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Introduction by Colin & Bron Cleaver, OM Russia
Each year we interview prospective students who wish to join the OM Russia Discipleship Centre for an intensive six months of training. Each year we are amazed and astonished by what we hear, as young Russians share with us their life stories and reasons for wanting to be discipled. We never get used to the extraordinary stories and testimonies we hear and we would also like to share them with you.
Russia is spiritually a very needy country indeed, with very few evangelical Christians and many barriers which obscure the Gospel. Despite, or maybe because of this, it is our observation that God is working in a special and dramatic way today in Russia, and particularly in Siberia. Not only do we hear and experience remarkable stories about how God rescues the lowest of the low in society, but we also see with our own eyes how God then uses those whom He dramatically rescues to reach out to others.
OM Russia began its first six month Discipleship Centre course in 2006 with the aim to train, equip, disciple and motivate young Russian Christians to take their part in Christ’s Great Commission. Year after year we are reminded that discipling is not an easy task – as you will read in this book, many of our students come from difficult backgrounds and carry a lot of baggage from the past. Yet, Jesus commanded us not only to make converts, but to make disciples – this is what he has called his church to do – and as we witness with our own eyes what God is able to accomplish through those whom we disciple, we are convinced more than ever of the wisdom of His plan.
Our aim of writing this book is “to declare God’s glory to the nations” – to speak about, to proclaim and shout out what He has done and is doing in people’s lives in Siberia today. We hope that as you read these stories you will be encouraged and that your faith will be strengthened so that you may believe that no-one is too lost to experience God’s redemption and that He has the power to change anyone.
Colin & Bron Cleaver
OM Russia, Novosibirsk.
January 2010
www.ru.om.org
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