A New Season With New Opportunity

The autumn season is now upon us! During this time, Russians celebrate the newly inaugurated ‘Day of People’s Unity’, while those living in America prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving. Here at StreetCry, we’re thankful for unity! This month’s newsletter includes a new student spotlight and news about autumn evangelism and a new prophetic school in Estonia.

Student Spotlight: Gosha Karoushkin

Gosha is currently enrolled in the StreetCry School of Ministry as a 2nd year student, and helps run a local drug rehab center in St. Petersburg. Miraculously, Gosha's life has been preserved after overcoming a serious drug addiction and breaking ties with a dangerous neo-Nazi gang. His life is yet another example of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gosha Karoushkin

My name is Gosha, and I am 32 years old. I was born in Vologda, Russia, and raised in a good family. Most of my close relatives are well educated. My father holds a degree in computer engineering and my mother in architecture.

As a child, teachers had great hope for me as I consistently achieved high grades in school. Towards the end of my sixth grade year a new trend developed in school - glue sniffing. Students began sniffing often, even during class. Soon I gave into peer pressure and joined them. Binge drinking was the next trend and soon I was an alcoholic.

During these years of my life, Perestroika hit the country. For the first time, Russians were allowed to listen to rock-and-roll music! I filled my ears with all forms of rock and heavy metal music and embraced the culture that was promoted through this music.

As a result of my negative lifestyle choices, my grades began to drop. The situation became critical, and one day my school principal approached me with this statement, “Gosha, I truly believe you are a good guy, but you no longer have any place in my school!” My parents also tried to intervene but it became too late, as I had already set my life on a destructive path.

I quickly joined a group of friends who shared my new set of values. We regularly attended rock concerts in surrounding cities, and began smoking hash to enhance our experiences. In 1992, I began experimenting with heavy drugs.

I had a very addictive personality, and drugs quickly got a grip on me. From this point on, everything I had was invested into my drug addiction. Drugs became my god and I served them with all of my heart.

My favorite drugs were hallucinogens. Because of the effect these drugs had on me, I was taken to a Psychiatric hospital five separate times, and five separate times the treatments I received had no effect. As a dog returns to his own vomit, I returned to my drugs.

As time went on, I ended as most drug addicts do, serving time in prison. I was first sentenced in 1997, and it was here that a whole new world of corruption opened up to me. I quickly made friends with a neo-Nazi gang leader who was also serving a drug related sentence.

After my release, I joined the neo-Nazi gang associated with the man I met in prison. Gang life conditioned me to become a hate-filled, dangerous person. The drugs I was still using dulled my sense of humanity, and fueled the violent acts I carried out on a regular basis.

Over the next few years, I was in and out of prison six times. During my final sentence, I met some inmates who were Christians. Even though I respected them, I believed the Bible was the biggest lie in the world.

One day while sitting in my cell, I received news that one of my closest friends from the gang, Yura Bugakov (featured in the October newsletter), had become a Christian and joined a Christian rehab in St. Petersburg. Immediately, I contacted him and began having long discussions with him about his conversion experience.

After many talks on the phone, Yura decided to come and see me face-to-face in prison. The Yura I encountered on that visit was a different man than I remembered. His eyes were now clean and full of life. I couldn’t figure out how this drastic change could have happened. I went back to my cell after the visit and began to rethink my ideas of Christianity.

In April of 2005, I was released from prison for the final time. Despite my encounter with Yura, I returned to my familiar life of drugs and crime. One day while at a bar, celebrating a successful crime, I suddenly heard a voice clearly say to me, “Enough Gosha, Stop It! Stand up and leave this place!”. Even though I was drunk, surrounded by prostitutes, and drugged out of my mind, I got up and left the bar.

Still high and unsure of what to do next, I hired a taxi to drive me to the train station. Once there, I bought a ticket to St. Petersburg and boarded the train. It wasn’t until I sobered up the next morning that I realized where I was.

By God’s grace, in my stupor I had bought a ticket that brought me to the very city where my friend Yura lived. I was in desperate need of help, and knew that I had to visit Yura at the rehab.

