Baptists in Russia

When you ask about religion, most people will tell you they are Russian Orthodox Christians, even though they do not attend church or know much about their religion. Those that do attend a church go in and bow before icons and paintings to make their prayers, maing the sign of the cross and departing back out into the world with thier lives unchanged and with no knowledge of God. There is a lot of religion in Russia, but few with a saving relationship with the Lord. The first picture is of the Orthodox Church in Tomsk.

Here is a picture of the small Baptist church in Tomsk. Tomsk is a city of almost 600,000 people. Of that 600,000 and all the people in the surrounding villages, I would estimate that the number of Baptists in less than 500. Many of them ancestors of Baptists exiled to Siberia over 80 years ago. There may be some other believers from other denominations out there but if so, they are also few in number. Needless to say, there are very few born-again Christians in the area.