Jessica Wright
Editor-in-chief
Professor Elizabeth Taylor, director of bands, recently took a 12-day mission trip to Russia with the Georgia Baptist Convention’s (GBC) Jubalheirs, a women’s music and worship ministry.
The Jubalheirs is a musical group made up of over 200 ladies in Georgia who participate in some way in a music ministry within their home churches. Taylor joined about 125 others to share the Gospel through their various talents in music.
In their short amount of time in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Jubalheirs participated in countless activities to share Jesus with the people in the communities. According to Jon Duncan, director of the Jubalheirs and a part of the GBC’s Music and Worship Ministry, the group was able to partake in numerous events to spread the Gospel through music as well as simply serve the Russian people.
Taylor added that all of this was made possible through their use of music as an avenue for sharing Christ.
“We used music as our purpose to go so we could do mission work while we were there,” said Taylor. “Our ultimate mission was to share Christ.”
Duncan wrote in a GBC newsletter that the Jubalheirs did just that through their ministries.
“This article does not contain enough room to present a full picture of the endeavor,” said Duncan. “We have an eternity to celebrate what the Lord did through the Jubalheirs in Russia.”
Taylor said that many of the Russian senior adults the Jubalheirs ministered to had been through a lot of hardship because of their faith. She said that though many of them looked “hard on the outside” because of the persecution they had seen and faced, their hearts were full with Christ despite past adversities. According to Christian Assemblies International (CAI), it was documented in 1937 that “thousands of Christians were executed or were sent to labor camps in Siberia.”
“Communism severely persecuted any signs of Biblical faith,” the CAI wrote. “It was absolutely forbidden to speak about faith, God or the Bible.”
Taylor mentioned that a particular church in St. Petersburg had been shut down by the government and moved 20 miles outside of the city in hopes that it would be suppressed, but now it is the largest Baptist church in all of Russia.
During times of fiercer religious persecution in Russia, a person was usually put to death the third time they went to trial because of their faith. Taylor recalled a story she heard while on the trip about a Christian man who was tried by Stalin for the third time. Stalin asked the man that if he were to be let go, would he continue with his ministry? The man replied, “I have no other choice but to share my Jesus.”
Miraculously, Stalin let him go. However, there are countless other accounts of Russian Christians who have been martyred for their faith.
Yet, after the country began to move away from Communism and more towards democracy, Christians enjoyed a time period with more freedom to practice their beliefs. CAI noted that missionaries are now allowed to come and preach in the country.
“Although the majority of Russians are mostly indifferent towards spiritual matters,” CAI wrote, “there is nevertheless a spiritual hunger in the land and millions of souls who need to be saved.”
Taylor said the Jubalheirs personally saw this spiritual hunger through the Russians’ worship. During many songs the natives would worship in Russian while the missionaries would worship in English. Taylor said that it was a beautiful blending of voices all praising the same God.
“It was an amazing experience to hear that blend of voices,” said Taylor. “It’s kind of a taste of what heaven is going to be like.”
