* Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1905), p. 143.
Gerson P. Santos, originally from Brazil, serves as an as-
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sociate secretary of the General Conference in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
Mother and daughter having fun as they participate in a We Care Kids activity during a beautiful sunny afternoon at the Horacio Sabino Square.
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people,” says Marceli, one of the leaders of We Care. “Sharing God’s love has given us many opportunities to help others.” Another project is called “open up.” Every Friday night We Care group members bring stools to a busy street sidewalk with a sign asking, “Are you tired or depressed? Open up and talk.” Johnny was passing by and stopped to talk. Impressed by the group’s desire to help, he stayed. Years before, as a teenager, he had lost his father and felt great disappointment with God and established religion. “God doesn’t exist,” he felt. “If He existed, He wouldn’t have let something like that happen.” When Johnny arrived home that evening, he prayed, “God if You exist, I heard Your voice today through those young people on the streets.” He attends a small group of We Care and is studying the Bible. We Care not only focuses on local needs, however. During the past year it has partnered with ADRA and sent 100 tons of water to assist disaster relief in another Brazilian state. It has also partnered with a state university doing research on the role of spirituality in drug addiction recovery. In this program its members were able to connect with more than 250 teenagers, almost 50 percent of whom have stayed clean after completing the program. Local music and drama programs have been offered in public squares and people have responded positively. One neighbor watched the program, connected with We Care on social media, and is now attending services every week. Today about 35 young adults meet every Sabbath to worship together and care for their community. Their absence would be missed!
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C OV E R S T O RY
By Andrew McChesney
Siberian Church Built on Prayer Good news for Siberia
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ocal church members will long remember the day last winter when the first Seventh-day Adventist church opened its doors in Russia’s Siberia region. After two decades of praying they found an affordable plot of land in 2011. Michael Ryan, then a general vice president for the Adventist world church, visited the site and offered a special prayer. With more prayer and faith, constantly invoking the prayer of Jabez, that God would bless them and enlarge their territory (see 1 Chron. 4:10), members constructed the building. Church pastor Vladimir Nosov attended the first worship service that winter evening. “We had no furniture, or even chairs, but the building was complete,” Nosov said. “Church members felt an extraordinary joy. Light seemed to spill over the walls and fill the place with a special glow. People touched the walls with their hands in awe that God had answered so many years of prayer. Tears flowed from many eyes. Prayers were heartfelt and fervent.” Prayers for a church began around 1990 when the first Adventists arrived in Nyagan, a town of 56,000 people located in an inhospitably cold region akin to the Arctic. An attempt to buy a small building collapsed several years ago, crushing the small group’s hopes. “They were beside themselves,” said Vasiliy P. Stefaniev, president of the West Siberian Mission, whose territory includes Nyagan. “But the pastor encouraged them to believe that