session of teaching the men on Friday evening. During the day, we had to go to the Post Office with Pastor Nikoli to get our passports registered which was a rather tedious ordeal where we waited while Pastor Nikoli stood in various lines to take care of the needed paperwork. He kept saying “Welcome to Russia!” as waiting in lines is a way of life here. I was rather tired and actually fell asleep while standing in the Post Office, but woke up while I was falling down and kind of caught myself against a nearby wall with some commotion which made everyone stare at the strange American. That kept me awake for awhile. We are staying in Pastor Nikoli’s apartment with his wife Tia and his daughter Julia (23) and son Dennis (21). They are a delightful family who have a dear love for Christ and deep involvement in ministry, plus lots of joy and laughter. A week ago Dennis just finished his one year compulsory service with the Russian Military. He is joining us for our seminar and speaks English well. Tia, is a very gracious pastor’s wife for Pastor Nikoli and is a great cook. She also cooks the meals for the seminar.

The first session of the seminar went well and was a good introduction to the doctrine of salvation. There are about fifteen students in the seminar and some others that are sitting in. Most of men who were here three years ago when we did the Hermeneutics class are here. It is good to renew their acquaintance. We started by focusing on the heart and glory of the Gospel. Our desire is that this course would not just cover the facts of the doctrine of salvation, but the heart of the Gospel. We have shared with the men that our goals for the course are that they would 1) understand the gospel, 2) love the gospel and 3) apply the gospel in their lives and ministries. Kevin did an excellent job introducing the doctrine of man, why God created us---for His glory. The men were very responsive to his teaching. Today we will focus on the doctrine of sin—why there is such a need for the gospel, then we will begin to walk through the actual doctrine of salvation. We would appreciate your prayers very much as we will hit some of the controversial issues today, but our desire most of all is that the men would have a heart for the gospel and they would be deeply moved to live the gospel.

Hoping in Christ,

John