Once at the rehab, I beat on the front door and yelled until someone answered. The director of the rehab opened the door and I asked him, “Do you give tickets to get to heaven here?” He looked at me with love in his eyes and answered, “Yes, please come inside.”

The director led me inside where he introduced me to everyone. I had never seen so many happy faces in my life. They had light and love that came out of their eyes. I decided to stay.

While at the rehab I began to reflect back on my life. I remembered all the moments I should have died. Twenty times I overdosed, and many times my life was threatened. Jesus revealed to me that He had kept me alive up until this point so that I would be able to spend the rest of my life living for Him. He was waiting for me to come to Him. This realization broke my heart and real repentance set in. In that moment, I gave my life to Jesus and totally surrendered. I now know that He is real.

I was not only a basic sinner but someone who led many other people into sin. Jesus forgave me for all of this. People who knew me thought I could never be helped. Jesus does the impossible. This is a miracle that cannot be explained by words but only accepted by faith.

Please pray for Gosha as he continues his training at the School of Ministry and helps to oversee a local drug rehab in St. Petersburg!

News

Autumn Evangelism

Although street evangelism can become a challenge during the cold autumn-winter months, teams from StreetCry venture out twice weekly to proclaim salvation to people in the streets of St. Petersburg. Teams focus on reaching out to drug addicts, youth, and university students in local dormitories.

A number of salvations have occurred this past year through personal evangelism, and out of these new believers a few are now enrolled in our School of Ministry. We plan to continue developing and expanding this ministry as it brings the light of the gospel to many people who would otherwise remain in darkness. Please pray that compassion, wisdom, boldness, and power would fill those involved with this ministry, and that many souls would be saved!

Prophetic School Launch in Estonia

StreetCry has launched a prophetic school in the small neighboring country of Estonia. The purpose of this school is to train people in hearing the voice of God and ministering prophetically. Estonia was formerly a part of the Soviet Union and currently has a population of approximately 1.2 million.

The first session of the school was well attended as about fifty people registered. There were about ten pastors in attendance who wanted training so they could begin releasing the prophetic ministry in their own congregations (Very exciting!). Overall the response to the ministry was very positive. A number of people gave prophetic words for the first time and left the classes feeling more confident in hearing God’s voice.

The school will continue for the next seven months, with one full day of classes each month. Every month different teachers will be sent out from StreetCry to continue the courses. We consider the school an excellent opportunity to help strengthen churches in our surrounding region and promote unity in the body of Christ. Please pray for God’s continued grace and blessing on this new venture, and for a strengthening of unity between churches in Russia and Estonia!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We would like to take to the opportunity to wish all our American friends and supporters a very happy Thanksgiving.

With Love,

John, Sara, Vera, Roma, Anya and the StreetCry Team

Special Note from John Russell:

Sara and I would like to express our deepest thanks to all who have been praying for our daughter Katya to receive her permanent residency card in the United States. This past week, our prayers were answered and Katya received her card. Praise God!

Additionally, as the Christmas season approaches plans are already in the works for StreetCry's tenth annual Christmas feed-in. For those who are unfamiliar with this event, it is an outreach we host each Christmas as a celebration of God's goodness and love for the needy. We have seen thousands of lives touched by the love of God as a result of this outreach.

We are financially in a pinch this holiday season and are needing $10,000 USD very soon to cover our feed-in and Christmas season expenses. Please join with us in prayer for the funds, and if you could help out in an exceptional way it would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless,

John

Newsletter Compiled by Chris Loewen

Change Is In The Air

StreetCry has been going through changes on almost every front. In the past month, we've received new staff, a new building and a new group of students. Despite the challenges that change brings, we look forward to what God has in store for the future.

We thought we would commemorate these changes with a new format to our newsletter. We hope you like it!

Student Spotlight: Yura Bugakov

We are adding a "Student Spotlight" section of the newsletter where a testimony will be shared each month of one of our students. The stories of their lives are profound and awe-inspiring. We feel they are stories that need to be told, and we hope as you read them your heart is moved and your faith is strengthened.

