Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
As the nation goes through record-freezing weather, many can understand the concept of so-called “frostbite evangelism” in what is officially the coldest inhabited place on earth. In Russia’s far east, home to the vast frozen tundra of Yakutia, temperatures in January can plummet to minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit.
At such bone-chilling temperatures, exposed skin suffers frostbite in seconds, and beards and eyebrows freeze solid. Yet local Christian missionaries, brimming with evangelistic zeal, don’t let the extreme Arctic conditions or the challenge of traveling hundreds of miles across treacherous icy terrain put them off. They’re on a mission to share the good news with people in the remotest outposts of Siberia and neighboring Yakutia in Russia’s far east, a region that’s larger than Canada.
Alexander is a local missionary pastor in Irkutsk, Siberia. He is one of thousands of local pastors and evangelical churches in the former Soviet Union supported by U.S.-based mission organization Slavic Gospel Association, ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of families, widows and orphans across 11 time zones. For Alexander, the daunting Siberian tundra offers a vast mission field.
READ: Ice Age Bear Found Perfectly Preserved in Siberia
During winter, members of his congregation brave freezing conditions to take the gospel message to the Buryats, a minority ethnic people of Mongolian origin that traditionally worship the sun, moon and stars. “There are many heights in the places they live, where their tribal people offer sacrifices,” he said.
After communism
After decades of official atheism under communist rule, many Buryats don’t believe in God and have never even heard of Jesus Christ. It’s a difficult mission field, but Alexander and his faithful flock support the growing local church among the Buryat people. On a recent visit, Alexander preached from book of Joshua and encouraged the local Buryat pastor. “He’d never thought about (the Buryats) as a unique (people group) with characteristics, viewpoints, life principles and so on,” he said. “But when he began to consider this, he changed his attitude and (Buryats) began to attend the church.”
Meanwhile, an SGA-supported team in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region braves icy roads and tracks often deep in snow to travel 350 miles visiting remote orphanages, part of the local Orphans Reborn outreach
“Many of these children feel unwanted and abandoned,” SGA senior vice president Eric Mock said. “They’ve never felt the love of a parent or heard that God loves them. The local Orphans Reborn teams show them the love and attention they’re craving, and share the good news of the Bible with them.
–Dwight Widaman
