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REACH participants take part in a training programme while living and working with people from other nations and backgrounds to help prepare for global missions. One team has been working with OM to reach people in least-reached regions of Siberia.
Their goal has been to build friendships with local people to share God’s love with them, developing relationships with the local youth through various projects and clubs. During the trips they have opportunity not only to see but also to serve the people they have been learning about.
“While getting to know the region where we came to serve, we went to the mountain where sacrifices are made to the spirits. We were shocked to see it. When we hear about it but don’t have any contact with it, it seems to be so far and untrue. Now we saw it ourselves and once again realized the need to share the Gospel,” said Elina* (Russia).
The students interacted with different groups of people: they held youth meetings and events for children from the least-reached nations, visited families, and helped socially vulnerable categories of people. In small groups they visited villagers’ homes, distributing calendars with Bible verses in the local language. During the visits they were privileged to pray with some of the people they met.
During the trip, the students also shared God’s love through social work – they helped people, fed the homeless, and sorted clothes for those in need. And they visited orphanages where they ran children’s programmes for the young people.
For many of the team, a visit to an orphanage was a testimony of how God opens doors for ministry. “We had severe weather conditions that made it impossible to travel to the villages. Our plans changed and we didn’t know what to do,” Katya* (Russia) explained. But God provided a ministry for the team – the pastor of a local church invited the team to go to an orphanage.
“Usually visits to such places should be approved within a few days. The Lord opened the doors, we prepared the programme and presents. We had a wonderful time with the children and their teachers. We experienced God’s work and His guidance.
“The fact that we were able to visit the orphanage is a miracle from God. He opened the closed that we were not able to open ourselves. Each of us learnt how to be flexible and humble before the Lord.”
During the visit, team members made themselves available for the children to talk to them and share things that worried them.
“The teenagers there were very open to talk to us. We held workshops during which we could listen to children and give them a piece of our heart,” Elina said.
“What seemed quite ordinary to us: hugging, listening, talking, was something unusual for them. Each of us had a sincere dialogue with children. We prayed beforehand that our hearts would be open and that the children would be able to trust us and talk about their feelings and what they were going through. Several teenagers shared their pain with me, and I was able to encourage them and tell them about the hope that God gives.”
During the trip, students had the opportunity to pass on the experience they have gained during their studies to other believers.
“One of the goals of our trip was to inspire local Jesus followers to have a ministry outside church. We organised outreach and showed how to share the gospel in creative ways. After the training about 100 local believers participated in outreach with us,” Sofiya* (Russia) shared.
The outreach inspired local Jesus followers. Sophiya said, “Local believers were very bold; they were not afraid to talk to people and exchange contacts. Several believers desire to develop sharing the gospel in creative ways in their churches.”
Please pray for Dina and her mother that they continue to seek the truth in Jesus Christ.
Pray for the local believers who joined the outreach team. Pray for them to continue to be bold as they share the gospel.
Pray for the participants of the REACH programme as they learn more about God’s heart for the least-reached and find their place in His plan.
* name changed
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