Today is part 6 of my ongoing recollection of the last 40 years here. Again, I write this out for the sake of ‘missions history’ and I hope you find it interesting and maybe inspiring.
The Russia Report:
For those who are ‘old-timers’ here at this church (those of you who have been around for 20+ years) this expression “The Russia Report” usually brings up a laugh and reminder of something I gave as a report to the Church family on a summer Sunday in 2004. It wasn’t that it was just a summer missions report about our work in Russia, but I had literally flown in jet-lagged from Moscow, Russia… but on that summer Sunday we were meeting in the outdoor amphitheater at Decatur High School, it was blazing hot with no shade. Don Turner was bringing the sermon that day and he asked if I would give a ‘quick’ update on the work that was in Russia. I was excited to report what I had just seen and experienced. The LifeWay missions team was actually still in the country of Russia working. And I was certainly ready to share what God was doing. Remember… I had just landed from that long journey from Bryansk, Russia with a pretty big case of jet-lag (that’s my excuse). I have no idea how long I gave a report (I personally think this gets exaggerated over the years) but there were lots of sunburn faces by the end, the music was reduced drastically by Stan Fletcher that day, and Don Turner reduced his normal sermon length to a quick encouraging devotional ‘thought’ for the day. But I gave my Russia Report!!!! It’s a date that will live in infamy and will probably be used as a story to make fun of me at my funeral (and I’m OK with that).
Russia:
In about 1998 I met a man on an airplane who was actually a native from south India and a Christian evangelist to that country. He actually became a controversial person years later, but he aggressively invited my wife and I to go with him to India on a crusade event. It was literally on that same day that I had been writing down goals for the upcoming year ahead, and I had written down in my notebook that I was feeling God wanted us to take our church to a greater awareness of our place in the world. Patty and I did go to India with him along with some others from our church. But India actually opened the door in a weird and wonderful way to Russia. India was a one time meaningful trip for us, but it opened our hearts to God’s work in this vast world, and shortly after this we were introduced to some Russians who had recently immigrated to Federal Way. They were looking for help from a church who would go back to Russia and lead children’s camps with them. We knew very, very little about Russia except that it was the former Soviet Union and unfriendly to Christianity. My wife had been the leader of the kids camps from our church in the 90’s so we accepted the invitation and she developed a team and 14 from our church and we went to Russia in the summer of 2000 for the first time. The experience was so rewarding that we continued for a 2nd summer. My daughter was in middle school at the time, and our son in law who was a very young college student (they were of course not girlfriend/boyfriend) were on those teams. Their lives today were totally shaped for missions from the experience of those short-term mission trips. This is their ministry to this language group in the world to this day.
There are tons of Russian friends that I could mention of great importance, and lots and lots of Russian locations I could bring up as part of this important history. But let me highlight two of them:
Gregori Lisitsyn: Gregori is one of the brothers of the whole Lisitsyn clan that we are dear friends with. But Gregori was the one we worked with the most in all the early days. Gregori is the one who pushed so hard to develop an ongoing camp ministry in his home region. Gregori is the one who felt that after growing up in a country that would not allow children under the age of 17 years old to be “brainwashed” and “indoctrinated” with “illegal Christian ideas” — now that his country was opening its borders to Christian work to children he felt there should be a camp ministry for children. Something that had not been legal in almost 100 years in this country. This is what we were able to join for the first time in the year 2000. This is what led to 20 straight years of sending teams to Russia, not only about 75 people from LifeWay but more than 150 people from many other churches that joined us over the years from all over the USA.
Camp Yolochka: It was Gregori’s dream that not only a camp ministry would begin in his region, but that a campground would be purchased and used for the ongoing ministry. He came across a former Soviet Union campground — a “Pioneer Camp” that was up for auction (this was the Soviet Union kids indoctrination camp for Communist training). A few of us at the church put together $35,000 dollars, took it in our pockets to Russia, handed it to Gregori, and he went to the auction and purchased Camp Yolochka. What was a former Communist camp for kids was now a Christian camp where children were taught the Gospel. “Yolochka” by the way is the Russia word for “small tree” or almost like what we might say “Christmas tree.” So the name continues today. I will never forget the first Christian camp we held at Yolochka in 2003. Before the camp opened our team went from building to building and prayed over each space. We ended our prayer walk at the auditorium (called the KLUB) and we sang “Amazing Grace.” I brought up the fact that for decades this place that indoctrinated people to a “no God” belief was now being used to tell the Gospel to the world. It was terribly moving. Just last week I received a video of the kids camp that went on at Camp Yolochka. Hundreds of kids and teens were in worship and growing in Christ. Over the now 20+ years of Camp Yolochka, thousands upon thousands of boys and girls, men and women, have used this camp as a tool. In the current climate of politics in that country it sometimes is scrutinized by the government (that’s an understatement), but the work goes on even as we speak. Camp Yolochka is not just a place in Russia that some of us at LifeWay participated in, it has been a hollowed ground that God allowed many us to be part of His work. It is certainly a place that is a major part of the story for my wife and I. In the current political climate it would not be possible for us to personally go there right now. I would pray that this might change and we can return there again with some of our dearest friends in life. May God bless and use our partners in the Gospel in Russia. May God continue to use and bless the sacred place called “Camp Yolocha.”
