With Russia seemingly spinning out of control, an exciting radio initiative is now being pioneered to take the Gospel to 20,000,000 Russians. Dan Wooding reports on RADIO TEOS.

The doctor sees the project as not just evangelistic, but also to provide solid Bible teaching for Radio Teos listeners. "Recent statistics report that less than one per cent of Russians have been reached by Protestant churches," he said. "So we really need not only to preach the Gospel but to build up the body of Christ in Russia and encourage them to join a local church."

Dr Nedzelsky said that Radio Teos is an interdenominational station and shows the same respect for every Christian church, including the Russian Orthodox Church. "In fact we have a very good response from Orthodox listeners," he declared. "We currently have five different evangelical Orthodox programmes in our weekly programme schedule. Six Orthodox priests from the evangelical arm of the Church are also involved with us either on the air or helping with production."

The partner in this new project is United Christian Broadcasters which grew from the Radio Rhema vision for establishing Christian radio in New Zealand. As requests for help in establishing other Christian radio stations overseas were received, UCB International was formed.

"As works were birthed in other countries," said Ian Mackie, "they then came under the UCB banner with its programming philosophy of mixing 100 per cent Christian music with selected teaching programmes." Mackie went on to say that Radio Rhema in New Zealand has 25 AM and FM transmitters carrying the network programmes and two new networks are planned. UCB Europe broadcasts on the Astra satellite and distributes its programmes over the whole of Western Europe and has 15 re-transmission sites (AM and FM) in Ireland and plans for two high-powered transmitters to cover all of the UK. In the Kingdom of Tonga, UCB has one FM station while in Australia, 30 groups broadcast up to 90 days per year while they wait to be granted permanent broadcasting licenses.

"During a visit to Moscow that Gareth Littler, the UCB Europe director, and myself made last year, we were offered an AM frequency for Moscow," explained Mackie. "After much prayer and discussion, the UCB International Directors really felt that God was asking us to begin a new work in this nation.

"After six months evaluating the opportunities to broadcast in Moscow, we read Dan Wooding's article about Radio Teos in St Petersburg. We were already planning to set up a full station in Moscow but thought it would be courteous to visit Radio Teos on one of our trips. We were very pleased with what we saw at Radio Teos and again, after prayer, felt that God was asking us if we were prepared to work with this Christian radio station. Our response to the Lord was that, 'If we can find enough common ground, then we would be open to working with Radio Teos.' We sent off what we believed was a proposal listing the main points of agreement we required to allow us to work together and Radio Teos responded affirmatively to every point we raised.

"From that point on," continued Mackie, "we believed that this was God's direction for Christian radio for Russia and agreed to proceed with all our programming through Radio Teos."

Mackie said the reason that prayer and financial support is being sought from the West is that the harvest is fully ripe in Russia but there are so few labourers to gather it in. He added, "The most cost effective way of sharing the Gospel to the masses is via radio. The Russian people believe that God exists but all records and books relating to God were destroyed during the communist era. The Russian people need to be educated about God, his Kingdom and his Word. The best vehicle for educating the masses about God is through Christian radio broadcasts straight into their homes hour after hour and day after day.

"We need involvement to help us reap the harvest and provide fresh Christian education material so the people's lives can be totally transformed from hopeless dependency on the State to hopeful dependency on God."

Mackie, who has just returned from another trip to Russia, said, "There is still a lot of political, economic and military instability in Russia. The reality is that for centuries the Russian people have never experienced freedom as we have in the West. This new freedom has created many problems and brought with it paramount changes, many of which have had a negative effect on the peoples lives.

"Many Russians also like strong leadership and we believe that it is only a matter of time before another strong leader will arise and impose some form of stability again on the nation and its people. This will probably mean the removal of most democratic freedoms, including religious free speech. While overseas Christian organisations may be removed, there is a good chance that indigenous ministries will remain intact to continue preaching the Gospel.

"Democracy promised them freedom but brought poverty and hardship. True freedom only comes from embracing Christ and submitting to God's laws. Political systems only seek to control people one way or another, but Christianity transforms people from within, into law abiding, moral citizens."

I thought I would give the concluding thought to Dr Nedzelsky. "I believe that Christians have not said their final word for Russia yet!" he said. "We need to awake from our illusion that 'all is well' and we need to comprehend the unseen war that rages in Russia at this time. If the downward spiral continues it threatens to suddenly turn to a visible one. Let's not sit on our hands and wait until this happens, but let us stand together now to win the spiritual battle to avoid participation in a real war."