Restrictions against evangelical believers continue to grow across the former Soviet Union/Eurasia, aided by widespread corruption, governmental discrimination against ideas perceived as “foreign” to the nation’s traditional culture, and a lack of understanding of the law by both officials and the public.

Daily, churches are being closed down or threatened with closure in Central Asia, while new laws impose more restrictions on worship and evangelism.

One example is Pastor Dmitry Shestakov of Uzbekistan. In 2007, he was arrested at one of his own Sunday services and charged with distributing extremist religious literature and other violations. At the trial, it became clear that there was no evidence to support these claims, but the National Security Service insisted that he still be sentenced to four years’ exile in a work camp.

In the camp, he was tortured, abused, and pressured to convert to Islam. At the end of his term, authorities threatened him with another three years, but he was miraculously released . . . only to be placed under severe “administrative supervision” for years, such as being forbidden to leave his home town without written police permission.

In January 2013, Pastor Shestakov and his family were forced to leave everything they had and seek asylum in Ukraine, asking for refugee status from the UNHCR. They face many challenges, including the possibility of deportation back to Uzbekistan, where Pastor Shestakov will most likely face imprisonment. Your prayers are urgently needed for their safety and future. Financial support is also needed now to provide the Shestakov family with housing, food, medical care, and other essential services.

Your prayers do matter. Thanks to your prayers and support, united with thousands of others through Russian Ministries, the Lord is gaining victories even now!

Last February, we told you of the plight of Pastor Thomas Kang, who had been detained by Russian police for months on a fabricated charge of attempted bribery. The true motive of his arrest, however, is shown by the fact that it occurred the day before he was due to open “House of Joy,” a retreat for low-income families as well as a gathering place for Christian celebrations and prayer services.

On April 2, after six months of imprisonment, a judge heard Pastor Kang’s case and released him with a fine. Although justice cannot be said to be fully served, the lawyer who represented Pastor Kang said that this was the best possible outcome in this situation. “In my opinion,” he said, “my client was, to put it simply, set up. This case shows once again that you can’t give even the slightest cause for provocation.” He also said that Moscow police were investigating the money and jewelry, which “disappeared” during a Tula police search of Kang’s home.

Together, we can make a difference. Please continue your prayers for persecuted Christians across the former Soviet Union/Eurasia. And as the Lord leads, please give to Russian Ministries’ Religious Freedom Fund, to support churches and families facing persecution and give emergency aid to fellow believers in crisis.

Find our more at Forum 18.

Three years ago, Azerbaijan passed a law requiring the re-registration of all religious organizations. All organizations which fail to obtain a new permit must be liquidated and their members could be subject to criminal investigation if they continue to practice their faith.

Now, on April 25, after a 15-minute final hearing in the Church’s absence, a court ruled to liquidate the Greater Grace Church in the capital city of Baku — one of the Azerbaijani churches where Russian Ministries is active through School Without Walls and other outreaches.

Greater Grace Church has been legally registered as a church since 1993 by the Ministry of Justice and has served the community for 19 years. But as the Forum 18 News Service — a watchdog for religious freedom at www.forum18.org — reports, Judge Tahira Asadova upheld the suit lodged by the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations. The church has until May 25, one month after the decision, to appeal.

Wade Kusak, Russian Ministries’ Project Manager for Religious Freedom Issues in Eurasia, says, “They were denied for very unclear reasons. The judge didn’t explain what the requirements were, or why Greater Grace Church didn’t meet them. This is a very scary situation, because the government is testing the reaction from the West and from churches to this action. If there is no reaction, they will go further.”

Nor does the persecution end with the church’s liquidation. Wade explains, “If the members of this liquidated church continue to meet together, even two or three at a time, it will be illegal religious activity, and they can be arrested and jailed for up to four years.”

This is the first known open attack on a Christian church in Azerbaijan, and if the decision stands, sets a very dangerous precedent — not only in Azerbaijan, but in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and other nearby nations closely watching the situation.

Much of the persecution in Azerbaijan already follows the example set by Uzbekistan. Since a massacre in 2005, Uzbekistan has conducted a war against their religious minority. Christian literature, including Bibles, is often confiscated and destroyed for “illegal religious activity.” Believers are beaten up during raids on their homes, and courts impose excessive penalties.

The government is also intent on vilifying Christians to the public. Government-controlled mass media accuses believers of occult practices, hypnosis, and extremism, while newspaper articles encourage discrimination and physical abuse of Christians and other minorities.

Convert Tokhar Haydarov is one of around 1,000 believers sentenced to prison or various penalties for their faith. Tokhar is serving 10 years in a labor camp on a false charge of drug production. Fellow believers report that he was tortured and forced to sign the accusation against himself. It’s as if we are back in the old Soviet Union.

Life in many parts of the former Soviet Union has become increasingly difficult for everyone, as the four terrorist bombs that took eight lives in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine on April 27 show. But much of the current persecution against Christians violates their Constitutional rights, demonstrating how serious governments are about ending this “threat.”

Here are some steps you can take right now to support Greater Grace Church and persecuted Christians across the former Soviet Union:

1. Pray for God’s protection for all believers in the FSU, for His intervention in the governments of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and other persecuting nations, and for freedom of religion and revival in the region.

2. Give to Russian Ministries to help support national leaders in their fight for religious freedom by continuing to provide Christian literature, training, and support to Christians, and especially pastors, in persecuted regions.

3. Contact the Embassy of Azerbaijan in the U.S. to protest the closure of Greater Grace Church and all other attempts to eradicate Christianity from their country, before the church’s month of appeal runs out:

By email: azerbaijan@azembassy.us or consul@azembassy.us
By phone: 1 202 337 35 00
By fax: 1 202 337 59 11
By mail: 2741 34th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008

4. Learn more ways you can help persecuted believers in the former Soviet Union by contacting Wade Kusak, Russian Ministries’ Project Manager for Religious Freedom Issues in Eurasia, at: wade@russian-ministries.org. For an interview Wade recently gave on Mission Network News, visit this link: http://mnnonline.org/interviews/date/2012/04.

Though the years of atheistic, Soviet oppression and persecution are past, Christians in Russia and Belarus have seen their religious freedoms slowly erode in recent years.

It’s even more intense for Christians who live in the Muslim-dominated regions of the Northern Caucasus or in Central Asia-regions that are the most closed to the gospel.

According to Open Doors USA, Uzbekistan ranks tenth on its World Watch List of countries that oppress and persecute Christians.

In Uzbekistan, Russian Ministries’ strategic training for young Christian leaders-School Without Walls-is taking root even though it must operate underground. A young leader in the Uzbek church has commented that he sees School Without Walls as the answer to the tremendous need to train more ministry leaders for the church’s groups. “These groups can’t operate openly,” he observes, “but they fuel the evangelical movement that is beginning, despite persecution in our country.”

Today, on the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, remember your brothers and sisters in Christ in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and the Northern Caucasus region of Russia.

•Pray for God’s protection as these young Next Generation Christian leaders stand firm for the gospel.

•Ask God to raise up a new generation of peacemakers in Central Asia and the Northern Caucasus.

•Thank God that His followers around the world are sharing His love and grace—in places of peace and in places of persecution.