Reaching Russia

This article was posted February 27, 2019. 

Shalom from Moscow!

The wonderful season of the winter holidays of Hanukkah and Christmas is behind us. We have said goodbye to the year 2017 and this is a time to draw some conclusions.

The year 2017 was a good for me. Last year I celebrated the 25th anniversary of my ministry in the Messianic movement in Russia. Last year, my second grandson Baruch was born. And I am very proud that our Moscow Messianic Jewish congregation, Yeshua Kehilat, continues to grow and develop spiritually. We continue to focus on the preparation of leaders for the Messianic communities in the countries of the former Soviet Republics. This year we are planning a seminar for leaders in Minsk and we expect representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and the Baltic states. At the end of last year the Messianic Union of Russia appointed me to develop a generic course for new members of the Messianic communities. The course will include three main topics: the holidays of the Jewish people, a brief history of Jewish-Christian relations and the basics of Messianic theology. The objective of this course is to give a new person the core values of the Messianic Jewish movement.

We are also continuing to develop our new course on healing emotional wounds and we are seeing very good progress in those who went through this course.

Of course, the past year had some problems. I want to mention that Russia is experiencing a really tough period. The economic crisis has hit the population of Russia. About fifty-five percent of Russians said that the crisis has affected them personally. This means that the crisis has especially affected elderly people, disabled people and pensioners. Our Moscow Messianic congregation continues to serve these people.

The second challenge of the past year was a new law that restricts freedom of religion in Russia. This law was passed in Parliament in July 2017. Unfortunately, many religious organizations (particularly Protestants and evangelicals) are faced with a new reality.

I ask you to pray for and support our ministry as this is vital for these people. I believe that with God’s love and mercy we can continue to carry the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah to the Jewish and non-Jewish people of Russia.

Yours in Messiah,

Kirill P