In this episode, Michael Johnson, president of the Slavic Gospel Association, discusses the dire situation of orphaned teens in Eastern Europe, particularly in Ukraine. He shares the historical context of the organization, the cultural challenges faced by families, and the significant role of the church in providing hope and support to these vulnerable children. Amidst the ongoing war, Johnson highlights the humanitarian efforts being made and the revival of faith occurring in the region. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Today, we have sort of an interesting conversation, especially with
what's happening on the world stage with Russia and Ukraine.
We actually have Michael Johnson with us today. He is
the president of Slavic Gospel Association, a US based evangelical
organization on a mission to rescue thousands of orphaned teens
in the former Soviet Union. These teenagers are under threat
(00:25):
of being forced into terrible things like prostitution and slavery
and even organized crime. And Michael and his team at
SGA are on what they call a race against evil
because about eighty seven percent of these teens who leave
orphanages in the former Soviet Union countries of Eastern Europe,
they'll end up in prostitution, criminal gang, slave labor, or
(00:46):
even worse, commits suicide if they have no other options. So, Michael,
thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's good what you're doing. I'm so glad you are
because what you're doing I'm reading about. Not only are
you doing this in Eastern Europe, but in Ukraine, it's
in a war zone.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So tell us a little bit about what that's been
like well.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
First, I'd like to give you a little background on
the ministry. Back in the early twentieth century, there was
a man named Peter Danica who was born in Belarus
and as he grew up, his family was confronted with
a lot of problems, one being a famine, and so
his parents put him on a ship and sent him
(01:28):
to the United States so that he could secure employment
and send money back so they could survive. He ended
up in Chicago and he was saved through the ministry
of the Moody Church. When the Bible School became a pastor.
Then in nineteen thirty four, when the persecution ramped up
throughout those countries against the Christians, he established this ministry.
(01:50):
Its main goal was the covert distribution of Bibles and
Christian literature in those countries. And then we were heavily
involved in the development of a Russian language radio ministry
that we broadcasts in and around and through the Iron
Curtain in partnership with HCJB, Transworld Radio and FUBC. So
(02:11):
our passion has always been the proclamation of the Gospel
and whatever we possible in those particular countries as well
as the Slavic populations in Israel. So when the wall
came down, things changed and new opportunities began to arise.
Many Western organizations sent their missionaries over into those countries
(02:32):
to minister, and they had a great impact. But our
strategy was a bit different. We connected with the largest
group of evangelical churches in those countries, which would be
the Baptist churches. They were established back in the early
eighteen hundreds. They were persecuted for many years, they emerged
from the dark years, and they're wonderfully committed pastors and
(02:55):
churches that have a passion to reach their countries for Christ.
So basically, we're an equipping ministry. We exist to serve
and equip those churches to train their pastors and proper
and sound theology, then to secure sponsors to send him
out into previously unreached towns and villages so they can
preach the Gospel and plant new Bible churches. And then
(03:19):
we equip them with resources to meet both physical and
spiritual needs of the people in their communities so that
more might hear, more might respond, and more might come
to faith in Christ.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So how does that has that changed the culture there
and what kind of culture have your people seen that
has been shocking. I read one story where there was
a little boy that had come home from school and
excited to tell his mom about soccer, and the mom
was the one who ended up beating him and saying,
I wish I didn't have to deal with him.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Seems like that's I mean, that seems like a.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Very different culture than what we see in America.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Well, yeah, it is a different culture. I mean, find
a lot of substance abuse with the families in those countries,
and obviously the children have to suffer the brunt of that.
So for us, you know, our ministry is all about
(04:17):
equipping the nationals to go in and build meet and
build relationships with these families, do whatever they can to
lead them to faith in Christ, and then minister to
the children, whether they be within abusive families or children
growing up in these state run orphanages. And you quoted
(04:39):
the statistic that we share with you. You know, anywhere
from eighty seven to ninety seven percent of those kids
when they leave those orphanages in their eighteenth birthday are lost.
They have no hope. You know, they usually end up
in you know, criminal situations or alcoholism or substance abuse,
and as you mentioned, suicide. So we have an open
(05:02):
door through our church partners throughout those countries. We're connected
to six thousand Baptist Evangelical churches throughout those countries. These
are people who have had significant ministries in those orphanages,
and with funds and resources, they can expand that ministry
(05:23):
in a way that they can reach more children.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So the numbers that I read are about seven hundred
thousand orphans and abandoned children. And you know, I think
that number sounds outrageous to me, and yet it's probably
a similar number in states in the United States. But
I mean, how is that is that from substance abuse
in the United States? A lot of it is substance
(05:48):
abuse or abuse in general. Is that the same there?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, that would be very similar, similar circumstances, because you know,
they're just these people that a lot of these are
poor families. And again when you combine that with the
rates of alcoholism, particularly given the fact that vodka is
quite prevalent over there, it creates a very explosive situation.
