From April 30-May 2, 2017 Reach Out Russia gathered our Eagle Leaders in Perm. These "trainers of trainers" equip churches to implement Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry. Pasha and Tanya Karyakin, whose marvelous life story you do not want to miss,   lead our ministry in Russia. They gave this remarkable report: 

The Russia Report

"Many of our Eagle Leaders had never met.  We spent three  fruitful days sharing our personal lives and our ministry experiences. Through our time together we became involved with each other for cooperation in the future. At the moment, JFYM covers 11 regions of our great country--that involves 16 churches and 152 leaders. Our main goal is a successful Youth Ministry in every Church of Russia church--1,800 of them.

 

We spent much time looking for how we extend our ministry to new territory to train those 1,800 churches! We analyzed our personal and professional growth and the necessary resources needed for each leader. We realized our need to gather annually to share our experiences, to make an assessment of our ministry, to coordinate our plans and actions, and to develop ourselves as leaders.

Our Painful Past

During our time together we arranged for walks around the city of Perm, which is almost 300 years old. Its history is closely linked with Russia's national development during the days of imperial Russia. And we made a journey to the Genocide Museum that revealed the genocide of the Russian people during the Soviet Union. Perm was one of the closed camps of the GULAG system. People were held here who the Soviet government disliked: Christians, politicians, writers, scientists and working people. The  camp was called "Perm-36" and operated until 1986. From 1930 to 1967 more than 30,000 detention spaces were in the USSR and more than 1,600,000 people were killed. It was the hardest time for Christians in our country. There was not one family that was  unaffected by the punitive measures. We realized that we should know this, remember and remind ourselves how urgent our mission is to reach young people with the gospel of Jesus. 

Our Hopeful Future

We are thankful to Reach Out Youth Solutions and, personally, to Barry St. Clair for their enormous contribution to the development of Russian Youth Ministry, for the prayer and the financial support, for their incredible inspiration and life experience which helps us to move forward into the future!

 

Today, more and more pastors and bishops are beginning to realize that we should give attention to the younger generation and share Jesus with them. We believe that soon this vision will become widespread, and that the churches will develop Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry leaders for the youth in Russia."

Pasha, Tanya and their Eagle Leaders are on a mission. From reading their report you can see not only their vision and passion, but also that this ministry will grow exponentially over the next few years.

Thank you because your gifts and prayers make this possible!