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Expedition to Mountain villages of Central Siberia

The AGAPE team has just returned from the expedition to Central Siberia. We were helping the forgotten Shors people and sharing God's love with them. Although Central Siberia is covered mostly with mountains, forests and swamps many of us feel that this is the most beautiful place we have ever seen.

First we flew 4 hours into Central Siberia and then traveled deep into the forest by trucks and buses to the most isolated villages in the mountains where the Shors live.

The Shors people are very poor, but still we were not expecting the need that we saw. One of the villages had a medical clinic. It was a rather big building but the doctors had nothing inside of it. No equipment. No medicines. Our American nurse gave them her own stethoscope and lab coat and they were so thankful that they were in tears. We were happy to give to the clinic some medical instruments and equipment that we had brought, and doctors kept saying thank you so much, so much!!!

We had a wonderful opportunity to tell the people we met about Jesus, and there was a large number of people who were ready to listen and pray to receive Him. It was amazing!

Agape went to the most isolated and remote villages we could find that were surrounded with mountains and forests. Most of the year the roads are impassable and no vehicles can get through, so the AGAPE team took a helicopter to go to these settlements. These villages have no church, pastor, or Bibles. The people live in log houses and have no electricity. They drink water from the river, catch it's fish, hunt bear, and eat pine nuts and berries. We established our medical clinic in one of the old log cabins, and the people were so happy to know that somebody cared enough to come and help them. Life here is very difficult during the long Siberian winters when the temperature sometimes falls to -40 C. One Shors woman had 11 children, but only 2 survived. Her children all died from lack of nutrition and basic medical care!!!

These people call themselves the "People of the Taiga," and they are not only forgotten people but also LOST people. They follow ancient beliefs such as worshiping the mountains and wildlife. But at the same time they are very open to hearing about Jesus. They listened with open hearts to the Good News that we brought along with our medical help. We feel that many seeds were planted. After we are gone they will not stay alone because the local church will return and help the seeds grow.

Together with the medical clinics we also brought Agape Health Kits. While part of our medical team worked in a clinic another part went from house to house giving out the Agape Health Kits we brought and explaining the reason why we came. In one house we found an old lady. She was probably the oldest in the village. She could not walk and was not even able to go to the river and draw water to drink. We gave her an Agape Health Kit and explained to her how to take the medicines. When this lady found a Bible inside of the Medical Kit she started to cry! She cried, kissed the Bible, kept holding it close to her heart and told us that God is real !!! She had prayed to God, asking Him to send her help and tell her what to do. Then we came! This lady was not the only one who cried when we told her about Jesus. This trip abounded with many such situations! The openness to God was indescribable.

The people who live in these isolated places seldom get any help and never knew that somebody cares about them or that God loves them. When it was time for us to fly out of the village all the people begged us to stay, not just to help them but to TELL THEM MORE ABOUT GOD! They did not want to let us go and our team wanted to stay, but the helicopter had already landed and we had to leave or stay until spring!

We want to come back again soon to help these people and tell them more about Jesus. There are only 16,000 Shors left in the world, and we want to help them through medical care and sharing God's wonderful love before they disappear from time. These precious people, who are almost extinct, are more important than whales, trees, and snail darters!

This trip was filled with tremendous medical needs. One patient had a blood sugar 5 TIMES NORMAL. Many of the patients who came received an EKG for the first time in their lives. It was interesting to see that in the long line of patients waiting to see our doctors were the local doctors and nurses as well!

At the end of the trip the team members all felt close and bonded to each other. There was no "cold war" here between Russians and Americans, only warmth and love for each other. These difficult medical expeditions produce hardships that bond you together and help you learn to love and care for one another like never before. The Agape expeditions are not made up of strangers who go somewhere to help people, but of members of the family of God who love Him and do what He asks. This is what Agape is all about: showing the love of God by serving others.

After the team returned home our hearts burned with the faces of these people hungry for God. We pray that the seeds we sowed will sprout and find fertile ground. In the Bible is the parable of the Sower and the Harvester. Some day Agape hopes to return for the HARVEST. Meanwhile, the local church will be there to teach and do the follow up. To our dear friends who could not come with us this time but helped the expedition to happen by your prayers and support, we say, "THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!" Please know that we would not be able to do this without YOU, and maybe some day the Lord will call you to go with us, too!

Would you like more information about this expedition? If so click here

Agape went to a village that was founded by the children of Alcoholic parents, in order to get away from the world. To get there, we flew all night from Moscow, then traveled 10 hours by bus the next day, then 4 hours in a 6x6 truck, then we put our medicines and equipment into a canoe type of boat and traveled up a river in Siberia for 4 hours.

This lady has a husband and three children. They live in one room and all five of them sleep in one bed! Every family we visited lived a difficult life. The Agape Health Kits helped us to tell them about Jesus and His love.

Petrovich was our first medical patient. When we asked him if he knew who Jesus was he quietly said, "No." He had never heard of Him.

Agape Health Kits are needed here so much since the people have nothing in the way of medical supplies.

We would like to come back soon to see these faces again and tell them more about Jesus.

Agape Health Kits have the potential to save lives in these remote and isolated places. Each Kit has first aid medicines, rolled gaze, antibiotics, a Bible and Christian literature.