(06:14):
And so so for me, you know, it was about
twenty five years ago I was in Siberia in and
around the city of krosni Arsk, and I was traveling
with the church leaders, the Baptist church leaders throughout that
region and we were visiting various ministry points, you know,
(06:35):
church planting, humanitarian aid distribution, all that. But then we
began to see that those churches had an open door
to go into the state run orphanages to minister to
the children in those orphanages. And the reason was is
because the orphanage directors saw the positive impact that these
(06:57):
Christians had on the children. And so when we would
pull up, you know, the kids would be looking out
the window saying, hey, the Christians are here. The Christians
are here, the Christians are here, and they're all excited
about it, you know, because you know, we drop off
gifts and whatnot. You know, we would bring joy, Yeah,
bring joy. We invite them the summer camp, we would
(07:17):
do Christmas gift distributions, we would do all kinds of things.
And that allowed those church workers to build relationships with
the kids and then see what it really means to
be a Christian. And so the ministry had a tremendous impact.
We expanded it to many of the other countries in
(07:39):
the former Soviet Union, and so many of those kids responded.
Many of those kids came to faith in Christ. So
when on their eighteenth birthday they let them out of
the orphanages, they were embraced and welcomed into local churches.
So they had a chance at a life that is
not necessarily focused on criminality, but a life that is
(08:03):
based upon the pursuit of God and spiritual things.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Why is it's so different in those countries than in
the US. I mean, obviously we don't have the orphanage
system anymore, but it seems as though these kids were
coming out and just being lured into this lifestyle of sex,
trafficking or criminality.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Like you said, yeah, yeah, well, and that's true. I'm
not quite sure how I would characterize the difference between
our country and theirs. I think that's a universal problem,
but there is there's a large presence in many of
the orphanages that we that we deploy workers to where
(08:47):
there's a battle for the heart and soul of the children.
Because at the same time, the russ from mafia are
in their building relationships with the kids. You know, they'll
do like martial arts programs or whatever to build relationships
with them because basically they're grooming them for a life
of crime. And so what the churches and the church
(09:10):
workers are doing is to help these children understand who
God is and what it means to be a Christian's
so it's just it's it's a very it's a very
difficult situation. And the Russian mafia is many times successful
because of what they promised the children once they get out,
(09:31):
but as we all know, they're deployed into a life
of evilness, whereas the Christians are drawing the kids into
a life that is based upon the pursuit of a
relationship with Christ.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
How dangerous is it for these Christians to be out there?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I mean when you're talking about the Russian mafia, that
sounds like they don't probably want to give these kids up.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's correct, Yeah, they Well, it takes a lot of
prayer for God's protection. We have seen problem where where
the Christians have been confronted with getting beaten up and
all that, but they just keep going back. I mean,
these are brave people and they're courageous people, and they're
doing what God has called them to do.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So they so these there's a story of one of
these kids who was in there and groomed. And to
get into a little bit of graphic detail, I guess
these these mafia or criminal elements, they come in and
they convince these kids to the boys to traffic the girls.
And there's a story of one young man who had
(10:38):
this situation and and one day was like I've got
I've got to do something to make this right. See
now a part of your organization or have you seen
things like that happening?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, we've seen like we've seen things like that happening.
But again, we don't send missionaries over there. We equip
the national church workers to do the work. It's a
highly coordinated ministry. We have administrative offices in Moscow, we
have administrative offices in Kiev and Minsk, so we can
(11:11):
get resources, we can get we can get financial support
to these people as they continue to build their ministries.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And so well support there by the government for Christianity
there is.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
It depends on the country in Russia. Yeah, the Russians
recognize the good work that is being done by these
evangelical churches, so they will allow it to continue to
take place. And I think that we have a good
reputation over there because of the humanitarian aspect of what
(11:52):
we do. So when it comes to the war, for example,
in Russian Ukraine, we were heavily involved in uh the
the the the distribution of humanitarian aid through the churches
(12:12):
to the people and the families that were impacted as
a result of the war on both sides of the conflict.
