Russia Mission

In April of 1993, Ray Renner (a minister from Anderson, IN) and Gary King, (a minister with Apostolic Team Ministries from Celina, Ohio), traveled to Moscow, Russia, to attend a minister's conference designed to link American ministers and churches with Russian ministers. On the last day of the conference, they met Yuri Nikolaiovich Lyashevsky. He had been praying for someone to come and help him plant a church in his hometown of Samara, the fifth largest city in Russia. Ray and Gary went with Yuri on a train to Samara and met with a small group of believers meeting in the home of Yuri and his wife, Nina.  Plans were made and a church planting crusade was held in September of 1993 and the Good News Church was begun.

In December 1993, Johnny Cawthon and Ray Renner went together to minister to the new church which was planted through the outreach crusade.  After many trips, Johnny known in Russia as Ivan Ivanovich (John son of John), has become the leader in ReNET (Regional Network of Equipping Teams) responsible for overseeing ReNET trips to help the Russian church grow, train leaders and plant new churches.

Yuri Lyashevsky was the founding pastor.  He was followed by Oleg Dudnik.  The current pastor is Sergey Sofronov.  Good News Church continues to meet in a Culture Hall in the surburbs of Mexavod.  Recently, however, they have been able to buy new ground in order to build their own building,  On Johnny's most recent trip (May-June 2011) it was exciting to note that Russia has gone from a closed nation, (to the gospel) to a receiving nation and now to a sending nation.  There is much expectancy as they prepare to reach out to the 95 unreached people groups in Russsia itself and to send missionaries to other nations as well.