This month's spotlight is on a student who was previously a neo-Nazi skin-head. Out of 15 gang-members, he and another student (to be featured in November's newsletter) are the only members still alive. Their lives are a miracle and testimony of God's power to redeem a life.

Yura Bugakov

I was born in Vologda, Russia. This is a place far away from St. Petersburg and Moscow. People in my town have the saying that "civilization arrives ten years later here".

When I was a child our town was divided into separate districts. This created an atmosphere of rivalry between the young people of different districts. We would fight with each other using solid metal bars. I carried a knife with me where ever I went. I lived with the daily expectation of being beaten with some type of weapon.

It was common for fights to break out during school dances. I remember one incident at a dance when a fight broke out between a local guy and someone from another town over a girl. The fight escalated into a town riot which later made headlines on national news.

In the 90's, after the fall of communism, regional violence subsided. Personally, I was still filled with hatred and a desire to protest. In order to find acceptance I turned to a subculture group of Russian Punks and joined their gang.

With-in a short amount of time I accumulated a broken nose, several concussions, and a torn earlobe. This caused me to realize that Russian Punk gangs were not for me. I left the gang but still embraced the culture.

I began collecting punk music albums from bands such as G.B.H., Dead Kennedy's, Exploited, and Kolovrat. I began making new friends who listened to the same music. The hate-filled lyrics were filled with racial overtones. The lyrics inspired us and we soon began to hate everyone who wasn't Russian. We embraced the swastika, and began to wear army clothes. We became very nationalistic and blamed Russia's problems on the foreigners. We would get drunk and go to Nazi clubs and shout hate chants.

At this point in my life I felt empty and sorrow began to hang over my beaten, shaved head. In order to accept the radical ideas of national cleansing I forced myself to drink more alcohol. Without noticing, alcohol was leading me into a deadly drug addiction. Soon I became known as "the Junkie" by my friends. Ironically, I continued to hate everyone who wasn't Russian, even though these were the people who supplied my drug habit.

As time progressed, I ended up in prison for drug related crimes. The time alone gave me a chance to reflect on my life. My attitude had become that everyone around me was weak. At the same time I realized there was no strength inside myself.

After being released from prison, I came to the end of my rope. Half dead from drugs and realizing I needed help, I applied to a Christian rehab center. It was there that I repented to God for all of my hatred and pride, and came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.

This was a miracle since before I would chant 'Jesus is dead!'. Now He was very much alive to me. Jesus never got offended at my sin, He only redeemed me. My angry, hardened heart was melting by His love. Now, I am sharing this love with all races and nationalities. Instead of trying to send foreigners home, I welcome them. I understand now that no power of the fist, or idea of a clean race will save the world from the power of evil. Only the redeeming blood of Christ can save us!

Please pray for Yura as he continues his training at the School of Ministry and is involved in overseeing a drug rehab in St. Petersburg.

News

New Staff

We are excited about the addition of Chris and Crystal Loewen as full-time members of our ministry team. They have moved from Winkler, Manitoba, Canada, and are graduates of the MorningStar School of Ministry. They will be helping with various administrative tasks and teaching at the ministry school. Please pray for them as they adjust to life in Russia!

New Rental Facility

Due to difficulties with our previous landlord, we have moved into a new building. The new building has adequate facilities for our School of Ministry, church meetings, and ministry offices. For the short term we are thankful to be renting a building where we feel welcome. Our long-term goal remains to purchase a property that would serve all the growing needs of the ministry. Please pray for breakthrough in finding a new property to own.

New Website Development

Development has begun on a new website. The new site will be simplified with updated information. We hope it will better serve the needs of our supporters and those interested in learning more about the ministry. We will inform you as soon as it is on-line and ready for viewing. Please pray that the new site will become a useful tool and accurately reflect the work going on here.

New Students

Our new group of 30 students have arrived, and the School of Ministry is now in session for the 2006/2007 year. We are very excited about the new students and the hunger for God they have brought with them. We believe they are part of the future leaders God is raising up in Russia to advance His kingdom. Please pray for a spirit of wisdom and council to rest on the teachers, and for the students to grow in the grace and love of God.

Newsletter Compiled by Chris Loewen