Posted by Paul Williams (Русская версия здесь)

photo courtesy of Outfitters for Adventure

Meet Ruslan and Svetlana Andreichnko and their family. Ruslan and Svetlana have been in Mongolia continuously for 14 years. Persistence and perseverance has marked a ministry that has had many difficulties - and joys - during this time. Ruslan and Svetlana lead 'Light of the World' Church in Erdenet, a city in the hills of north Mongolia. Recently I called on them to catch the story and find out how the ministry is going.

Ruslan and Svetlana are pioneers. They are among the very few Russian mission partners serving in other countries, and as with any pioneering ministry, theirs is often a lonely one, not least because of the amount of misunderstanding in their home country. Many Russian churches have still to catch the vision for service beyond Russia's borders.

Ruslan and Svetlana are also a tremendous example of perseverance in adversity, in a country where people are easily tempted to give up when the going gets tough. And regular visitors to our site will note that Ruslan and Svetlana are not the only Russian partners serving overseas with whom Radstock is in contact. So it was a great pleasure to me to put them in contact with Andrei Petrine, who leads Дом Жизни (or House of Life), a church in the Radstock network reaching out to the thousands of Russian-speakers in London UK. Дом Жизни will be providing the Russian translation of this blog entry. This should be available shortly.

the Vision

'Light of the World' is a Mongolian church, started by Ruslan and Svetlana seven years ago, and it is the seed for a big vision. Not all this vision can be shared on a public website such as this, but here's what we can say: 

• Roots - Foundations, for the church to provide a social context within which people can interact with the life of the church, either through events in the facility itself, such as daily meals for needy children, or through its outreaches, for instance to prisons and to the elderly. Much of this work is already in progress.

• Shoots - Growing Disciples, which includes sending missionaries to plant new churches elsewhere in the district. One of the needs here is for training and mentoring emerging Mongolian leaders within the church. 

• Branches - Sending out - training and sending out mission partners abroad to serve in other parts of East and South East Asia, where many of the world's unreached people-groups live. (Geographically, Mongolia is strategically-placed to serve this kind of vision.)

the Need

The vision described above involves many needs, but the most immediate is for the completion of the building (the grey single-storey structure, centre-left in the picture), so that it may become a resource centre for those ministries.

This need is particularly important right now, because the church is situated on a prime piece of land, and the city authorities have told them to complete the work soon or face confiscation of some of the land.

the Opportunities

• Prayer: for Ruslan, Svetlana and the family, and the work of Light of the World church.
• Teams: Can your church send a team to help with the building work, or with some of the other outreach activities?
• Finances: We are not ashamed to say these are needed, and soon, so that materials can be bought and labour contracted for the work. Please consider giving financially. Click here for giving options. Please assign your gift to 'Mongolia Erdenet Building Project.'
• Contact Larry to find out how the missions team in one church in the United States is already partnering with this work, and the mutual benefits that can come from this. 

NEW! Visit their new website here! We hope to have an English version soon.

To find out more about all these opportunities, and to get connected with the work of Light of the World church, contact Paul Williams, Radstock's Eurasia Network Developer at . Looking forward to hearing from you!