Russian Restrictions Don't Douse Missionaries' Evangelistic Zeal
by Allie Martin
July 1, 2004
(AgapePress) - A husband-and-wife mission team serving in Moscow say while there are more freedoms to evangelize in the former communist capital, there is resistance at times to their efforts.| | 
Troy and Tina Bush, Missionaries in Moscow |
Troy and Tina Bush were commissioned by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1999 to serve in Moscow. The Bushes are primarily involved in planting new churches in the metropolis of 12 million people. But not everyone is happy they are there. As Troy explained during the SBC's recent annual meeting in Indianapolis, things are starting to change in a negative way for evangelical Christians there."The Orthodox Church and members of the government are not in favor of Protestant missionaries [being there] -- especially evangelical missionaries," he says. "At times, there's resistance to our activities and our ability to do things."
According to the missionary, such resistance affects more than just them. "Where that really impacts the local believers is that especially Evangelicals and Baptists at times have a great deal of difficulty renting properties, maintaining legal rights to things," he explains, "and the bureaucracy they're facing and even legal restrictions is increasing now."
But those restrictions are not keeping the Bushes and other missionaries from their calling. Troy says there is a huge interest in the gospel among Muscovites. Many of them, he says, have not found happiness in capitalism and are searching for the true freedom found in Christ.
"Early on [after the collapse of the Soviet Union] I think there was an openness to the gospel, but maybe in some ways a false openness," he says. "What we're finding today is that many people have dabbled in these things, and they've dabbled in capitalism, and the quick fixes didn't change life for them -- so that today the openness we see in Moscow I think is more genuine than it's ever been."
Troy shares that just recently, two members of their team of national Russian church planters started a brand new church through which many people are finding salvation in Jesus. "We're seeing folks from young families all the way to grandmothers coming to Christ and [to] a vibrant faith in Christ," he shares.
