Dear Friends,
as many of you know, Tonya was born in Novokuznetsk (in Siberia), Russia. She lived there until we were married, and has maintained close ties with her church there. This church and the Teen Challenge program that they operate are experiencing dangerous situations. Please read the following report that Tonya's pastor sent us:
The situations that have recently happened with the church and Teen Challenge center have not been resolved yet, so we greatly appreciate if you would continue to pray. Here is what happened:
1) Attack against the church
On Feb. 9, seven young men came into the church looking for the youth pastor, Andrei. When they found him, they demanded that he give them the bank book which belongs to Artyom, an orphan who attends our church. Artyom had previously asked Pastor Andrei to keep his bank book in a safe place. Over the years while he was in the orphanage, the government deposited a pension in his account which came to $6,000 USD until he turned 18. For Artyom this was an incredible amount of money, and he was afraid that someone might take advantage of him and steal his money, which had happened to many orphans in the past. On the afternoon of Feb. 9, those seven young men threatened Pastor Andrei by saying that if he didn't give them the bank book on the count of three, they will kill him right there in the church. Pastor Andrei gave the bank book to them, and they left. This incident was all taken on the security video system that is installed in the church. Here is the link where you can watch it on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Qdd7KFwjY (If you look closely, you will see the weapon that the one man is holding behind his back wrapped in a paper bag.)
We went to the police with the video recording and requested an investigation because Artyom had disappeared. A few days later when Artyom came to church on Sunday, he said that he was held captive for several days, and they had stolen half of his money. They said they will return for the other half. To our amazement, the most shocking twist in this story came a week later when the police announced at the mayor's office that the church kept the bank book of an orphan purposely to keep his money. At that point we asked you for prayer. Since then, we found a lawyer that will take this case to the Federal police. He believes the local police are involved in this corruption and are trying to accuse the church in order to take the focus off of themselves. As it stands today, we still need your prayers even more, because we are up against a corrupt system the same as is quoted in Isaiah 10:1,2.
2) Attack against Teen Challenge
At the same time Teen Challenge was under a series of inspections which started after a lesbian wrote a number of complaints with false accusations to the prosecutor's office against our TC program. They couldn't find anything that the program was accused of in the complaints, but someone in the prosecutor's office hates the work of the church and Teen Challenge. On Feb. 15, the person who hates Teen Challenge sent inspectors from the sanitation department with a clear order to close the program. They wrote a 10 page report with minor regulation offenses, such as a spot of mildew in the corner of the hallway, no written instructions on how to use a washing machine, no written instructions on how to keep clean sheets, etc. These regulations are ones that the hospitals are required to follow. In just three days (!) they took the matter to court without letting us know, and the court ruled to close the program for three months. We have 10 days to appeal to reverse the ruling. The lawyers are working now on submitting an appeal. The Lord is doing a great work in saving people through the Teen Challenge program, and the devil clearly wants to stop it.
We really appreciate your prayers at this time for these two needs. We are praying that God will bind the lies of the enemy in the name of Jesus, and that the truth will prevail. We're praying that God will give the victory to the church and Teen Challenge center, and that souls who normally wouldn't come to Christ would be reached with the Gospel through these situations. We thank God for you and for standing with us in prayer!
With much love in Christ,
Ilya and Janet
