Escape the Gulag

Posted: Monday, June 04, 2007 by Rick Lang.

Sitting in the waiting room with tears in my eyes, I was alone with God in a group of strangers waiting for a flight out. I was in deep emotional and spiritual stress. The reason eluded me but for the past week and a half the pressure was constant. Finally like the bursting of a balloon my feelings over whelmed me. With tears running down my face, I cried out to God, "Why was I feeling like this."

Finally, I gained some relief when the word escape shot into my mind.

This is very unusual for me. We have lived in this part of the world since 1992, and never once had I had the feeling of escape. It is a feeling of extreme fear of running for your life. Fatigue began to cover me. Then it all started to make sense. A year prior I began making plans for a trip to Magadan. I was going to develop relationships with the pastors and believers of the area, to do a teaching on 1 Corinthians, and rely on the Holy Spirit to direct our future work in the region of Magadan.

I've heard, read and seen documentaries about genocide and holocaust type treatment of prisoners. None of this prepared me for the oppression I felt. It seems the cruelty of man has no limit in this place. The mass grave, the well preserved frozen bodies, the careless way children played soccer, using human skulls as the ball. I’m speaking of the 3-9 million people that passed into the Magadan region from 1930-1960 never to return. One out of eight people in the former USSR spent time in the labor camps. To be sent to Magadan was a death sentence.

Each day the believers and I would meet for the study of the Word. We prayed, we lifted our voices in praise, we told stories, we wept, we rejoiced and we planned for the future of the Gospel in this place.

How are we to reach the people in this remote area?

This is perhaps the most rugged and remote place in the world. I am told prisoners left the camp barracks in the warm months and lived in the forest. The guards were not dismayed by their escape, there was no place to run in this frozen wasteland. Isolated pockets of people still carry on. They exist against all odds. They endure the unforgiving winters and harsh conditions.

These people may be unreached with the gospel, abandoned by their country, forgotten by the world, but NEVER rejected by God.

The apostle Paul answered the question "How are we to reach these people?"

Rom 10:14-15, 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! NIV

We are devising a plan but we need your help to take the Word to the unreached. It takes fervent prayer. It will be a sacrifice, it will cost time and money. As we all know, Jesus never said go where we can afford to go.

He just said, "Go!"

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