Discipleship and Mentoring in a Russian Context

Preparing for a cookout - Russian Style

Karen and I came to Russia with the plan to church plant. Our desire was to plant a church that would reproduce itself and hopefully spark a church planting movement. We were surprised when the Lord changed our focus from ‘our plans’ and brought us alongside an existing indigenous church planting movement. Within the context of that movement our primary ministry is discipling young believers.

Discipling young believers has both a formal and informal component. The formal typically comes though times of teaching, observing ministry and helping hone ministry skills, one on one mentoring and giving books and other study tools to developing leaders.

Informal mentoring and discipleship is more of a natural process of sharing lives together. In Russia this means drinking lots of tea, going to the banya and other relational activities. Shared meals, and ministry trips together are also ways to mentor/disciple young believers. Often in these settings we are asked just to share from our years as living as a Christian couple. During these times we seldom see immediate evidence of our ministry, but often we later hear comments about things we said which touched people’s lives challenging or encouraging them in their walk as believers.

Last week we had our regular schedule of formal discipleship times, teaching at 3 rehabilitation centers and one house group. During the week Karen asked some of the leaders in Balakhna/Gorodets if we could plan a cook-out / banya day. Everyone thought it was a great idea, so went to work to make it happen. We bought meat, prepared some salads, brought along some pickles, jams and relishes that we made last fall.

Pastor Oleg cooking shashlik

Just enjoying our friendship

The cookout took place at the recently opened Gorodetski Social Center. This is a typical Russian village home which the church has rented as a shelter/rehab for homeless people. As is common with most village houses there is a garden behind the house and a banya. When we arrived the brothers were starting a campfire for the cookout, and the wood stove in the banya was heated and waiting.

Pastor Oleg after the Banya

Karen made pasta salad, and American style cole slaw. These are always a hit with our Russian friends. Most Russians who have not tasted these look at them with a “what is this” look, but after a taste they quickly load their plates. There was enough shashlik (Russian Shish kabobs) so everyone could stuff themselves.

We enjoyed the day sharing our food and our lives. After the meal, over a cup of tea and cookies we discussed the possibility of organizing a children’s neighborhood evangelistic outreach. The weather was wonderful, warm and sunny. After dinner we all gathered in the house for a couple of hours of music and worship together.

Anya and Ira

Natasha playing with the resident kitten

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The Story of Russia

Photo from the siege of Leningrad

Today the woman who owns our apartment came by to collect the rent. She is a friend and a believer so we sat, drank tea and chatted for a while, talking about her family.

During WWII when her parents were children her mother's family lived in Leningrad (St Petersburg). In 1941 her grandfather disappeared in one of Stalin's camps never to be seen again. That year, because of the war, the city administration sent many of the children out of the city to live in a refugee camp. Margarita's mother and aunt were in the group. Shortly thereafter the city was completely closed off by the Nazi siege making it impossible for those who stayed to leave and over 1 million citizens died from cold and starvation during the siege. Because of the danger children began to be evacuated from the camp further to the east. The children who were not evacuated from the camp all died when the Nazi's bombed the refugee camp. Today there is a memorial at the camp location dedicated to those children

Margarita's mother, then 11 years old, her aunt age 17 and their mother were evacuated to the small city of Bogorodsk where the three all lived in a one room apartment. The mother was ill and could only lie on the sofa all the time. The two daughters age 11 and 17 began to make hats and handbags to sell in the local market, earning just enough money to not completely starve to death. They were among the fortunate who survived the war. In 1945 they returned to Leningrad, but everything they owned was gone and all their friends were dead so they returned to the Nizhny Novgorod area. The two sisters entered college and went on to become school teachers.

An uncle served in the Soviet army. He fought during the siege of Leningrad as a machine gunner. He was wounded by an artillery barrage and spent months in the hospital. Later he marched with the Soviet army through eastern Europe, into Germany and he was part of a group of Russian soldiers who met the American army on the Elbe river in 1945. He with the average soldiers were happy to meet the Americans. Everyone hugged, drank and celebrated together. Quickly, however, the communist officers separated the two groups so as to not allow the Russians to be “contaminated” by the capitalists.

