BARNAUL – The Lord Jesus said that when we visit prisoners, He accepts it as if we were visiting Himself. He gave a direct command and blessing for prison ministry in His Church. That is why for a long time now prison chaplains and their teams have been working in many regional associations of our Russian brotherhood.

PERM – “Anything is possible” — the annual joint conference of the Challenge Rehabilitation Centers Coalition and the Rehabilitation Ministry of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith.

ULAN-UDE – On June 14 and 15, the East Siberian regional social ministries conference took place in Ulan-Ude. 90 participants came from all over Eastern Siberia: Buryatia, Chita and Irkutsk areas. It is safe to say that the presence of God was at every meeting!

MOSCOW, Oct., 25-27 – The National interdenominational prison ministry conference “Kept the Faith” took place in Moscow. 120 ministers from Sakhalin to Karelia came to participate, almost all regions of Russia were represented. The conference was the forth at this level, it gathered Christians of different denominations, who devoted their lives to ministering to people living in detention facilities and their relatives.

The goal of the conference was to unite the ministers, to strengthen their faith and trust in the Lord at this difficult time, when the admission to detention facilities is becoming limited for evangelical churches in Russia. But the Holy Scripture tells us that “the word of God is not imprisoned” (2 Timothy, 2:9), and the Lord is faithful to His Word!

The Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith was represented at the conference by Deputy Head bishop Vasily Evchik and Head of prison ministry department Sergei Konstantinov. Bishop Evchik shared the word about the faithfulness to the calling, encouraging brothers and sisters in Christ, who devoted their lives to the ministry, like Abraham, who by faith followed his calling, to remain faithful to the calling of God to the end.

The participants of the conference spoke a lot about faith as a trust to the Lord and His Word, about anticipation of His promises and being confident of things not seen. They shared their experience of practical ministry in contemporary circumstances, testimonies of God’s glory in lives and ministry, prayed for the development of prison ministry in Russia. As usual, there were new people, who the Lord calls to the ministry. The Lord makes all things new, opens new horizons of faith and new opportunities in the ministry. Glory and thanks to the Lord!

The Russian church of Christians of Evangelical Faith

ROSTOV-ON-DON (RUSSIA) – Southern regional conference of rehabilitation ministry took place in Rostov-on-Don on October, 26-28. More than 60 participants came from all over southern region of Russia: Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Stavropol, cities of Caucasus and Crimea. Special atmosphere of God’s presence was dwelling at every service.

Bishops Alexei Rudenki and Vladimir Khvalov preached and ministered by prayer. As all participants stayed at a recreation complex, many of them were able to talk in person with the senior ministers, who prayed for them, prophesied and ministered to them.

Pavel Pigurski, regional representative of rehabilitation ministry in Omsk area, shared his experience of cooperating with the government and supporting social projects.

Sergei Kostyushkin, coordinator of “Every home for Christ” project in Siberia shared his experience of preaching the Gospel through printed media. Everyone interested were able to participate in an evangelism project and try to create their own booklets.

We express our gratitude to Christ the Savior Church of Rostov-on-Don. The participants of the conference expressed their desire to make the conference annual. It was suggested to begin to train rehabilitation ministers for the southern region.

Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith

CHISINAU (MOLDOVA) - “Micah” International Organization’s Conference took place on April 8 and 9 in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. The conference was held for churches and social ministries of CIS, for Russian-speaking audience.

IZHEVSK (RUSSIA) - December 1-4, a final session in the city of Izhevsk marked the completion of the unprecedented project for Russian centers of social rehabilitation. During three years (2011 – 2014) directors and workers of the rehabilitation centers were able to go through a training program and improve their skills and level of work of their centers.

NOVOSIBIRSK (RUSSIA) - Novosibirsk is a city in western part of Siberia. It was here that 80 representatives of rehabilitation programs from Siberian cities gathered in the beginning of June. 
In unity and joy they worshiped God and learned from the word of God. Pastors Sergey Potapov from Barnaul, Vitaly Maksimyuk from Novosibirsk, Alexey Ivshin from Izhevsk and Mikhail Koshevarov from Barnaul spoke at the conference and prayed for pastors and leaders. Also, lawyers of the Slavic Law center from Moscow held seminars, which were very useful and practical for the leaders.

NERCHINSK (RUSSIA) - In the end of April, prison ministers of evangelical churches of Trans-Baikal region visited prisons in Nerchinsk. Pastors of ‘Faith, Hope, Love’ Church Pavel and Maria Permyakov had a meeting with women in one of the prisons. Pastor of Blessing Church Nickolay Nizhegorodtsev, missionaries Roman Gura and Svetlana Kolobova went to men’s prison.

This Charity project has been organized to help children whose mothers are in places of imprisonment. All the way till January 7th, when Orthodox Christmas is celebrated in Russia, volunteers will form gifts and deliver them to kids with Christmas greetings from their mothers.

67 people from 5 rehabilitation centers 'Civil Challenge', along with the pastors and ministers of the New Testament Church of Dzerzhinsky, Moscow, spent three days at a Christian recreation center near Kaluga, conducting a conference.

On May 13th through 17th, New Life Rehabilitation Center affiliated with the New Life church of Barnaul hosted the third training session for leaders and workers of rehabilitation programs of Western Siberia.

Rehabilitation Ministry Leader - Alexey Ivshin.

Rehabilitation ministry exists to give chance to people addicted to alcohol and drugs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, become free from addictions and follow Him.