We are turning to You with the request to share the needs of our brothers and sisters of the church “Light of the Gospel” in Kyzyl (Tuva)

It is very alive, active, growing church that has a good evangelical influence on the local population, by preaching the Gospel to the Tuvan people in the capital of Tuva, Kyzyl, as well as in many villages of the republic.

In the past few years, Pastor Victor Zagvozdkin, and his one-minded helpers, ministers, among of whom there are native people of Tuva that began to give more time and attention for personal mentoring and evangelism in the Church. The church has hosted a several seminars in their city and region. Currently more unbelievers started attending the assembly, and especially they like to come to the youth meetings. It is noticeable that subsidiary churches in districts have a similar picture, brothers are not wasting their time by sitting and waiting. Ministers from Tuva travel from village to village looking for those who are not indifferent to the Gospel, but because of the crime situation in the Republic, it is not safe to do that. Everything was excellent, but the trials came up unexpectedly. On Friday, 11 th March 2016, the roof of their House of Prayer, Church “Light of the Gospel” in Kyzyl has burned down.

Here is the testimony of Pastor Victor Zagvozdkin about the incident:

“On Fridays, we hold a brother’s meeting at 6 p.m., and after that we always have – the church council. As usually, we’ve got together with brothers for the time of fellowship. We actually were studying at the moment first chapter of 1Thessalonians. Approximately at 6:50 all of a sudden the light has started flashing, and then it went out at all. It happens pretty often with the light here, and we did not attach a great value to that. That’s why we were not in a hurry with Oleg (deacon of the Church) and just went to see what happened, and suddenly we see through a window the blaze on the roof. Right away we have realized that it was the fire. We grabbed the jars with water and thought to take a ladder to extinguish it, but when ran out on the street, it became obvious that we are unable to handle it on our own. The flame was already so rampant that a bunch of bystanders had gathered across the street. It turned out that we were in a burning building. Neither smell of the smoke was there nor any signs of the fire, everything was just pretty normal. The roof has burned down literally within ten minutes, like a thatch. We’ve called the firefighters to the scene immediately, they came quickly, but sadly it was impossible to save the roof. The fire eventually was extinguished. The roof burned down to the ashes, the house itself, the walls, the ceilings inside are intact, but all wet. And we still have the freeze almost at -30 ° C.

It is also true that firefighters had overwhelmed everything in the house so badly that it is impossible to congregate there. All the valuable things we have managed to salvage, nothing is damaged and the brothers are all alive, but there is no roof. At this moment we are trying with brothers to decide where to hold Sunday worship services. Please pray about it too. We do not lose heart, but instead we do think that we are going in the right direction…”

The situation with the building of the house of prayer today is as follows. At the beginning we thought, that it is possible to install a new roof with the arrival of warm weather. But, a more closer examination showed that because of the severe soaking of the ceiling and walls, as well as a dross, that was laid up on the roof the restoration is actually problematic. The water is frozen and turned into an ice, the walls are getting warped and breaking down. The ceiling in the sanctuary, where the services are held, under the weight of ice has sagged and it’s extremely twisted, and it may collapse any time. Therefore, even if the ice melts in the spring, the ceiling will remain in the emergency condition. It is hard to get away with minor expenses in this case, and it is necessary either a complete renovation or a new building at all. The board of elders prayed and talked regarding this issue, should we “fix the old skin and stick a new patch” when it could be done a new one? If we talk about the new building, then there will likely be necessary by preliminary calculations $72,000. The Church is ready to invest in the construction of a new house of prayer all their savings, which make up one third of the required amount. Now, before the church stands the primary task of re-registration of land ownership to be able to build a new building. The church has some resources for the groundwork and communications, perhaps partly on the walls.

Please thank to God for the following:

– that the Church of Christ in Tuva grows and develops;

– about the conversion of Tuvan and ministry of the Gospel to their people;

– the church “Light of the Gospel”, which serves the Lord, rejoicing in the trials and do not lose heart.

Please pray also for:

– that the church “Light of the Gospel” has found a place where they could hold worship services.

– about the progress of the process of registration documents on the land, where the house of prayer is

– about collection of funds that are necessary to restore the house of prayer.