So so that is being recognized. Even though even though
in the case of Russia and Ukraine and the main
national religion would be the Orthodox religion, the Baptists are
being recognized for the good work that they do and
(12:34):
we're a significant part of that because we've been doing
it for so long. So yeah, we we have a
we have a certain level of freedom to be able
to go in and you know, and it's it's about word. Indeed,
if we can help to meet through the churches the
physical needs of the people they are, particularly those people
that are in distress, there is an opportunity for them
(12:58):
when they asked the question what you doing here, to
give them a clear presentation of the Gospel. Many of
people have come to faith in Christ. There is a
revival that is taking place in Ukraine right now in
the midst of this because of the acts of good
works of the Christians in Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Right now, let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue
next on the Tutor Dixon podcast. For people who don't know,
the Eastern European countries have for a long time been
leading toward more and more atheism. I know that the
Czech Republic has almost no Christianity. It's the most atheist
country in Europe right now, I believe, and I think
(13:41):
it's been a struggle to get the support for Christianity.
But there's like this, there are people who have been saying, oh,
but in Russia, they really want to bring back the family,
they really want to bring back those values, and it's
hard for Americans to go how is that when Putin
is so willing to go to war and willing to
(14:02):
kill the people in Ukraine, and he's really taking the
young men out of the household and allowing them to
go to war and die as well. How How how
do you navigate that the value system at the same
time having these leaders that are just going throwing men
into this brutal war.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, well, for us, there are a lot of politics,
politics involved in what you just you know, laid out obviously,
and and so we've been working in those countries for
so long that we have an established ministry whose focus
is solely on the church. Jesus said, for in this
(14:46):
is saying it's true one, so is in another reefs,
I sent you to reap that for which you have
now labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into
their labor. So we basically view ourselves as an organization
that is entering into labor of these churches that are
putting themselves out there to minister to these people who
are a tremendous amount of distress and and a tremendous
(15:11):
amount of uncertainty about what's going to happen in the
future as a result of this war. And as we
see as we looked at the you know, the situation
unfolding in the last two or three days, with the
meetings and the summits and all that, I'm still not
sure how much longer this war is going to his
war is going to last because of Pudent's determination.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
But what an interesting time to see a revival in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yes, it really is, it really is, And and it's
like when the war started, you know, there was a
big push of people who were looking to escape from Ukraine,
and so the Baptist Evangelical churches kind of set up
a underground railroad, if you will, and people are making them,
(15:55):
making their way across the country of you traying to
exit into Eastern Europe, and all along the way there
were churches that were there, you know, you know, every
step of the way, just on their roots, that would
just take them in. They would spend the night, they
would minister to them, they would give them money if
(16:17):
they needed help with gas to keep them going so
that they could leave the country. You know, the Church
has been there all along to help these people. And
we saw the same thing with the Baptist churches in
Israel in light of the most recent conflicts there as well.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
There must be some beauty in seeing God work through
such darkness, which obviously I think that we see that
throughout our lives and even in our darkest times. That's
when I think we rely on God the most and
we can feel God's presence the most if we are
willing to be open to that and see that. But
what is it like when you see someone who hasn't
(16:54):
known the Lord and gets to see in the darkest
times the Lord bringing that joy?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well, again, because we're an equipping ministry. We get to
see that through the testimonies that we get back from uh,
you know, from the from the churches and the workers,
and and the testimonies are just incredible. I mean these again,
(17:21):
most of these countries are atheistic countries. They were told
that God doesn't exist and the object of their worship
needs to be the State, not God, but the State.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
And so.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I have I have preached in a number of those
churches over there, and particularly when you get down to
Siberia and some of the rural areas, I'd just be
sharing the Gospel, and and before I would stand up
with the pulpit, the pastor would say, you're gonna preesse
the gospel. I said, yes, I am going to prese
the Gospel, and obviously I'd do it through the interpreter.
(17:55):
And he said, were you're going to have to be
prepared for the repenters. I said, okay, what do you
mean by that? He said, you'll see. So, I mean
this is just like Jonathan Edwards, like the Revival. You know,
I'm preaching the Gospel and these people would just you know,
get up from the pews and come down in tears.
And confess their sins before the churches except Christ's Savior.
