Pray for Misha and Lena

Hey guys! Some of you know Misha and Lena, some of you may have heard of them, and some of you may not know who they are at all, but they are two interpreters from Belarus that help with Radooga in the summer. Belarus is the country right above Ukraine.

Lena and Misha are awesome people of God. Some of you may have heard that there has been political and religious persecution in Belarus recently. Read this update from Voice of the Martyrs and then read Misha and Lena's emails to my friend Kelsey who's been to Ukraine with me.





From The Voice of the Martyrs
[The Voice of the Martyrs Visit: Persecution.com]
BELARUS (ASSIST News Service)
On March 13th, Georgi Vyazovsky of Christ's Covenant Reformed Baptist Church in Belarus was freed from a Minsk prison on completion of a 10-day sentence for conducting religious worship in his own home. After his release, Pastor Vyazovsky told Forum 18 News Service he felt "splendid" and even joked he had lost weight due to the "good diet." Held in cells with five and later 13 other inmates, he said both they and the warders were "amazed" he was there for religious activity. One of the staff remarked the judge must have gone crazy. To Forum 18's knowledge, Pastor Vyazovsky is the first person to have been imprisoned for religious worship in Belarus for 20 years. When 30 members of various Protestant churches gathered at the prison to meet Pastor Vyazovsky, police roughly moved them some 400 meters away, while some 20 special police officers stood by. Pastor Vyazovsky confirmed there has been no further attempt to prosecute church members since his conviction. However, the Pentecostal bishop of the Minsk region is now threatened with prosecution as well. Sergei Tsvor, who is also first vice-chairman of the Pentecostal Union and pastor of the Minsk-based Good News Church, told Forum 18 that police visited the free-standing residential house where his 100-strong congregation met during a service some six weeks ago. When an officer drew up a protocol against the bishop on the grounds he had no right to lead the gathering under the law on public demonstrations, Tsvor told Forum 18, "I told them that it wasn't a demonstration or a picket, but a worship service." He was summoned to a hearing at Minsk's Moscow District Court on March 9th, but the judge was busy with another case and told him he would be summoned again. He has heard nothing since.

Pray our almighty and all-powerful God will protect His followers in Belarus. Pray every Christian will be a witness of Jesus' persevering love. Pray the Holy Spirit will move in power to bring the light of Christ to all countries with a heritage of communistic atheism.

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This is the email Kelsey received from Misha last week. Belarus had presidental elections a a few days ago, and this was right before it:

Hello, Kelsey! This is Misha, from Minsk, Belarus.

What have you been up to? How's your life going?I have some sad news i need to share with you.

Three of my friends have been kicked out of our university today. One of them - Ryhor - was walking on the street with his white-red-white scarf (these are our true national colours) along with 2 other guys yesterday. They were arrested by police just because of his scarf (it was evident that they were for freedom, the white-red-white colours are forbidden in Belarus). So, those policemen went through Ryhor's bag and found there some opposition stickers. He did not even stick them, he just had them in his bag! For this reason they were brought to a police station. The policemen behave as real fascists (actually, they are), they were swearing using the worst language, intimidating them, saying exactly the following: "If you don't write in the report what we want we will beat out your eye! Actually, we are going to shoot you up as dogs and dig your bodies in the forest!" In the report they wrote that Ryhor and his friends were disseminating those stickers, which is punished according to our laws. The stickers were found only in Ryhor's bag, but the police called guilty also his friends who were with him. Today it became known that they are no more studying at the university because of that incident... All of them are kicked out.Another girl (Luda) who is a friend of mine too was kicked out too some days ago. There wasn't any sufficient ground for the administration to do it, as she wasn't arrested, but they did it anyway. Without a reason, without an explanation. It was known to them that she had been for freedom, that's why they repressed her... She's a good girl, who helped me find an excellent job for the coming Fri, Sat, Sun and Mon. I'll be interpreting at the elections for the observers from the OSCE.Every day somebody is taken to prison for working against the regime. Today they've thrown there about 25 people, who worked for the independent candidate. When officials cannot find a sigle ground to repress a person, they say in the court: "He was swearing badly and resisted the police", though it is never true. By putting our activists to prison they try to paralyse the campaign of the candidate, which is totally unfair!All elections in Belarus have been rigged and falsified in the course of the latest 10 years, that's why there's not a single opponent of the regime in our parliament, not a single! There's no hope to overcome Luk [the current president]... through the elections, they won't count, won't count at all! Luk... has no right to participate in the elections, for he has been a president for 12 years already and wants even more power, though only 10 years are allowed according to the Constitution! Therefore on this Sunday - the day of the elections, at 20.00 lots of people who are not able to tolerate evil anymore, will be united on the central square of Minsk to stay there for our freedom. But Luk... has prepared himself to this, he drew to Minsk great forces of police and special troops, he even mobilized those policemen who have been in retirement in order to protect his power from the people. He is extreemly nervous now (we have never before faced such violence and repressions) and he'll be even more nervous on Sumday. God knows what commands he is going to give... According to our law (that was passed in 2004) the president has the power to command police to shoot off people and kill them whenever he wants. I'm really worried for my friends who'll be there, almost all members of my church, i'll have to interpret for the OSCE at that time in another city, i'll join them only on Monday. We should pray that God will condemn sin and bring justice and freedom. I don't want the extreme violence to occur, but realize, the more blood is shed the nearer is our liberation! Please, pray with us during the rest of the week.P.S. There are also persecutions for faith, one pastor spent 10 days in prison for teaching the Bible in his own house! Another pastor will be judged soon because of the same "fault".One of my friends is now at prison for drawing one a fence the inscription: "We want the new one!", he will probably be sentenced to 2 or even years of custody for that. Another guy came to listen to our candidate on Sunday to one of the meetings in the open air, while arresting him the police broke his arm, he was thrown into a prison with a broken arm to spend there 12 days and nights... And i'll have to spend more than one night to tell you of all the violence and injustice which is being performed by the so called "president" (who usurped the power) and his officials who sold their hearts for money. May God forbid! His Kingdom come, which is justice, peace and joy, His will be done in Belarus as it is in Heaven! Amen.

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This is the email Kelsey received from our other friend, Lena today:

Kelsey! I'm glad you got my e-mails! It's going to be a short and urgent letter. I admit I underestimated the risks of the situation in our country. Misha did get detained the other day for taking part in the meeting. I can't find out much information because I don't have any connection with him now. I suppose he'll be tried like hundreds of other people. Among the people detained there are some of our Christian acquaintances. Please pray for the situation and thank you for praying.

May God's peace be with you,

Lena

Please pray for the people of Belarus. This is Europe, people. Whenever I read stuff from Voice of the Martyrs it's always from far away places- China, Sudan, Mongolia...faces I don't know. People I've never met.

This is Misha: