RUSSIAN FEDERATION

SERGEY

RUSSIA

Sergey and Yulia are Russians who first met in Central Asia (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) where participated together in church ministry. They were married in 2000, and moved to Moscow in 2004 to the new ministry field - the Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary. Sergey earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Asbury Theological Seminary in 2017. In the same year he was appointed to be the President of the Moscow Seminary. Sergey and Yulia have two children, daughter Polina (2003) and son Ivan (2005).

MISSION:
 
Due to 70 years of Communist Captivity (1917—1987), “the Church in Russia has suffered the most severe and sustained persecution of any nation in recent history. It is reckoned 200,000 Christian leaders were martyred and a further 500,000 imprisoned. There were 100,000 church-owned buildings in 1920 and by 1940 only 1,000 were in use by Christians, the rest being seized or destroyed. Over 90% of Russians have no meaningful link with a church.” (Operation World encyclopedia, the 21st-century edition, 541-542).
 
Our mission is to restore the numbers of Christian ministers for Russia through practical, biblical education in the Moscow Seminary.  

ABOUT RUSSIA

COUNTRY 
POPULATION

143,594,000

PRIMARY
RELIGION

57.2% Christian

PRIMARY
LANGUAGE

Russian

NUMBER OF
PEOPLE GROUPS

182

NUMBER OF
UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS

115

Data as of October 26, 2023

HOW CAN I PRAY FOR THEM?

  • Pray for wisdom from above for Sergey that he would be a good steward as the President of the Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary. 
  • Pray for the relationship with all government inspections which have become more difficult for religious educational institutions due to a change of attitude. Over the last few years the regulations have become more stringent for seminaries.  
  • Pray for Polina and Ivan’s education; Polina is attending a University in Moscow and Ivan is in college. 
  • Pray for their housing situation. Currently, they have the opportunity to rent the apartment in Moscow, much lower than the market value, which makes this option very attractive. Pray that the owners of the apartment will allow their family to live in this apartment for several more years, at least until Polina and Ivan graduate.
  • Pray for future development of the Moscow Seminary, to have education that helps to churches in Russia to grow and to be fruitful for the Kingdom. The Moscow Seminary develops close and fruitful cooperation with church unions and local churches; this year, three new training programs have been launched, prepared in close cooperation with church associations; the goals of such programs are to prepare ministers for specific places and associations, taking into account their requests. Please pray that the new programs will be productive for the church and community.
  • Pray that they receive approval from the governors to change the status of the Seminary’s basement to make it legal to use for educational purposes.