(18:19):
We'd all sing a song praising God for a for
a new Christian and they would sit down and two
or three minutes later, the same thing would happen with
another person. I mean, you can just see God, you
can just see God's hand and in uh in what's
going on over there.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
We had a missionary visit our church from Eastern Europe
and he and I was talking to my pastor about
it last weekend and he was saying, you know, when
when he came to our church, he was talking about
how you could actually see that there was demon possession.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
And he said, I think that in the United.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
States, we don't see that as much because the demons
don't have to work us hard.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Here.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
We have medications, people are are zoned out, you know,
there's just you have so much that you can step
away from God. But that in Eastern Europe it's a
different type of ministry there and that you see things
like that, and I think it's I think that's a
really beautiful message for young people, especially you're young people
(19:20):
in Christ even if you are if you are young
in faith, that is a message that like that emotion
is true.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You can't fake that, No.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
You can't. No, absolutely not, absolutely not. And again, I
mean you know these most of the older people, they
grew up in atheism, and.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Was it always that was the history.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
That well, No, I mean Russia and those countries they
adopted Orthodox Christianity back in the tenth century, and for
the most part that was their national religion for many,
many years. And and again, as I mentioned, the Baptist
(20:05):
churches were established in the early eighteen hundreds when German
Men and that missionaries came into Georgia and Ukraine and
began to evangelize the peasant populations. Many of the the
attempts at reformed died over the years, but for some reason,
the Lord allowed that particular movement to bear fruit throughout
(20:30):
the eighteen hundreds. And it wasn't until let's see, when
Stalin came in and he decided to eradicate those countries
of all religion. And that's when the persecution started, and
the persecution ran through twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
To the ability to kind of speak about the truth
and to speak about the Lord is I'm sure there
are a lot of people that still have fear.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
In some of those countries, like in some of the
Muslim countries, they are fearful because many of them will
end up in jail as a result of it. And
a lot of those Baptist pastors that we sponsor, they'll
hold summer camps and then the government will come in
and beat up the pastor. But they'll just come back
and keep doing it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
So so yeah, there is you provide what you help
to provide what they need, so that even in those cases.
I mean that to me is just shocking because I
think that we are so spoiled here and we don't
know that we're spoiled. And because we're spoiled, I think
that's a risk that we take, is that we give
a little bit away. And that seems to be what happened.
(21:39):
I mean, that's kind of the story of history, right.
You can see this happen, and now.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
We're trying to clow it back.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And yet the government would come in and beat up
the pastor.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they would send the thugs in
to beat up the pastor in some of those countries.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
When you talk about like the mafia and that kind
of thing is that is that at all intertwined with
the government, where if they don't like something, they just
that's what they do.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
You know, in terms of the connection between the mafia
and the government, obviously there probably is some level of
connection because you know, that's how the mafia continues to exist.
But yeah, it's a difficult question to answer. I'm not
quite sure how to answer that question. There is some
connection there, yeah, from what I can tell.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So what can people do to support what you're doing
and and support what the work is that's being done there.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Well, the first thing is our our founder had wrote
a book and his saying was always much prayer, much power,
little prayer, little power, No prayer, no power. So we
can continue to pray for the churches and the Christians
over there, that God would open doors and that many
people would come to faith in Christ. So so for us,
(23:01):
you know, we offer a variety of different ways that people,
based upon their passions, can plug in. And you know,
we're the we're the largest provider of sound theological training
throughout those countries. We have we we've had a partnership
(23:21):
for many years with John MacArthur who many people know
has recently passed away. And you know a lot of
the foundations of the doctrine that we that we promote
is would be along the lines of what he teaches,
and in particular his focus on proper hermeneutics and a
(23:42):
proper and the ability to proper, properly understand God's word
if you're going to be out there preaching it. So
training is important, and then sending an evangelism is important.
So if people want to want to sponsor a national
church planting missionary, we for opportunities to do that. We
send great reports back and then we equip them with
(24:06):
funds to minister to, particularly families and children. So this
year we sponsored ninety thousand children to attend Christian Summer Camp.
Over the years, through our Orphans Reborn program, we've ministered
to over eighty three thousand children. We do a lot
(24:27):
of humanitarian aid distribution through those churches so that they
can meet people in their times of need, and we
get great reports back from that. We have a Christmas
program that was built around the work of the churches
at Christmas time called Emmanuel's Child and they view that
as their most effective tool in drawing families in at
(24:49):
Christmas times so that they can hear and respond to
the gospel. So it's kind of a holistic program, if
you will. We minister to them, you know, Christmas time,
many of them come to faith in Christ. We offer
summer camp to the families and the kids. We you know,
meet their physical needs when when the need arises. And
(25:11):
then we train the pastors so that they so that
they can build a strong doctrinal and theological foundation around
their faith.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And where should they go to learn more about SGA
and how they can financially support or support in some
other way.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, So our website is SGA dot org. Okay, and
so I'm just I thanks so much for giving the
opportunity to share the good things that God is doing
in those countries, because right now everybody's just hearing the
bad things. So we need to pray that God will
God's will will continue to manifest itself.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
It is so beautiful to hear these stories of I mean,
and we've seen videos.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
We've been fortunate at our church to have videos of
these young people that have said, I mean, exactly what
you were saying. It was so dark, life was so dark.
I didn't see any future. And I walked in these
doors and I felt a different kind of love, and
that to me is so amazing because it really is
unlike any love you'll ever know. Absolutely, absolutely well, Michael Johnson,
(26:18):
thank you so much for sharing it with us today.
