God answers prayer for church plant in Russia.

Russia (NTM)–Elsa prayed for more than ten years that God would plant a church in Derbent.

Elsa and 90,000 others live in the historic city in the republic of Dagestan in the Caucasus, Russia, but there is no church there.

“I can’t live any longer without fellowship here,” Elsa cried out to the Lord. “Remind Valodia, who promised to work here and to help us reach the people of Caucasus.”

In Krasnodar, 800 miles northwest of Derbent, believers at Krasnodar Bible Church meet to pray for more than three hours every Wednesday night. Valodia is one of the pastors of this young church, which New Tribes missionaries Klaus and Franzi Libuda and Bryan and Diane Thomas helped plant. Their prayers are for the more than 40 ethnic groups in the Caucasus who do not yet have a Bible in their own languages.

One Wednesday night, God impressed Valodia that He wanted something done in Derbent. Valodia remembered Elsa. Two weeks after Elsa prayed for Valodia to come, he and co-worker Sascha rang her doorbell in Derbent.

Now a year later, Krasnodar believers have gone on several evangelistic trips to Derbent, and Krasnodar Bible Church hopes to send a church-planting team in April next year.

“It seems that … God has a better plan for this city than just to be a strategic important place for trade and travel. He wants it to be the strategic important place to spread the Gospel to the surrounding nations,” Klaus wrote from Krasnodar.

Pray that the Lord continues His mighty works in the Caucasus until every ethnic group is reached. Pray for the believers at Krasnodar Bible Church. Pray for the birth of the Derbent church.