LIPETSK, RUSSIA Feb. 27, 2007

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12.

Most people go through life with hope; hope for a better future, hope for good health, hope for companionship, hope for peace, hope for the next generation. Hope is what causes us to get up and face each day. But hope that is deferred or unattainable brings heart break.

There is a place in our world where hope seems to be out of reach. A place where an age of despair has caused an entire nation to live hopeless, heart-broken lives. This place is modern day Russia. I have seen the hopelessness, and the brokenness, first hand in the city of Lipetsk.

Lipetsk is a city of 700,000 located 300 miles south of Moscow. It is the main population center for the region. There are jobs in Lipetsk. It bustles in the morning with people going to work, and going about their daily business. There are streets, parks, flowers, monuments, and people at the bus stops. But in the midst of all of the activity, there is a hopelessness that can be felt in the same way that a cold fog chills the bones. It is a hopelessness of the soul. In the past, Soviet Russia worked hard to deny the existence of God. The regime persecuted those that were brave enough to proclaim the Gospel message that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Soviets are gone, but Christian intolerance and persecution still exists in many parts of the country. The public proclamation of the Gospel is hindered in some areas, and outlawed in others. In Lipetsk there are only 300 born-again Christian believers. This area has a spiritual darkness that is profound.

In the midst of this darkness there is a beacon of light. This beacon is found at the Holy Trinity Evangelical Baptist Church of Lipetsk. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy 1:23…. “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day”. With this same attitude Holy Trinity Church unashamedly proclaims the Gospel of Salvation as a light piercing the darkness. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 1 John 1:5. Because of Holy Trinity’s boldness in the Lord, oppression from the local government is a reality.

 The Holy Trinity Church building was built 4 years ago in an area of Lipetsk that was on the outskirts of town. Since then the population of Lipetsk has grown up around the church. It is one of the only ‘above ground’ evangelical churches in the city. Because of Holy Trinity’s bold stance to proclaim the Gospel, oppression has come to it from the city government. Recently the city performed a ‘building inspection’ and found that the church building was unfit to be occupied. The City of Lipetsk building department determined that the church needed to install running water and a septic system. (Many church buildings in Russia lack running water and septic systems.) The city also gave the church 30 days to find the funding and complete the project. Short of a miracle, this timeline can not be met. This church is in jeopardy of being closed by the city. There is an immediate need for people to give sacrificially to Holy Trinity Church so that this beacon of light and hope are not extinguished in this dark area of the world. There is an immediate need for Christians in the United States to prayerfully support their brothers and sisters in Lipetsk, who have chosen to stay in this dark land and bring the light of the Gospel and the hope of salvation to the lost there.

James 2:14-17 asks, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Each of us has the opportunity to minister the love of Jesus, bringing hope to this dark land, and helping heal their broken hearts. Will you?

Jon Brown

Machaira Ministries