Thank you very much, absolutely, and thank you all for
joining us on the Tutor Dixon podcast.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
For this episode and others.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts, or watch it on rumble in YouTube
at Tutor Dixon. Thank you so much, and I have
a blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Today, we have sort of an interesting conversation, especially with
what's happening on the world stage with Russia and Ukraine.
We actually have Michael Johnson with us today. He is
the president of Slavic Gospel Association, a US based evangelical
organization on a mission to rescue thousands of orphaned teens
in the former Soviet Union. These teenagers are under threat
(00:25):
of being forced into terrible things like prostitution and slavery
and even organized crime. And Michael and his team at
SGA are on what they call a race against evil
because about eighty seven percent of these teens who leave
orphanages in the former Soviet Union countries of Eastern Europe,
they'll end up in prostitution, criminal gang, slave labor, or
(00:46):
even worse, commits suicide if they have no other options. So, Michael,
thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's good what you're doing. I'm so glad you are
because what you're doing I'm reading about. Not only are
you doing this in Eastern Europe, but in Ukraine, it's
in a war zone.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So tell us a little bit about what that's been
like well.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
First, I'd like to give you a little background on
the ministry. Back in the early twentieth century, there was
a man named Peter Danica who was born in Belarus
and as he grew up, his family was confronted with
a lot of problems, one being a famine, and so
his parents put him on a ship and sent him
(01:28):
to the United States so that he could secure employment
and send money back so they could survive. He ended
up in Chicago and he was saved through the ministry
of the Moody Church. When the Bible School became a pastor.
Then in nineteen thirty four, when the persecution ramped up
throughout those countries against the Christians, he established this ministry.
(01:50):
Its main goal was the covert distribution of Bibles and
Christian literature in those countries. And then we were heavily
involved in the development of a Russian language radio ministry
that we broadcasts in and around and through the Iron
Curtain in partnership with HCJB, Transworld Radio and FUBC. So
(02:11):
our passion has always been the proclamation of the Gospel
and whatever we possible in those particular countries as well
as the Slavic populations in Israel. So when the wall
came down, things changed and new opportunities began to arise.
Many Western organizations sent their missionaries over into those countries
(02:32):
to minister, and they had a great impact. But our
strategy was a bit different. We connected with the largest
group of evangelical churches in those countries, which would be
the Baptist churches. They were established back in the early
eighteen hundreds. They were persecuted for many years, they emerged
from the dark years, and they're wonderfully committed pastors and
(02:55):
churches that have a passion to reach their countries for Christ.
So basically, we're an equipping ministry. We exist to serve
and equip those churches to train their pastors and proper
and sound theology, then to secure sponsors to send him
out into previously unreached towns and villages so they can
preach the Gospel and plant new Bible churches. And then
(03:19):
we equip them with resources to meet both physical and
spiritual needs of the people in their communities so that
more might hear, more might respond, and more might come
to faith in Christ.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So how does that has that changed the culture there
and what kind of culture have your people seen that
has been shocking. I read one story where there was
a little boy that had come home from school and
excited to tell his mom about soccer, and the mom
was the one who ended up beating him and saying,
I wish I didn't have to deal with him.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Seems like that's I mean, that seems like a.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Very different culture than what we see in America.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Well, yeah, it is a different culture. I mean, find
a lot of substance abuse with the families in those countries,
and obviously the children have to suffer the brunt of that.
So for us, you know, our ministry is all about
(04:17):
equipping the nationals to go in and build meet and
build relationships with these families, do whatever they can to
lead them to faith in Christ, and then minister to
the children, whether they be within abusive families or children
growing up in these state run orphanages. And you quoted
(04:39):
the statistic that we share with you. You know, anywhere
from eighty seven to ninety seven percent of those kids
when they leave those orphanages in their eighteenth birthday are lost.
They have no hope. You know, they usually end up
in you know, criminal situations or alcoholism or substance abuse,
and as you mentioned, suicide. So we have an open
(05:02):
door through our church partners throughout those countries. We're connected
to six thousand Baptist Evangelical churches throughout those countries. These
are people who have had significant ministries in those orphanages,
and with funds and resources, they can expand that ministry
(05:23):
in a way that they can reach more children.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So the numbers that I read are about seven hundred
thousand orphans and abandoned children. And you know, I think
that number sounds outrageous to me, and yet it's probably
a similar number in states in the United States. But
I mean, how is that is that from substance abuse
in the United States? A lot of it is substance
(05:48):
abuse or abuse in general. Is that the same there?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, that would be very similar, similar circumstances, because you know,
they're just these people that a lot of these are
poor families. And again when you combine that with the
rates of alcoholism, particularly given the fact that vodka is
quite prevalent over there, it creates a very explosive situation.
