Russian Ministry is Difficult and Long-Term

My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good. Jeremiah 4:22

In 1932 and 1933, a famine engulfed the Ukraine. The unfortunate fact is it did not have to happen. Stalin himself proclaimed that "nobody can deny that the total yield of grain in 1932 was larger than in 1931." Food was available. However, the state systematically confiscated most of it for its own use. His decision and the brutal actions of his henchmen condemned millions of people to their grave.

The roots of the man-made famine began in August 1932, when the Communist Party received the legal right to confiscate grain from peasant households. In August, a law was enacted that carried a death penalty for the theft of "socialist property" so anyone caught taking a handful of grain from a government silo or a collective farm field could be executed.

To prevent peasants from abandoning collective farms in search of food, a system of internal passports was put into effect. In November 1932, it became law that the government's quota was collected first and then remaining grain was distributed to the peasants.

The result was millions died of starvation on the collective farms.

In 1933, Mendel Khataevich, a Stalin supporter in Ukraine and the leader of the grain-procurement program, proudly stated: "A ruthless struggle is going on between the peasantry and our regime. It's a struggle to the death. This year was a test of our strength and their endurance. It took a famine to show them who is master here. It has cost millions of lives, but the collective farm system is here to stay. We have won the war!"

Steve Griebling and I am returning to minister once again in Moscow, Russia the first two weeks of June. The work there is slow going but progress is happening. We are helping the Christians all around the former USSR heal the wounds caused by 70 years of state organized terror.

But that is not all. We are helping them establish a vision of a better, more humane Christ centered future. The pagan socialist philosophy of the Communists had no respect for human life so they did not care if people died by the millions. We are teaching them that every person has been created in God's image and is worth somethinof fr now and for an eternity.

Pray for us and for Lifeways Russia, Galina's ministry name. If you are led, also consider sending Life Way Ministries, Inc a tax deductible donation to help us accomplish that vision.