2016-4 Russia - Ukraine - Central Asia FEBC Russian Ministries UPDATE Best Christmas Present: New FM Stations!

In 2017 it will be the 100-year an - Online listener, Egor from Tomsk, FEBC is building a niversary of the Russian Revolu - wrote to us: “I became a believer ation in tion. It seems like the country is because I listened to your online new st e! moving back to those times in broadcasts. I am so glad that Kramatorsk, Ukrain some ways: Political and economic your programs will be heard now uncertainty, lack of freedom. Many on several FM stations here in declare their Russian Orthodox Tomsk . Praise God! I know that Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, faith, but very few people actually many will follow Christ now!” refugees, and people who lost their believe in Jesus as their Lord and loved ones to war will be able to Savior. Ukraine is wide open for hear the healing words of Jesus: evangelism, but the very future of “Come to Me... I will give you FEBC is broadcasting this war-torn country is uncertain. rest.” on the new network in However, God is opening new What a great Christmas present! Siberia. Praise God! doors for us here as well. We have received permission to build a You can see videos of both As we announce the miracle of station in Kramatorsk, in addition Kramatorsk and Odessa on Christmas, we are connecting to the one in Odessa. FEBC russia.febc.org . people to local Christ-centered broadcasts on 99.0 FM will be on churches. It is becoming more and the air soon! YOUR OPPORTUNITY more difficult to evangelize in TO PARTICIPATE Russia, but we are using every Kramatorsk is the new center of We need $2,400 per month to opportunity we can. And God the Donetsk region, and is right on broadcast in six Siberian cities. opens new doors for us! the border with the rebel territory. $9,000 is still needed to launch We are beginning broadcasting via We will be bringing the Good 99.0 FM in Kramatorsk. an FM network of stations in the News of Jesus Christ to people Siberian region of Tomsk. This is on both sides of the conflict . not our network, but we have a good deal which will result in many new listeners hearing the Good News. We will be on in the following cities: Asino, Seversk, Melnikovo, Strezhevoy, Nizh - nevartovsk, and Tomsk, with a combined population of more than 1 million people.

This is a miracle beyond anything we hoped for. This is a clear answer to your prayers and the prayers of Russian believers for Because of these new stations, millions of families will be able to new opportunities to broadcast the hear the Good News in Siberia and in war-torn Eastern Ukraine. Good News. Father-Son Program Changes Lives by Victor Akhterov I was privileged to teach a group of FEBC-Russia’s most popular students in St. Petersburg. Right broadcasters. “ My main goal is to before my session they spent a help people like me, people who Russia holds the first place in the week with a master teacher, grew up in a non-Christian world for teen suicide. Vladimir Sarapulov; students environment, to discover who talked about him non-stop. Jesus is. ” That’s 96% of the popu - Svetlana wrote to us saying that lation of Russia. her teenage daughter was suicidal since the age of 12. Kids were Evgeny broadcasts two hours every making fun of her at school. day, helping his listeners understand what it means to be a Dozens of Christian today. And listeners testimonies from respond - different circumstances, ho different ages. Vika, 5 wrote: suicidal teens w “When we go to sleep, my Mom lays down with me, and we listen found Jesus. to your program for a while. You Vladimir Sarapulov: are so happy that sometimes I want “Helping people rebuilt their to jump for joy, too, instead of And then someone told her about father-son relationships is a sleep. We did not know about God Evgeny’s programs on Periscope. privilege. But helping them build before, but now I pray to Him all She became a fan, started asking a relationship with the Heavenly the time. Especially at night when I questions, invited others to listen. Father is pure joy. am scared.” Svetlana wrote to Evgeny, “My Than you, friends, for making our husband died several years ago in a ministry possible.” Another group that Evgeny reaches terrorist attack, and you became a is young people on Periscope, a father figure not only for my new system online. He started daughter, but for her friends as Vladimir was the twelfth child in doing this only recently, and well.” Svetlana and her daughter his family. They lived deep in already has more than 45,000 knew nothing about Christ, but Siberia, right after WWII. subscribers, and millions of likes. recently they decided to visit a And dozens of testimonies from church, together. “My parents decided they must teens who were suicidal but found provide at least one of the children new hope for living in Jesus. Continued on page 4. with a decent education, and I was the lucky one.” He became one of the most decorated teachers and university professors in the region. “But my life was a mess,” he shared. “I was not a good husband or a good father. But everything began changing when my younger son, Evgeny, became a Christian.”

