Enter Fields with Emerging Needs

On December 25, 1991, Soviet President Gorbachev announced his resignation. The Soviet Union Supreme Soviet passed a resolution the next day announced that the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and the 69 years of Soviet Union had since officially dissolved into 15 independent countries. From one to fifteen, the political situation has undergone a great change and the people’s life has also undergone great changes. More than 70% of the people live below the poverty line due to the unstable economic system from communal ownership to private ownership. A small number of people are rich, the majority of whom are destitute. The government spending plummets and the taxation is heavy. A collapse of the credit system caused a large number of factories to collapse. Prices skyrocketed 1,600 times, depreciating the ruble and withdrawing from the currencies of international transactions, resulting in a long-term economic recession.

Preach the Gospel

Russia which was closed to the outside for a long time is now liberalized. There was a Christian mission in Latvia, one of the independent nations. In 1993, Rev. Susan Chou, the founder of GLEC, went to attend the conference and received God’s calling over there. As a result, the Global Life Enrichment Center was founded in 1995. It started to support the ministry of Chinese Church in Moscow There were several missionaries sent to serve in that church: Pastor Yi Ming, Rev. Chongzhi Gao, elder Yingzuo Chen, Rev. Rongxin Zheng, Pastor Guoqing Li and others.

Educate Leaders

In order to strengthen the local church, the Global Enrichment Theological Seminary started to offer its first class in Moscow since 2003 and held the first graduation ceremony in May 2006 at the Gospel Camp meeting. Most of graduates are now involved in full-time ministries. The second and third classes started and graduated afterwards. In view of the needs of the mission field, the Global Mission Seminary continued the training with one campus in Moscow. Two other campuses launched in Yekateringburg and Blagoveshchensk later on to continue the training for mission work in the country. In 2017, there was a graduation of six master program students.

Plant Reproducible Local Churches

Since 2006, the graduates from the theological training have engaged in shepherding work. At present, four pastors, including Pan Yongxin,Tian Fengqin, Gu Maizhen and Wang Yi, have been installed there and there are four other fulltime preachers. Thanks to the wonderful works of God, there are about 300 members in the Chinese Church in Moscow. At present, every Sunday there are college student group service, Russian Sunday worship, Chinese Sunday worship, workplace Sunday worship, and a business owners Sunday worship.

The vast land of Russia is divided into seven pastoral districts, from west to east: Moscow, Hazard-Ward, Jahr, Novosibirsk, Yekateringburg, Chita, and Far East pastoral district. In 2017 Chinese Christian Church in Yekateringburg purchased a church building. With its own property, now God’s kingdom has further expanded. The Moscow Chinese Christian Church also purchased a new building in 2018 and moved into it in 2021. Despite the impact of the pandemic and the war, the local church workers seized the opportunity to spread the Gospel, and the number of church members continued to grow.

Engage in Local Cross-Cultural Ministries

According to an official survey of some Russian residents, about 50% of Russian population do not believe in any religion and 30% -40% of the population are Eastern Orthodox Christians. Even those without any religion are culturally connected with the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Chinese Christian Church in Moscow has always had a Russian language service. According to coworkers who work among Russians, many people in Russia consider themselves Eastern Orthodox Christians, but they do not do any religious practice at all. Many people go to church once a year and do not have a personal relationship with God. Most of them are nominal followers. In December 2017, the Russian language congregation was officially established and, by the grace of God, it quickly grew. It currently has 47 coworkers in Christ, a children’s Sunday school fellowship, and an online children’s group. The Russian language congregation also provides food, gifts, charity donations, and various types of gospel preaching events for the poor in the Warsaw church’s surrounding areas.

Starting in the summer of 2019, the Russian language congregation collaborated with the Chinese language congregation to launch cross-border missions, serving and preaching the gospel in Zimbabwe and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine each year. They prayed for the Vietnamese people in the Lublin market and hoped to establish a new Vietnamese congregation, and also provided all possible resources to help the recent Armenian refugees affected by the war. In 2021, Pastor Edward from the Russian language congregation went to the war zone on the Armenian national border to evangelize and led young soldiers to worship God in military camps, expanding the gospel from Russia. In March 2023, a short-term mission was initiated by the Moscow Chinese Church, sending mission teams to visit and evangelize in neighboring cities, and then visiting Chinese churches in various locations including Ulan-Ude, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Surkhet, Khasavyurt, and Chechnya in the following months.

To bring the abundant life of Jesus Christ
To people, family, community, and the world
Through mission, education, and charity

Since 2001, we have organized annual Gospel Camp in Moscow, a few scores of people attended the first one, and the attendance has reached 500 in recent years. Total attendance has more than seven thousand people combining all the previous gospel camps. The May 1st (Labor Day) Gospel Camp meeting has become an important event for Chinese Church in Moscow every year. Many people have come to the faith, gotten baptized, and joined the church. Taipei’s Home of Christ and Christian Entertainers Fellowship have sent mission teams to support the event and had very wonderful partnership.

There is a facility and office for church meetings located on Warsaw Avenue in Moscow, and pastors’ residence close to the Grand Central Highway. It is our hope that the Chinese Church to grow roots in Russia, Russian language Sunday service started on July 1 of 2012. It is to evangelize the Russians and bring the second generation of Chinese to continue their faith and pass on from generation to generation. We will also expand our ministry to international students, hoping that every year 100,000 Chinese students studying abroad will have the opportunity to know Jesus Christ. In 2023, we will resume the May Day Gospel Summer Camp and hope to continue leading Chinese people to Christ.