(06:14):
And so so for me, you know, it was about
twenty five years ago I was in Siberia in and
around the city of krosni Arsk, and I was traveling
with the church leaders, the Baptist church leaders throughout that
region and we were visiting various ministry points, you know,
(06:35):
church planting, humanitarian aid distribution, all that. But then we
began to see that those churches had an open door
to go into the state run orphanages to minister to
the children in those orphanages. And the reason was is
because the orphanage directors saw the positive impact that these
(06:57):
Christians had on the children. And so when we would
pull up, you know, the kids would be looking out
the window saying, hey, the Christians are here. The Christians
are here, the Christians are here, and they're all excited
about it, you know, because you know, we drop off
gifts and whatnot. You know, we would bring joy, Yeah,
bring joy. We invite them the summer camp, we would
(07:17):
do Christmas gift distributions, we would do all kinds of things.
And that allowed those church workers to build relationships with
the kids and then see what it really means to
be a Christian. And so the ministry had a tremendous impact.
We expanded it to many of the other countries in
(07:39):
the former Soviet Union, and so many of those kids responded.
Many of those kids came to faith in Christ. So
when on their eighteenth birthday they let them out of
the orphanages, they were embraced and welcomed into local churches.
So they had a chance at a life that is
not necessarily focused on criminality, but a life that is
(08:03):
based upon the pursuit of God and spiritual things.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Why is it's so different in those countries than in
the US. I mean, obviously we don't have the orphanage
system anymore, but it seems as though these kids were
coming out and just being lured into this lifestyle of sex,
trafficking or criminality.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Like you said, yeah, yeah, well, and that's true. I'm
not quite sure how I would characterize the difference between
our country and theirs. I think that's a universal problem,
but there is there's a large presence in many of
the orphanages that we that we deploy workers to where
(08:47):
there's a battle for the heart and soul of the children.
Because at the same time, the russ from mafia are
in their building relationships with the kids. You know, they'll
do like martial arts programs or whatever to build relationships
with them because basically they're grooming them for a life
of crime. And so what the churches and the church
(09:10):
workers are doing is to help these children understand who
God is and what it means to be a Christian's
so it's just it's it's a very it's a very
difficult situation. And the Russian mafia is many times successful
because of what they promised the children once they get out,
(09:31):
but as we all know, they're deployed into a life
of evilness, whereas the Christians are drawing the kids into
a life that is based upon the pursuit of a
relationship with Christ.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
How dangerous is it for these Christians to be out there?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I mean when you're talking about the Russian mafia, that
sounds like they don't probably want to give these kids up.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's correct, Yeah, they Well, it takes a lot of
prayer for God's protection. We have seen problem where where
the Christians have been confronted with getting beaten up and
all that, but they just keep going back. I mean,
these are brave people and they're courageous people, and they're
doing what God has called them to do.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So they so these there's a story of one of
these kids who was in there and groomed. And to
get into a little bit of graphic detail, I guess
these these mafia or criminal elements, they come in and
they convince these kids to the boys to traffic the girls.
And there's a story of one young man who had
(10:38):
this situation and and one day was like I've got
I've got to do something to make this right. See
now a part of your organization or have you seen
things like that happening?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, we've seen like we've seen things like that happening.
But again, we don't send missionaries over there. We equip
the national church workers to do the work. It's a
highly coordinated ministry. We have administrative offices in Moscow, we
have administrative offices in Kiev and Minsk, so we can
(11:11):
get resources, we can get we can get financial support
to these people as they continue to build their ministries.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And so well support there by the government for Christianity
there is.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
It depends on the country in Russia. Yeah, the Russians
recognize the good work that is being done by these
evangelical churches, so they will allow it to continue to
take place. And I think that we have a good
reputation over there because of the humanitarian aspect of what
(11:52):
we do. So when it comes to the war, for example,
in Russian Ukraine, we were heavily involved in uh the
the the the distribution of humanitarian aid through the churches
(12:12):
to the people and the families that were impacted as
a result of the war on both sides of the conflict.
So so that is being recognized. Even though even though
in the case of Russia and Ukraine and the main
national religion would be the Orthodox religion, the Baptists are
being recognized for the good work that they do and
(12:34):
we're a significant part of that because we've been doing
it for so long. So yeah, we we have a
we have a certain level of freedom to be able
to go in and you know, and it's it's about word. Indeed,
if we can help to meet through the churches the
physical needs of the people they are, particularly those people
that are in distress, there is an opportunity for them
(12:58):
when they asked the question what you doing here, to
give them a clear presentation of the Gospel. Many of
people have come to faith in Christ. There is a
revival that is taking place in Ukraine right now in
the midst of this because of the acts of good
works of the Christians in Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Right now, let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue
next on the Tutor Dixon podcast. For people who don't know,
the Eastern European countries have for a long time been
leading toward more and more atheism. I know that the
Czech Republic has almost no Christianity. It's the most atheist
country in Europe right now, I believe, and I think
(13:41):
it's been a struggle to get the support for Christianity.
