Omsk Siberia

From Ion…

On the way to Siberia God gave me wonderful opportunities to witness to different people about Him. First there was a woman from Moscow who was flying to visit her relatives in Omsk; then, to an American businessman who visited Russia for the first time. In the end, he invited me to visit him in Utah offering a cabin at Yellowstone Park for my family for free.

Arriving in Siberia was like moving back in time. Everything here is like in the old Soviet Union. Everything looks old and the roads are totally damaged.  Omsk is a place of exile where Stalin used to send our brothers in Christ. The city has a sad history of his terror camps. It is interesting that Svetlana’s grandparents were exiled there, spending most of their lives in this region. Her mother was born in this area.

Seminar in Omsk

Here I was met by Josef, one of the leaders, who started a discipleship movement with the younger generation throughout Siberia, very similar to our ILT movement. My role here will not be to initiate the movement but more one of encouragement since they are already on track.  We stayed in a tall apartment building on the 8th floor which was without a lift and natural gas. One thing I did not need to worry about was my daily exercises, since we were performing “great ascending and descending” several times a day.

In spite of everything, I experienced heaven in this remote place, meeting friendly and open people for God’s Word. In four days I had six seminars and many meetings with almost all the pastors and other leaders from the region.  At the first seminar I had only pastors and leaders, and even the president of the Evangelical churches from the region came to study. When I saw those pastors all in tattoos, I figured out that they were former gangsters and drug dealers. It felt like home among them. Teaching them was a real pleasure.

Even though most of them were from baptist churches, they were jumping and screaming “Halleluia”, every time as they were discovering God’s truth for their lives. As always, in the end, the people were asking what is next. I promised them that we will follow up by sending them teachers from Moscow.

On Saturday, I preached on baptism on the city beach where 75 people were baptized and hundreds came to see what was happening. After that I was able to witness and share the Gospel with three policemen. I met wonderful people here. Vladimir and Alla, both with AIDS, invited me to preach at their wedding. Vladimir was a former special forces soldier who fought in Checina, and there he became drug addicted before experiencing a total change through Christ. Later he tried to share Christ with his brother, who responded by stabbing him with a knife. His bride Ala was a prostitute working along the road when she heard the gospel. Now they are rejoicing in Christ together.

I met wonderful people here with stories worthy to be written in a book. I had a very full schedule just driving from one meeting to another, tired but full of joy. Please continue to pray for me as I do not yet know about the nature of my tumor.