SGA’s Eric Mock recently had the opportunity to again visit Russia’s remote, frigid Yakutsk region in the Far East to help local churches with Bible training. Eric describes the challenges believers in this region face, while also calling for prayer—asking for God’s blessing on these classes . . . 

As I write this, I am at a gathering of men who have traveled here from very distant towns, some nearly 900 miles away. The temperature is 45 degrees below zero, and the frozen air has turned to a light fog of ice crystals. 

Our brothers here have significant challenges. They have been laboring in cities where there are only 5-6 believers and no pastors. Yet they are intent on proclaiming the Gospel and growing churches. In the Yakutia-Sakha Republic, there are approximately 650 believers among 1 million people. SGA was invited to visit and teach Bible classes to these peoples in Russia’s Far East, and this week we have been teaching through the book of Acts. 

With their first church being planted in the early 1990s, they are in many ways just starting, and many villages remain largely unreached. I have heard heartbreaking stories this week of villages and cities where suicide, violent crime, alcoholism and general hopelessness are the norm.  The need for the Gospel is so great—the need to Reach Russia Now. 

At these Bible training sessions, there are both ethnic Sakha brothers as well as ethnic Russians. They are taught in separate sessions in their own language. We are thankful for the opportunity to help strengthen Christ’s churches in Yakutsk. Pray with us that they will become a great spearhead of faith to advance the Gospel across the Far East.