But there's like this, there are people who have been saying, oh,
but in Russia, they really want to bring back the family,
they really want to bring back those values, and it's
hard for Americans to go how is that when Putin
is so willing to go to war and willing to
(14:02):
kill the people in Ukraine, and he's really taking the
young men out of the household and allowing them to
go to war and die as well. How How how
do you navigate that the value system at the same
time having these leaders that are just going throwing men
into this brutal war.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, well, for us, there are a lot of politics,
politics involved in what you just you know, laid out obviously,
and and so we've been working in those countries for
so long that we have an established ministry whose focus
is solely on the church. Jesus said, for in this
(14:46):
is saying it's true one, so is in another reefs,
I sent you to reap that for which you have
now labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into
their labor. So we basically view ourselves as an organization
that is entering into labor of these churches that are
putting themselves out there to minister to these people who
are a tremendous amount of distress and and a tremendous
(15:11):
amount of uncertainty about what's going to happen in the
future as a result of this war. And as we
see as we looked at the you know, the situation
unfolding in the last two or three days, with the
meetings and the summits and all that, I'm still not
sure how much longer this war is going to his
war is going to last because of Pudent's determination.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
But what an interesting time to see a revival in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yes, it really is, it really is, And and it's
like when the war started, you know, there was a
big push of people who were looking to escape from Ukraine,
and so the Baptist Evangelical churches kind of set up
a underground railroad, if you will, and people are making them,
(15:55):
making their way across the country of you traying to
exit into Eastern Europe, and all along the way there
were churches that were there, you know, you know, every
step of the way, just on their roots, that would
just take them in. They would spend the night, they
would minister to them, they would give them money if
(16:17):
they needed help with gas to keep them going so
that they could leave the country. You know, the Church
has been there all along to help these people. And
we saw the same thing with the Baptist churches in
Israel in light of the most recent conflicts there as well.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
There must be some beauty in seeing God work through
such darkness, which obviously I think that we see that
throughout our lives and even in our darkest times. That's
when I think we rely on God the most and
we can feel God's presence the most if we are
willing to be open to that and see that. But
what is it like when you see someone who hasn't
(16:54):
known the Lord and gets to see in the darkest
times the Lord bringing that joy?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well, again, because we're an equipping ministry. We get to
see that through the testimonies that we get back from uh,
you know, from the from the churches and the workers,
and and the testimonies are just incredible. I mean these again,
(17:21):
most of these countries are atheistic countries. They were told
that God doesn't exist and the object of their worship
needs to be the State, not God, but the State.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
And so.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I have I have preached in a number of those
churches over there, and particularly when you get down to
Siberia and some of the rural areas, I'd just be
sharing the Gospel, and and before I would stand up
with the pulpit, the pastor would say, you're gonna preesse
the gospel. I said, yes, I am going to prese
the Gospel, and obviously I'd do it through the interpreter.
(17:55):
And he said, were you're going to have to be
prepared for the repenters. I said, okay, what do you
mean by that? He said, you'll see. So, I mean
this is just like Jonathan Edwards, like the Revival. You know,
I'm preaching the Gospel and these people would just you know,
get up from the pews and come down in tears.
And confess their sins before the churches except Christ's Savior.
(18:19):
We'd all sing a song praising God for a for
a new Christian and they would sit down and two
or three minutes later, the same thing would happen with
another person. I mean, you can just see God, you
can just see God's hand and in uh in what's
going on over there.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
We had a missionary visit our church from Eastern Europe
and he and I was talking to my pastor about
it last weekend and he was saying, you know, when
when he came to our church, he was talking about
how you could actually see that there was demon possession.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
And he said, I think that in the United.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
States, we don't see that as much because the demons
don't have to work us hard.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Here.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
We have medications, people are are zoned out, you know,
there's just you have so much that you can step
away from God. But that in Eastern Europe it's a
different type of ministry there and that you see things
like that, and I think it's I think that's a
really beautiful message for young people, especially you're young people
(19:20):
in Christ even if you are if you are young
in faith, that is a message that like that emotion
is true.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You can't fake that, No.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
You can't. No, absolutely not, absolutely not. And again, I
mean you know these most of the older people, they
grew up in atheism, and.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Was it always that was the history.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
That well, No, I mean Russia and those countries they
adopted Orthodox Christianity back in the tenth century, and for
the most part that was their national religion for many,
many years. And and again, as I mentioned, the Baptist
(20:05):
churches were established in the early eighteen hundreds when German
Men and that missionaries came into Georgia and Ukraine and
began to evangelize the peasant populations. Many of the the
attempts at reformed died over the years, but for some reason,
the Lord allowed that particular movement to bear fruit throughout
(20:30):
the eighteen hundreds. And it wasn't until let's see, when
Stalin came in and he decided to eradicate those countries
of all religion. And that's when the persecution started, and
the persecution ran through twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
To the ability to kind of speak about the truth
and to speak about the Lord is I'm sure there
are a lot of people that still have fear.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
In some of those countries, like in some of the
Muslim countries, they are fearful because many of them will
end up in jail as a result of it. And
a lot of those Baptist pastors that we sponsor, they'll
hold summer camps and then the government will come in
and beat up the pastor. But they'll just come back
and keep doing it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
So so yeah, there is you provide what you help
to provide what they need, so that even in those cases.
