Rehabilitation centers reaching the lost in Siberia

Three out of four people in Russia live in the shadow of addiction, either suffering with the condition themselves or loving someone who does. Drugs and alcohol are the main culprits, opening the door to a whole spectrum of issues including sexual abuse, job loss, domestic violence and suicide. One particularly troubling social epidemic is child abandonment. There are more orphans in Russia today than there were after WWII. The majority of these children are social orphans, meaning they have at least one living parent who is unable or unwilling to care for them. Often, the dereliction of parental responsibility is due to addiction.

To read more about this issue, go to these sites:

http://www.iorphan.org/russian_orphans/index.asp,

http://www.rcws.org/aboutus_statistics.htm)

The good news is that Russian Baptists have seen the problem and responded. In the past 10 years, the Russian Baptist Union has opened 80 rehabilitation centers to help those addicted to chemical substances. Missionary Andy Leininger, said this has resulted in many being reached with the Gospel.

“Overall, about half the church growth in the Novosibirsk oblast (county) in the past two years has come from people in recovery or related to recovery,” he said. “We are seeing God at work in some powerful ways and want to reach the millions in Russia that are slaves to addiction.”

Most rehab centers operate from a small house or apartment and provide a home for 8-10 people, including one leader and one assistant. Residents are evaluated after two months to see if their lives show evidence of repentance and seeking God. If so, they move to an adaptation center for up to 6 months before going it alone.

For the past year, Andy has been training the leaders of the 12 centers in Novosibirsk, 18 new believers who are either recovering addicts or have a relative suffering from addiction. He is incorporating Celebrate Recovery by John Baker from Saddleback Community church, a program designed to help those in bondage to a plethora of sinful behaviors by introducing them to freedom through Christ.

“We are now working to incorporate Celebrate Recovery into local churches so we can reach people suffering from dependencies other than just drugs and alcohol,” Andy said.

Getting Involved

Andy is currently working in four local churches in Novosibirsk, but the ministry is in high demand in neighboring churches and there are not enough resources to meet the need. Andy needs volunteers to help him in this work and is asking readers to partner with him in these ways:

*Concerted prayer for Russians trapped in the cycle of addictions and dependencies.

*One and two week volunteer teams with experience in recovery, Celebrate Recovery or burdened by the problem of addiction.

*Longer term, experienced volunteers who can serve for 4-8 weeks to help establish Celebrate Recovery in churches and centers.

*Churches to partner in sending teams each year or every other year to fill the needs in leadership training.

Andy has arranged special meetings in October to meet with interested people. If your church is involved in Celebrate Recovery or is sensing God’s call to engage Russia, Andy would like to meet with you at one of four one-day conferences (each meet from 1-4pm):

*Saturday, October 10 at First Baptist Church, Forney, Texas

*Thursday, Oct 15 at Ridgecrest Baptist Church Springfield, Mo. *Saturday, Oct 24 at Grace Community Church in Nashville, Tenn.

*Monday, Oct 26 at Hebron Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga.

The first conference is a day prior to the Engage Europe Conference, where missionaries from over 15 Eastern European nations will meet with participants to share the vision of spreading the Gospel among the area’s 400+ people groups and offer opportunities for partnership. For more information on that conference, send an email to engageeurope@gmail.com.

If you are interested in helping the recovery ministry in Russia or know someone that might be, please contact either Andy at leinandy@gmail.com or Bob Hartman in Nashville, TN at mail4bhim@aol.com. They will keep you posted about summits, how God is at work and further details as they develop.

“I have been amazed at all that God has done in the past year in recovery work and can’t wait to see what will happen when we partner together,” Andy said.

Posted by Karen Pearce on Sep 28, 2009

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