The Ministry of Georgi Vins: 8 Years in the Soviet Gulag
Georgi Vins vision for expansion
The Gospel lives on in Russia today!
Today, George Vins’ daughter, Natasha, with her husband, Alexander, serve as missionaries in Russia, bringing the Gospel to remote and hard-to-reach small villages scattered along two Siberian rivers.
Most of the minority groups along the N. Tunguska and Nepa rivers in Siberia have never heard the Gospel. Now is the time to reach them.
Alexander and Natasha’s goal is to continue to reach Christ in the small villages along the Siberian rivers, inhabited by Russians, as well as Tungus and Evenks, indigenous Siberian people groups.
The vast lands of the Siberian north constitute the most remote and inaccessible region, covering thousands of square miles. Sparsely populated villages are far from the main roads and from each other. In the long months of Siberian winters, the only way to travel is on snow-covered roads, frozen lakes and rivers.
The settlements that Alexander and his team are trying to reach are small: from 200 to 700 people. Located hundreds of miles apart, along shallow rivers, they are navigable only for short periods – four to six weeks – in the spring after the ice and snow melt.
Every spring, Alexander and his evangelistic team travel several hundred miles by truck on muddy roads from the city of Bratsk, where the ministry is based, to the river where they launch their boats for navigation along the N. Tunguska and Nepa rivers.
They stop in each settlement going door to door to share the Gospel with the villagers, handing out New Testaments and tracts, showing Gospel films and holding day camps for teenagers and children.
The conditions for reaching each village are difficult, as Alexander and his team have to overcome uneven terrain. They have to navigate their boats through the dense forests of Siberia because these settlements are hundreds of miles apart.
The evangelists sleep in tents along the river where nighttime temperatures often drop below freezing because the weather changes are unpredictable. Alexander and his team rely on God’s protection from attacks by wild animals or hostile villagers. Outreach is full of significant obstacles, but the Lord resolves them one by one in response to faithful prayers.
Pray for Alexander and his team to speak about the mystery of Christ as they should speak (Col 4:2-4). Ask the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of these people at the ends of the earth, in a land where atheism reigned for decades, so that the seed of God’s Word can grow. Only our God of miracles can achieve the impossible to open “the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27). Please intercede for Alexander and Natasha as they strive to fulfill their mission by God’s grace.
Alexander and Natasha (Vins) Velichkin, when not in Russia, make their home base in Elkhart, Indiana. You can write to them at: PO Box 1188, Elkhart, IN, 46515.
Alexander and Paul with the Evenk family – 2018
Overnight by the river on a mission trip to Siberia – 2018
