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Russia\'s New Religious Persecution is Economic Oppression
A Russian church has met religious persecution from corrupt government officials and the Russian mafia. The latest persecution is economic oppression.
/24-7PressRelease.com/ - Ellsworth, KS - February 3, 2005 — After the Soviet communist regime crumbled in 1991, Russia adopted a constitution that officially allowed for freedom of religion. But the thirty faithful members of the eleven-year-old Light of Christ Church in St. Petersburg, Russia, has first-hand experience that this freedom is often in name only. So far, this "little church that could" has successfully overcome run-ins with the Russian mafia and interference by corrupt Russian government officials. Today, with true religious persecution a thing of the past, it faces one last hurdle—economic oppression. They simply cannot afford a place to meet. Without one, the church may have to disband altogether.
Eleven years ago in 1993, Ray Geide, an American missionary from Kansas, moved his family to Russia, the world's largest country where less than one percent of the population is Christian. Geide and his wife Deanna planted the Light of Christ Church in the southeastern part of St. Petersburg, Russia, a large urban city of almost five million people.
Today, the church Geide planted is in danger of closing its doors. The membership is extremely poor and can't afford to cover its basic expenses. The hard fact is that many mission churches cannot exist without outside help, especially in economically oppressive countries like Russia. Geide's goal is to raise at least US $60,000 so the church can purchase a meeting place and create some self-sufficiency and stability for its congregation.
The church had humble beginnings, with just two converts meeting in a community center, but quickly grew to an astounding 70 people within three years, including many alcoholic teenagers and even a few drug dealers. "We try to reach everybody but we were mostly able to reach children who hadn't already been indoctrinated by Russian communist atheism," explains Geide. "We basically raised children. I was like a father to many of them," he adds.
Over the years, the church has had to move several times. When the community center became too small, they met in Geide's apartment. Geide's own place was inadequate for a growing church, so he purchased a building for the church to meet in, but even that didn't provide the security he'd hoped for. No sooner had they moved in, but the Russian mafia showed up, trying to extort money. Geide stood up to them, but the mafia proceeded to make life miserable for the little church by disconnecting their electricity, defacing their property. They even broke in and stole thousands of dollars worth of computers, musical equipment, and supplies.
Corrupt city officials also antagonized the church. Although Geide now owned the building the church met in, he had to rent the land from the city government because all land in St. Petersburg is owned by the city. One corrupt city official refused to renew the land rental agreement, and the church's building was confiscated. "This official accused me of being a drug kingpin and member of the mafia," Geide recalled. "I couldn't believe it!" The charges were, of course, groundless, but once again, the little church found itself without a home.
After nine long months without a meeting place following the loss of their building, the church eventually found an apartment to rent and currently holds services there. But now the landlord wants to sell their apartment, and he's not alone, with real estate prices having tripled in the last five years. With everyone selling, there are very few apartments available to rent.
After living in Russia for seven years over a nine-year period, Geide has learned the hard way what works and what doesn't, and the solution is to purchase an apartment for the church to meet in. "It's cheaper than buying a building and doesn't have the same legal hassles and red tape," Geide explains. "You don't have to pay off the city because they don't own the land. And, apartments have far less restrictions and complications. Because of this, many churches in St. Petersburg now meet in purchased apartments." This clear solution, however, is out of reach for this little church.
In St. Petersburg, it would require $850 per month to pay expenses for a three-room apartment to hold their modest congregation of 30 people. Given the average Russian income, the church would need at least 200 members in order to collect this sum through congregation offerings. This is assuming that the ratio of adults to children is 1 to 3, and that every adult tithes—an ideal church. But, if the church had 200 members, they would need a much larger apartment, which costs two or three times more. Then, in order to pay for the larger apartment, the church would have to have not 200, but 400 to 600 members, which would mean they would need an even bigger space. This vicious cycle guarantees that no matter how many members the church has, it will not be able to support itself.
"It's hard for churches to exist at all because of problems with the mafia and corrupt officials. And here is this little church that has completely overcome these challenges. That's really saying something," says Geide. "After how far they've come, I'd hate for this to be the nail in the coffin," he laments. While not religious persecution as we know it, economic oppression and an inability to be self-sufficient still poses a serious problem for many Protestant Christian churches.
A good pastor, Geide points to Scripture as the answer. The Bible says the Apostle Paul had a similar problem with a church that was too poor to support itself. So Paul commanded other churches "upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gathering when I come." (1 Corinthians 16:2) This collection was to support the church at Jerusalem, a church that could not support itself. Geide endeavors to follow this Scriptural principle in Russia.
About Ray Geide and Mission Churches International Incorporated
Ray Geide is an ordained pastor who received his B.A. in Pastoral Theology from the Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO, and his M.Div. from Temple Baptist Theological Seminary in Chattanooga, TN. After carefully training two members of the congregation to pastor Light of Christ Church, Geide moved his family back to the U.S. in 2002. He then founded Mission Churches International Incorporated (MCII) as a nonprofit organization with the main purpose to establish Bible-believing mission churches that are self-sufficient. MCII raises money through missionaries, organizations, businesses, and individuals, then processes and distributes donations to missionaries and mission churches that cannot survive without outside help. Geide currently pastors a church in Ellsworth, KS, but is more dedicated than ever to helping churches in Russia, one of which is the Light of Christ Church in St. Petersburg. For more information about MCII, or to make a donation to the Light of Christ Church to ensure its self-sufficiency, please visit www.mcii.org. To arrange an interview with Ray Geide about the persecuted Russian church, please contact MCII's publicist Anne Sharp, at 818-994-2309.
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