Mission Possible UK

Spring News 2014 

I had been advised to travel by train from Finland where I met Ignat and Mirjami Ivanov who had been Bible smugglers during the 1980's and were now launching a new street children initiative in Russia.

The purpose of my visit was the distribution of libraries of Christian books to new churches in remote parts of this massive nation (picture is Richard with Ignat in Moscow on that first trip)

We crossed the Russian border just after midnight and the train ground to a halt followed by a squad of soldiers coming into our carriage.

One approached me and said "Passport! Name!". I had to bite my lip to avoid saying "Bond-James Bond"! 

On arriving in Moscow I thought I was on a film set of Dr Zhivago.

It was December and the temperature was minus 28°. Women were wearing fur coats and what surprised me even more was how attractive they were!

I thought all Russian women looked like shot putters!

 We distributed nearly 100 libraries over the following 2 years but it did not take long for a passion for the Russian street children ministry to grow in me.

One of the girls I met on the street in Moscow on that first trip was Diana (picture on the right.) I will show you another picture that I received of her many years later at the bottom of this news. 

One joy is that many years later, I still work in partnership with Ignat and Mirjami.

Ignat likes quoting Psalm 113: 7 "He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap" And God is using Mission Possible to do just that.

In this news update, we will bring you stories from Russia. Please scroll down!

Meanwhile, thank you for your on-going support of our ministry in Eastern Europe and Africa through prayer and giving.

With gratitude in Christ

Richard 

Julia was fourteen when she started living on Yekaterinburg's city dump and she spent five years there.

She is a living testimony that God still "lifts the needy out of the ash heap".

A victim of abuse, Julia came to our shelter home when she was nineteen, and two months later she gave birth to Vera.

Doctors were concerned that Vera had a hearing problem, but the baby is growing and developing normally.

The latest wonderful news is that Julia and Vera will soon move into their own apartment.

No longer will Julia be living on the streets in Yekaterinburg (see picture to the left).

Mission Possible's street patrols in Yekaterinburg visit places where young drug users seek shelter: pipe tunnels, dumps, and abandoned buildings.

Many of them have spent years living a completely undignified life, cold and filthy.

Our team takes those who are willing to rehabilitation and, when applicable, to maternity hospitals.

They are given a place to live and are visited and given support on a regular basis.

St Petersburg is renowned for many famous buildings including the Winter Palace (now the Hermitage Museum).

But my favourite building in St. Petersburg is Mission Possible's Dream House.

This is where our project directors Vadim and Tanya Taran live with several children once at risk and now adopted by them.

For years now our team in St Petersburg have put on Christmas concerts for the inmates at the youth prison and the juvenile detention school in St. Petersburg.

Three Christian bands and drama groups perform. All the artists are former drug users.

Our goal is to tell these boys that with God they can be set free and delivered from the bondage within them.

Every young man receives a Christmas gift: a big box of treats and warm wool socks knitted by the friends of our ministry.

The young men and the staff anticipate these annual concerts and always ask when they'll see us again.

Asbest: Saved from the Krokodil

When Irina came to our centre in Asbest in the Ural region of Russia with her three daughters, we were her last hope.

Drugs, alcohol, and promiscuous relationships had taken their toll on her.

Irina did not have the money to buy drugs but her friends showed her how to make her own Krokodil drug which is highly addictive and lethal.

Irina's home turned into a place where drug users congregated to make alcohol and drugs.

Her children lived in the midst of it all! The neighbours, however, realized what was taking place and called the police.

Irina was ordered to enrol in a three month detox program.

Childcare officials were ready to deny Irina custody of her children and were about to send them to a government orphanage.

The desperate Irina asked for one last chance and in response the officials directed her to our centre (see picture to left).

She arrived the very same night with her daughters and we gave them a room.

Irina did not talk to anyone for some days.

Then, to everyone's surprise, at one evening's devotional she blurted out, "Please pray for me. I want to become a believer!"

Irina became free from her addictions and began attending a church workers' course and participating in our centre's children's activities.

This mother, who came to us just a year ago, addicted to drugs and desperate, is now ready to serve others! 

Alyona is the newest resident of our home in Alapaevsk which is a town near Asbest.

Because of alcoholism she ended up on the street. She slept in basements and in stairways and washed herself in puddles.

Her two daughters went to live with their grandmother.

It was during a typical freezing Russian winter that Alyona began attending a soup kitchen at a church and there she was encouraged to go to rehabilitation. We had a room for her in our new house.

Alyona quickly understood that this was a new kind of life for her. She became a Christian and her entire life and way of thinking changed.

She began to pray that she could have her daughters with her again.

Alyona's mother, of course, was thrilled to hear of Alyona's change.She had not heard from her in two years.

Alyona wants to grow in faith and become a loving, nurturing mother.

Our team in Alapaevsk are doing all they can to help.

I promised to end this Spring News with another photo of Diana. Constantly I am reminded that our ministry is a transformational ministry and if ever a picture can share this, maybe this is it. After living at a rail station in Moscow and then being kidnapped by a street gang to be used as their 'slave', Diana came to live in our Moscow home. Many years later she was a beautiful bride. Same person, new destiny. To God be the glory.

Please pray for our teams in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Ufa, Alapaevsk, Asbest, Yekaterinburg and Krasnoyarsk as they serve mothers and children at risk in these places. Pray for unconditional love including patience.

Give thanks that so often they see God's amazing grace at work. And pray that they are not discouraged by those stories that do not have these happy endings.

 Richard Wallis

richard.wallis@mpuk.org