As we listened to this story I wondered about the great-grandparents. They would have been living in St. Petersburg during the revolution and the civil war. What did they live through? Why did one of their sons end up dying in a Stalinist labor camp? What was life like for them after 1919?

As Margarita said, “Our family story is the story of Russia. You can sit and talk with any family here today and hear the same story.” The story of Russia is the story of a strong, resilient people who have suffered much. We are always amazed when we get a glimpse into the lives of the average Russian family, and we hear some of the heartbreak, tragedy and triumph.

Here is an interesting link showing photos of modern St.Petersburg merged with photos from the war http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/809.html

The Cross & The Switchblade

“The Cross and the Switchblade” was one of the first Christian books I read. I was 18 years old and searching for God. I was asking Him to reveal Himself to me when I stole a copy of this book! I can remember sitting on my bed reading the book and crying and I prayed, “God, if there are people anywhere like this in the world, I want to meet them." The book had a powerful impact upon me. It was several weeks after that I was invited to a revival meeting at First Assembly of God, Anderson, Indiana. That night I heard the Gospel preached and responded to the altar call. Since that day I have been trying to follow Christ as a disciple.

Over the years I have heard many similar stories about the impact of this book. People are touched by the power of God when they read it. I believe that this book crosses culture and that it continues to impact lives over 40 years after it's publication. Because of this Karen and I have been seeking to purchase a bulk amount of the book in the Russian language in order to distribute them in Russian prisons and rehab centers.


We received permission to reprint the book for free distribution from the Russian copyright holders! We then talked with a local publisher who said they could print a very simple version for about $.30 per copy! We were excited and in just two weeks we raised $600.00. This would allow us to print 2000 copies! So we were making plans when we received news that there was a big misunderstanding. The printing cost would be much higher, but still reasonable at about $1.40 per copy if we print 1000 copies. If we print only 500 copies the cost is almost $2.25 per copy, so it makes more sense to print 1000. With that said, we still need about $600.00 in order to be able to print this book.

We are asking everyone who reads this to prayerfully consider giving toward this project. We have the opportunity to impact thousands of lives. Books distributed in the Russian prison system are passed from hand to hand, and read over and over again. Each book will contain contact information for a local church, faith based rehab center and a center for those needing transitional housing as they leave the prison system. Thanks you for reading this. Pray with us for the completion of this project and the continuing impact of this book as people read it. Working together we can reach thousands of people with the life-changing message of the Gospel.

Easter 2010

Easter Sunday service at Cornerstone Church in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia was exciting, energizing, thought provoking, serious, solemn, cheerful, profound, meaningful and the adjectives roll on....... What is remarkably significant is that in this church, every day is Easter. Every day the resurrection power of Jesus is carried purposefully out into the community and the words of the Bible are put to practical action. They do it through the testimonies of their own lives. Having found liberation from their past and new life in Christ they don’t simply move on with their own life now restored, but they turn back and reach out to those who are still locked in the bondage of their sin.

Every day they are out on the streets and back alleys bringing the message of life and hope to those whose lives have been destroyed by drugs and alcohol, and helping homeless people find themselves and the dignity that they have lost.

People newly released from prison have a place to go to gain fresh perspective of life while they reorient themselves to living on the outside.




On the left is a group of people from the Social Center for the homeless. They were invited into the sanctuary before anyone else could be seated.

Each time someone chooses to come in off the streets they are brought into a group home environment where they are tenderly cleaned up, given fresh clothes, their own bed and are worked into becoming a part of a family again. The family consists of those who have been where they are and understand what they are going through. After a period of adjustment they are assisted at finding a job. Over the course of a year they grow in a new found relationship with Christ as well as a new found hope and sense of dignity in their personhood.

Below are the people who came forward during the Sunday service in order to pray to receive Christ into their life. Most of them will go to a rehabilitation center on Monday.




















The young woman in red has recently been released from prison. She wants to get free from the curse of drug addiction. The lady on the left is her mother. Mom’s name is Faith. About a year and a half ago Faith came into the Social Center as a homeless alcoholic. She is now a radiant woman of God who mentors young women going through the rehab program. We are all praying together for her daughter to find the same liberation that her mom found.








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