MAGADAN - to this day, this city in the Far East of Russia is associated with the infamous GULAG prison camps. But the area is more than just a dark chapter from Soviet times. It is the land of people who need God. And it is a land where God is at work! Find out more about a small, vibrant church in Ola near Magadan, and how you can help carry Living Hope to the ends of the earth!
Magadan in the Far East of Russia - the gateway to the Kolyma region. To this day, the names of these places stand for the suffering that thousands of people endured in the GULAGs. For decades, prisoners in the Soviet Union were exiled to these prisons, including thousands of Christians, condemned for their faith in God. In the arctic cold and under inhumane conditions, they toiled in the gold mines and in road construction. Most of them never returned.
But God is at work, even in this land of sorrow!
A gloomy Sunday afternoon in Ola near Magadan. Life seems to have come to a standstill. Heavy clouds push the frost onto the deserted streets. The district of Gadlja looks even more deserted. But hundreds of families live in the grey panel apartment buildings. People who often have no work because there is a lack of industrial enterprises. People who drink alcohol to forget that they have no perspective and no hope. People who need God.
Regina also grew up in Gadlja. The sound of children's cheerful laughter can be heard from the young woman's apartment this afternoon. Four girls have come to the English Club today. Regina tells the story of Jesus calming the storm. Then they practise vocabulary while the children make a picture of Jesus and the disciples in the boat...
They learn that it is worth trusting in Jesus because He can calm the storms of life. Their joyful fellowship brings hope into the grey of Gadlja and into the lives of the children. “Every Sunday afternoon, my home is open to them,” says Regina. ”Sometimes up to 15 children come. They know that they are always welcome here and I want to tell them about Jesus, who can change their lives and who once touched my life too, when I was still a child from the panel apartment buildings of Gadlja...”
Even then, the Christians of the Ola church had ministered among the children of Gadlja. For years, Regina had regularly attended the kid's club. She had been the only one who had kept in touch with the Christians even as a teenager - until difficulties in her family had thrown her off course. Her parents had divorced and she had stopped coming to church.
But God's plan didn't end there: one day, a sister from Ola was driving through the city to pick up children and bring them to the church for Christmas. On the other side of the road, she suddenly recognized Regina among the pedestrians. As she couldn't stop, she sent a short message to Regina: “We're celebrating Christmas at the church today, with lots of children and presents. Won't you come too?” Not even a minute passed before Regina's reply arrived. A single word: “Chochu!” (I want!).
Regina, 15 years old at the time, joined the church and stayed there. She accepted Jesus as her Lord and found her home in the community of believers. Later, her mother and her brother also came to faith.
Today, Regina serves in the small church in Ola, and God has especially touched her heart with the need of the children from Gadlja. “I am so grateful,” she says, ”for the Christians who invested tirelessly in my life back then. Today, I can put something in the hearts of the children - something that cannot be found in the whole of Gadlja: living hope in the living God.”
Regina belongs to the fourth generation of Christians in Ola - a place full of history and future.
The brothers and sisters of the small church in Ola have been meeting for over 30 years in a barrack that was built by prisoners of the GULAGs. The building is rotten and dilapidated. The floor is caving in everywhere.
But above all, there is a lack of space for the work among children and teenagers, whose families the Christians of Ola want to reach with the Gospel.
The brothers and sisters of Ola have joined forces to buy a plot of land and build the foundations for a new Prayer House and Hope Center.
But now the funds are exhausted and the church needs help.
Project: # 61 14 40
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Please help build a Prayer House and Hope Center in Ola - a place where children and families can find living hope in the living God!
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