Murmansk rests near the top of the globe, above the Arctic Circle, separated from the North Pole by the Barents Sea and a lot of ice. It was an important port city for receiving US war material during WWII; consequently, the German Luftwaffe almost bombed it off the map, as well as making ground assaults from their forces in neighboring Finland and Norway. It was then part of the “Soviet Polar Region.” (Does that give you any clue about the weather?) The summers last about two months, during which the sun does not set for six weeks. (The high may reach a sizzling 70 degrees!) The winter lasts the other ten months, including a six-week period in which the sun never shows itself. It was still winter in late February and March when I was there, and the only steps we took (and we walked several miles while there) which were not on packed snow and/or ice were those inside buildings. It is now a city of approximately 500,000.
The church began in Murmansk about 1992 and now has thirty-three members. This includes American brethren Bob Hawkins and Cliff Lyons who live and work there. The church has some significant strength in the person of Alexander and Tatyana Nesterkin. They are both medical doctors who took two years away from their practice to come to Memphis for Alexander to attend the Memphis School of Preaching. He graduated last June and they have been back in Murmansk since then. Alexander does the preaching and teaches a beginner’s class each Sunday.
Four of us (David Brown, Wayland Melton, Terry Mabery, and I) arrived on Friday, February 26, for two weeks of work. The brethren on the scene (Cliff Lyons, Bob Hawkins, and Alexander Nesterkin) had planned Gospel meetings both weeks, the first week in Murmansk and the second week in Murmashy, a small city about twenty-five miles away. I was asked to preach at the worship hour Sunday morning (41 were present). A Seventh-Day Adventist lady who had been visiting and studying desired to be baptized. About fifteen of the members wen tot Cliff Lyon’s flat a few blocks away, where we baptized her in Cliff’s bathtub (they insisted I do hte baptizing, which I was pleased to do). The meeting in Murmansk went Monday-Thursday night an d each of us took a turn preaching, with a translator (a 30-minute sermon thus takes an hour).
Each night after the sermon, the floor was opened to any questions from anyone present, and we four, plus Cliff, Bob, and Alexander, responded to them for another full hour. Attendance for those meetings averaged about thirty-three. Most of them were non-members, and many returned repeatedly. It was amazing to see some in their sixties (one lady with a cane) who would get out in zero-degree weather, ride some distance on a trolley or a bus, and then walk at least three hundred yards on packed snow and/or ice. Such was the hunger of some for God’s Word. There were questions about such things as war, baptism, Russian Orthodox Church practices, Pentecostalism, Christian living, and others, all of which indicated serious thought. Much good seed was sown that we pray will eventually be harvested. During the day Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week we each had appointments to teach junior-high youngsters in School 17.
Thursday afternoons (both weeks) we went with Cliff and Bob to the Seaman’s Hospital where they are allowed to teach a Bible class in the chapel each week. We all went from room to room passing out invitations to the patients. The hospital was pitiful as to equipment, building condition, sanitation, and such life, but it is all they have. This was followed by going to an orphanage which houses about ten youngsters; Cliff and Bob are allowed to teach simple Bible truths each week. The headmaster at School 17 allows Cliff and Bob to us a classroom each Saturday to conduct “Bible College” classes. We accompanied them; David and I took turns with Bob teaching on the inspiration of the Bible in the two-hour class, attended by about twelve Russians, most of whom were non-members.
The Gospel meeting at Murmashy (in a rented room at School 10) attracted only one person Monday night. (Monday was a national holiday, “Woman’s Day,” which was likely a great factor.) However, Tuesday night we were encouraged that eleven were present. I preached on baptism, and during the question/answer period it was obvious that they had listened and understood-one or two were rather hostile to the thought that their Russian Orthodox sprinkling as infants was unscriptural, but this gave us further opportunity to teach. Wednesday night we were further encouraged by the presence of eighteen non-members. On the strength of this interest and a request by one of the visitors that we return, arrangements were made to rent the room each Sunday afternoon for a Bible class. Thursday night was spent preparing to depart the next day (March 13); so the meeting went only through Wednesday night.
It was well below freezing all but the day of our arrival, and it snowed some most of the days we were there. Some of the nights, when we walked and rode trolleys home from the meetings, the temperature was single digits. It was seldom warmer during the day in Murmansk. However, it was noticeably colder in Murmashy due to its distance from the bay and some warning effect Murmansk derives from its waters. The quarter mile we had to walk from School 10 to the taxi/bus stand was in bitter, subzero temperatures that would be fatal in a short while if one were not clothed to withstand it.
The Truth has a toehold in this bitter and barren land. There is an evident hunger for religious and spiritual matters in the hearts of some. Most of the people go their various ways by foot and by public bus and/or trolley (which is the way we got around most of the time). Their demeanor does not involve smiling, eye contact, or conversation (even with their fellow Russians). The buildings are uniformly crudely constructed, dirty (inside and out), and many are crumbling. This assessment is true of the buildings housing the residential “flats” (single family housing is all but nonexistent), commercial, and public buildings (including the airport), reflecting the generations of Communism’s suppression which has robbed the Russian people of any initiative or incentive to excel. It will take some generations to overcome this attitude and for their new-found freedoms to be reflected in their national personality. With time and the leavening influence of the Gospel, an interest in spiritual matters can doubtless be sparked in more and more people. There is a marked difference in personality between the general populace and those who have obeyed the Gospel. The latter are warm, friendly, outgoing, even exuberant in their approach to life and to other people, more so than many saints in our own land. we must keep on taking the Gospel to this and other far-flung areas. I am thankful I had the opportunity to sow the seed of the kingdom in this remote and unusual land.