Ministry to the native peoples of the North

Andrey was born in Crimea in the family of believers. He is married and has got three daughters. When Andrey was young, the Christians in his country were under persecution. His grandparents were believers as well. When he was 12, he took part in the thousandth anniversary celebration of the Baptism of Rus. A big number of people confessed their sins that day, and among them was Andrey. Two years later God’s words touched his heart in a special way when he was at church. After that Andrey made a decision to follow Christ.

When Andrey was 16, he began to preach with sincere heart. When he was about 18 he became a youth leader in the local church. After the army, he was involved in the four-year youth ministry. He and his friends visited the elderly, played the guitar, organized youth meetings as well as different trips and picnics, children’s camps.

As a teenager, Andrey was interested in the faraway ministry. He listened a lot of testimonies from other missionaries on the conference in Irpen, near Kiev. Andrey felt that God called him to serve among the nations of the North.

In 2000, when Andrey was 23, he came to Yakutia the first time. He became a participant of the three-month trip by car and visited Kolyma, Yakutia and Chukotka. After that he stayed in the village of Kolymskoye for two years where 80% of the population were the Chukchi, Yakuts, Evens, and Yukaghirs. Eight people were baptized while he was there. Five of them were the Chukchi, and about thirty people came for worships.

In 2002 Andrey married Galya. Before this God put in Galya’s heart a big desire to be a missionary. At that time she was a student of the missionary department in the Simferopol Evangelical Baptist Center. There she felt she must work in His fields. Thus, their meeting became a start point not only of a new family, but also of a new team. After their wedding, Andrey and his wife served at the same place for two years. Their older daughter Alisa was born in the North.

Later Andrey came back to the North for a month and then in winter in 2016. Andrey spent five years in the Far North and in Siberia. In February 2017 his family moved to one of the northern towns.

The population of the Yakut town is 25 000 people and 90% of them are the native peoples. Soon there will be filmed a historical movie about Sakha people, their life and culture. This town was chosen purposely as the center of pagan culture. People who want to know about living God, experience attacks from the relatives and the spirits. Andrey often hears from people they are pagans or atheists. When kids and young people start attending the church, the devil tries to prevent them from doing so. Parents forbid their children to go to church. They also spread rumors among the young people that Christians destroy their culture and make people to accept Slavic God. That’s why people there have false fear.

Two ways of the ministry are used in order to reach faraway villages of the North – in summer the brothers get there by car and by plane. There is already an airplane for this ministry. The pilots try to get all necessary skills. Andrey is also involved in this project. Within 500 km (310 miles) there are twenty-three unreached villages.
The expected result of this ministry is work in the local church, discipleship with exhortation, missionary, strengthening of the local church, organization of the ministry for children and sisters, participation in the air-ministry and car trips.

Just after arrival, Andrey’s family immediately joined the ministry. Andrey, Galina and their children started visiting the villages. Andrey preaches in the local community centers establishing friendship with the Yakut people. Children are getting used to the cold weather in this region. It is -43 F in January and it snows a lot. They faced some challenging conditions: toilets are outside the house and there are a lot of poor large families. These people often are in need. They are happy to have some food and clothes, so Andrey and Galya usually take necessary supplies and Christian literature with them. Andrey is surprised people take a lot of literature as it was in 1990’s. One brother in Christ wasn’t able to leave his house because of his sickness. He gave his car to the missionaries who drove about thousand miles to share the Gospel in the villages. The distance between the villages in this country are different from Europe. If you want to visit a neighboring village, you need to drive hours by car. The brothers visit believers there encouraging them. Also they have holy communion with them. In the villages people worship at home. Sometimes there are no men in some families, they also need physical help.

Of course, Andrey’s musical family takes part in the worship group in the local church. Andrey is involved in the youth ministry in the church. God has brought fifteen young Yakuts from non-Christian families to the youth Bible study. Galina works with women and children.

The ministry spreads out rapidly. Andrey and Galina were able to establish good relationship with several schools, and they are invited there again and again. People have a desire to hear the Gospel and are glad to get spiritual literature. At Christmas Andrey and Galina got an access to the nursing home, the orphanage, secondary and higher schools, sports school. They went there with presents and greetings.
Andrey took part in a missionary trip to the Laptev Sea where the Dolgans live. They went there by two jeeps in March.

After Andrey and Galina visited some villages, they asked inhabitants if there are people who never heard about Christ. And there were no such people. That means the Gospel already has reached the ends of the earth. Of course, many people do not know the Gospel completely and that Christ died for them, took their sins upon Himself and is close to them, loves them and wants to save them. So there is a big need in those who would go and preach. God needs people whom the Lord will use for His glory, especially in such distance places. There is a lot of work to do in God’s fields. We want everyone to take the great commission of Christ very seriously.
” Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Tetyana Arterchuk