As a cadet in the military KGB school, Evgeny was listening to FEBC broadcasts, thinking that it was a nonsensical religion for naive, week people. It was several Evgeny Sarapulov: years later when he said yes to “The vast majority of Russian people grew up in families where faith Jesus. was never discussed. While people know little about the Gospel, they long for God’s love, for His truth. We help them meet the Lord.” Today, Evgeny Sarapulov is one of Helping Orphans in Russia & Ukraine

For many years now, FEBC has “I just learned that Maxim, now been active in helping Russian and 17, was just baptized in water, Ukrainian families adopt orphans. and is the most active teen in his Most of them are “social orphans,” youth group ,” said Vladimir. children of unfit parents. Recently his adopted daughter “I’m the happiest received an e-mail from her class - mate. Yuri used to be the most person alive disruptive kid in our orphanage We often help orphaned children Bible study group. He wrote, because I made a meet potential adoptive parents “I’m the happiest person alive be - commitment to during weekend outings. cause I just made a commitment to ” follow Jesus. Please thank your fa - follow Jesus. become a foster guardian without ther for believing that God’s Word revoking her parental rights. will get to us one day.” Every such tragedy is complex, and often the system treats these Tatyana Vaganova , who hosts the Our goal is to help people become children more harshly than their Excellent Family program in followers of Christ. While pursuing abusive families. We work to help Moscow says, “We do all we can to this goal, we help save families. godly families take children in by help millions of families who are And we help abandoned, abused, becoming adoptive, or long-term on the verge of being disintegrated, and unloved children find new, foster care parents. When possible, to keep their marriages together.” loving homes. we help keep families together. We also provide a lot of practical, Maria , a Christian from Moscow, down-to-earth support to those who was helping a single mother with a want to adopt. However, this is a drinking problem raise her four life-changing decision not only for kids. Our experts helped her the orphans, but for the families. Recently, we helped a couple become a foster family because their teenage daughter was not yet ready for an adopted sibling. Our hosts and experts are careful, experienced, and passionate.

In Ukraine, our missionary Vladimir Savenkov zealously Even the best government promotes adoption on the radio . He Vladimir Savenkov: facilities cannot provide a healthy and his wife Elena became foster “Helping orphans accept the love family experience for abandoned and adoptive parents to six of the Father is what I live for. children. Each of the children children. Vladimir also serves Thank you for helping us bring pictured have a history of abuse. children who still live in this message to millions.” orphanages. His biggest reward is Some were abandoned because when those orphans come to know they are the “wrong race.” One YOUR OPPORTUNITY Christ. was severely beaten by a drunken TO PARTICIPATE father. One girl said, “I have never We need $1,400 per month to been hugged before.” Last week, he received the news from Maxim, who was taken from produce and broadcast the We mobilize the church to be his family when he was seven. His Excellent Family program in there for these kids. alcoholic father was also deeply Russia and Ukraine. involved with occult teachings. Father-Son Program Saves Lives Continued from Page 3 YOUTH: The most popular program that Evgeny does is when he invites his father, Vladimir, to be with him HONEST DIALOG on the program . These father-son dialogues help thousands of Russian people understand how to com - municate, how fathers and sons can talk to each other, Every Tuesday in a small studio in Moscow, Oleg and, most importantly, how important it is to seek Shevkun, FEBC-Russia’s senior broadcaster, sits God, for He can be found, in Jesus. down with several non-Christian students to read the Bible and talk about their reactions on air. Vladimir Sarapulov, who wrote several books, says, All of the students had very little exposure to “The fact that I was a far from perfect father helps listeners identify with us. Like most Russians, I drank Christianity, so they started at the beginning in the a lot as my children were growing up. But people see Old Testament, then the New Testament and just Jesus’ healing power in our relationship, as we talk on recently went through the Sermon on the Mount the air. It is still not perfect, of course, but listeners passages in the Gospels. comment that they feel love and understanding, and Speaking on the audience and style of the pro - acceptance and wisdom, as we talk. I am grateful to gram, Oleg says, “They just want someone to talk God that He lets me do this with my son.” to them and talk with them. That’s where we married the Internet with talk radio.” Friends, there is nothing better in life than being used On a recent program in which the woman at the by God, and both Vladimir and Evgeny expressed this feeling to me. But we cannot minister without you. well was being discussed, one of our students said, Those teens who are being pulled out of the devil’s “Man, this Jesus, He always surprises me. The grasp of death are alive today because you support the things He’s doing are totally unexpected; it’s not ministry of FEBC. Thank you for doing your part, what I would think to do.” giving power to the voice of the Church in Russia. Oleg chuckled and said, “We share a few things in common here—He surprises me just as much, in fact, He’s been surprising me for the last 30 years of my Christian life. And that’s a great place to start.” With the loss of some of our FM broadcast - Victor Akhterov licenses due to the newest government restrictions, Director of FEBC Russian Ministries it could be seen as step back, but broadcasters like

FEBC Russian Ministries Update is a quarterly newsletter Oleg are looking towards the growing Internet published by FEBC Russian Ministries, Box 1, La Mirada, CA audience. These are the types of new programs that 90637 • (562) 947-4651 e-mail: [email protected] • russia.febc.org are on the horizon for FEBC Russia. Programs like these prepare atheists, seekers Photos used in FEBC RM Update are not always of actual listeners for purposes of privacy and security. and non-believers in general for conversations with Christians, and in the long-term: salvation. In Canada: FEBCanada, 3200-8888 Odlin Crescent, Richmond, B.C. V6X 3Z8 - make cheques payable to FEBCanada In Australia: FEBC, P. O. Box 183, Caringbah NSW 1495 In New Zealand: VoF, P. O. Box 620, Masterton, NZ 5915 In UK: Feba, Ivy Arch Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 8BX In South Africa: FEBA radio, P. O. Box 26270, Gezina 0031 In Russia: Radio Teos, P. O. Box 110, St. Petersburg 190000

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