Alfred and Jean McCroskey were earnestly praying about their future lives and ministries. It was the year 1985. After much counseling with godly leaders and friends, reading, waiting and praying a lot more, their prayers started being answered. God was leading them to become "full-time, non-resident, foreign missionaries" to the Soviet Union. He was caught at the border, arrested and interrogated intensively for hours. Some, not all, of his Bibles were confiscated. After being released and arriving at his hotel room, McCroskey carefully counted what remained. There were exactly 100 Bibles. God HAD answered their prayers, plus, Alfred had experienced that perfect "peace which passes all understanding" during the border ordeal. - "Bibles For Russia" was born in Alfred McCroskey's heart that September day in Moscow
- At that time it was neither legal nor popular to be involved in such an enterprise
The wall came down and doors opened. The people were hungry. The "Party" was over. What now? With increased freedoms, smuggling was no longer necessary. Now the Bibles For Russia teams could visit homes, hospitals, prisons, military institutions, orphanages and, yes, even public schools. They did tract distribution and evangelism. They distributed humanitarian aid (food, medicine, clothes), and conducted seminars. Glasnost was real, even if Perestroika wasn't. Through a "Sister Church" program begun by the McCroskeys, 1,000 churches have been "planted" in 9 nations of the former Soviet Union, including predominately Muslim areas and other "unreached peoples" of Siberia. Some of those congregations also got the "missions vision" and have themselves started churches and missionary organizations. After four years of church planting, there were fourth generation congregations: churches starting churches, that start churches, that start churches. click here to read about the book "Discovering Russia" |
