A Mother’s First Time Outside Her Remote Siberian Home Village
LUBA EPONCHINCEVA, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
PHOTO: Anna, a mother of five from a remote Siberian village, received a Baby Box and heard the gospel message for the first time.
A Baby Box became a means of rescue for Anna.
During the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, she had to fly 900 miles from northern Siberia to give birth to her fifth child here in Krasnoyarsk. Anna is a Selkup, an ethnic group of only a few thousand people.
She and her family had no money and no supplies for the new baby. The maternity hospital staff called me, so our team had the privilege and joy of helping this mother.
At the hospital I met this shy, anxious mother. She told me that for the first time in her life she was outside her home village. It was a frightening experience for her to fly alone at the end of her pregnancy to a city of one million residents and be checked into a large hospital. On top of all that, there was the issue of coronavirus.
It was an early morning, still dark, when I took Anna and her new daughter to the airport. I had brought warm clothes for the baby and wrapped her in a thick sleeping bag. There were more clothes and supplies in the Baby Box. Anna could not believe her eyes.
PHOTO: Anna, the newest addition to her family, and a Baby Box on their way to the Krasnoyarsk airport so they can return home
The package also had a New Testament and a children’s Bible. I told Anna about their content and then we had to part after our brief acquaintance. Her family was expecting her home.
Upon arrival, Anna called me
and thanked me again for the help.
She also told me she had never before
read the New Testament or heard about Jesus.
Dear friends, please pray for Anna and her family that the light of the gospel would shine into their lives.
Matthew 4:16 says, “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a Light dawned.”
PHOTO: Luba assembling a Baby Box for one more mother and baby who really need it.