I mean that to me is just shocking because I
think that we are so spoiled here and we don't
know that we're spoiled. And because we're spoiled, I think
that's a risk that we take, is that we give
a little bit away. And that seems to be what happened.
(21:39):
I mean, that's kind of the story of history, right.
You can see this happen, and now.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
We're trying to clow it back.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And yet the government would come in and beat up
the pastor.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they would send the thugs in
to beat up the pastor in some of those countries.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
When you talk about like the mafia and that kind
of thing is that is that at all intertwined with
the government, where if they don't like something, they just
that's what they do.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
You know, in terms of the connection between the mafia
and the government, obviously there probably is some level of
connection because you know, that's how the mafia continues to exist.
But yeah, it's a difficult question to answer. I'm not
quite sure how to answer that question. There is some
connection there, yeah, from what I can tell.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So what can people do to support what you're doing
and and support what the work is that's being done there.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Well, the first thing is our our founder had wrote
a book and his saying was always much prayer, much power,
little prayer, little power, No prayer, no power. So we
can continue to pray for the churches and the Christians
over there, that God would open doors and that many
people would come to faith in Christ. So so for us,
(23:01):
you know, we offer a variety of different ways that people,
based upon their passions, can plug in. And you know,
we're the we're the largest provider of sound theological training
throughout those countries. We have we we've had a partnership
(23:21):
for many years with John MacArthur who many people know
has recently passed away. And you know a lot of
the foundations of the doctrine that we that we promote
is would be along the lines of what he teaches,
and in particular his focus on proper hermeneutics and a
(23:42):
proper and the ability to proper, properly understand God's word
if you're going to be out there preaching it. So
training is important, and then sending an evangelism is important.
So if people want to want to sponsor a national
church planting missionary, we for opportunities to do that. We
send great reports back and then we equip them with
(24:06):
funds to minister to, particularly families and children. So this
year we sponsored ninety thousand children to attend Christian Summer Camp.
Over the years, through our Orphans Reborn program, we've ministered
to over eighty three thousand children. We do a lot
(24:27):
of humanitarian aid distribution through those churches so that they
can meet people in their times of need, and we
get great reports back from that. We have a Christmas
program that was built around the work of the churches
at Christmas time called Emmanuel's Child and they view that
as their most effective tool in drawing families in at
(24:49):
Christmas times so that they can hear and respond to
the gospel. So it's kind of a holistic program, if
you will. We minister to them, you know, Christmas time,
many of them come to faith in Christ. We offer
summer camp to the families and the kids. We you know,
meet their physical needs when when the need arises. And
(25:11):
then we train the pastors so that they so that
they can build a strong doctrinal and theological foundation around
their faith.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And where should they go to learn more about SGA
and how they can financially support or support in some
other way.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, So our website is SGA dot org. Okay, and
so I'm just I thanks so much for giving the
opportunity to share the good things that God is doing
in those countries, because right now everybody's just hearing the
bad things. So we need to pray that God will
God's will will continue to manifest itself.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
It is so beautiful to hear these stories of I mean,
and we've seen videos.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
We've been fortunate at our church to have videos of
these young people that have said, I mean, exactly what
you were saying. It was so dark, life was so dark.
I didn't see any future. And I walked in these
doors and I felt a different kind of love, and
that to me is so amazing because it really is
unlike any love you'll ever know. Absolutely, absolutely well, Michael Johnson,
(26:18):
thank you so much for sharing it with us today.
Thank you very much, absolutely, and thank you all for
joining us on the Tutor Dixon podcast.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
For this episode and others.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts, or watch it on rumble in YouTube
at Tutor Dixon. Thank you so much, and I have
a blessed day.
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