Until All Have Heard
Until All Have Heard
Servant, Pastor, Hero, Father (Ep. 299)
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With Father’s Day coming up we wanted to honor the men who have left a lasting legacy. In this episode Ed and Wayne share a story from Victor Akhterov, FEBC’s Eurasia director. Victor tells about how his father was incarcerated in a Soviet prison for being a Christian. You’ll hear Victor’s first-hand account of visiting his father in prison, and the lasting lessons of a father’s influence on his son, and how it has shaped how Victor does ministry for FEBC. We hope you are moved, inspired, and challenged to stay faithful in a world that needs to see Godly fathers proclaim the message of Christ…Until All Have Heard.
We're glad to have you with us now for until all have heard from the Far East Broadcasting Company. I'm Wayne Shepherd here with Ed Cannon, who's president of FABC, but also a father and a grandfather. So And so are you, Wayne. In anticipation of Happy Father's Day, we'll wish each other a happy father. Happy Father's Day, Wayne. Now we got that out of the way. Well, we have a story today of a father and a son that's really quite powerful.
SPEAKER_02Victor Aktorov is the current director of FABC Eurasia, which includes countries like Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. And Victor cr credits his father with a lot of his success in life. His father was such a godly role model in his life. His father was a very accomplished scientist. I believe he had a PhD and he had a career in science that he abandoned because what was way more important to him was proclaiming the gospel there in Russia amongst his people. And unfortunately it ended up landing him in prison for a number of years. But as you listen to this story, his father might have said it's not unfortunate. It was fortunate because of the opportunities it gave him to freely express his faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01So Yeah, now the prison he was in was in Siberia. So I mean we uh we think of Siberian prisons and it's it's pretty harsh, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell Well, I visited a prison in Russia. It wasn't in Siberia, but um let's just say you don't want to be there. It's not a pleasant prisoner.
SPEAKER_01Trevor Burrus, Jr. You know, now that you mentioned that, I was in one at one time as well. It was more like a dungeon the one I was in than a prison. But uh incredible.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, yeah, lots of bad stuff.
SPEAKER_01Now take that and put that in Siberia with its uh temperature, then you can imagine what life was like. So Victor's father served in a Siberian prison.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell Yes. And he was in the prison clearly for the purposes of punishing him for proclaiming the gospel in Russia.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell So Victor is a young man who misses his father.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So he takes a train trip, and he'll describe that in a moment to uh to see his dad.
SPEAKER_02And we'll come out at the end of this conversation from Victor and talk about what Victor has done, how this influence of his godly father has shaped his life, and as a result of that has shaped the life of millions of people through the FEBC broadcasts in the former Soviet Union countries.
SPEAKER_01Trevor Burrus, Victor is our uh director for Eurasia and uh has uh an incredible ministry today that he really credits his father, though. And so we're gonna hear all about that.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Powell Yeah, this message that Victor delivered was uh for a group of supporters of FEBC, friends of the ministry, and uh he was just sharing his story and talking about the impact that FEBC is having uh even today in countries like Russia and the Soviet Union.
SPEAKER_01And we thought it'd be the perfect thing to share with you here on the podcast leading up to Father's Day. So here's Victor Oktrov.
SPEAKER_00We traveled from Ukraine uh to deep into Siberia, and we came uh into this prison. You know, you you you're on one train, then second train, then that small train that goes deep into the forest of Siberia. And the last station is is this prison. So and we come in and doors close, and doors are shut behind you, and you go again and like feels like 17 doors, all this noise, and then I finally come and see see my dad there. So we we hug, and and it's such a wonderful, you'd never forget meetings like that. And he is so excited. He's in prison for six months now of the five years that he was supposed to spend there, and and he is smiling, he's so excited, and I'm like, what's going on? What why are you so joyful? Um, and well, I I see you, I'm joyful about that. But he says, you know what? We just I just had the most wonderful gift from God. We just had an Easter service here in prison. I say, how does that that this happened? And he says, Well, I came in and uh this is a special political prison, and some of the best people of the former Soviet Union were held there. And six of them, he says, in six months became believers. So we have this little church already, and this is Easter time. So we wanted to have a little little gathering uh in the evening time, and we we started after working, we we started just sharing about Christ. And he says, I I was kind of preaching to them, and then uh all the prisoners, all the other non-believers started to listen. And suddenly the whole 220 people are listening, including including the guards who who are there, and and he's now proclaiming the gospel of Christ, the living gospel of Christ, the living Christ. And and as I say, Christ is risen, and the whole 220 people are saying he is risen indeed. And I say it again, he's risen, and the people are saying he is risen indeed. It is so wonderful that the gospel is uh is being proclaimed in situations like this and through FBC as we are ministering to millions and millions and millions of people. I was talking to my dad and I said, How come? How how did this start? Uh, that people started to become Christians uh here. Um it is it is amazing, you know. God puts you somewhere and deep in Siberia and and suddenly the church is born. I says, Well, it started with kind of a prayer. And he showed me the yard, so we look out of the window, and there's this this yard, prison yard. And he says, every every night we uh can walk there for 45 minutes. Um the only the only condition you have to uh have your hands behind your back. And you walk like this, and and for 45 minutes you can look at the sun, uh setting sun, and and then just think and pray. And he says, usually I read my Bible in the evening time, and he said that I obviously I don't have a Bible in prison, but I remember so many scriptures. And one one of those scriptures is is this one this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world. He said it became kind of a chant for me. I I'm going and saying, This gospel of the kingdom. He says, when when you have your hands behind your back, you feel so powerless. You feel like you're nobody, you cannot do anything, you cannot even try. You're like this. But you have the word of God to speak, and and he's saying, This gospel of the kingdom, not just a weak gospel, not just a nice gospel, the gospel that has a king. And he says, I'm walking around for 45 minutes every night and saying this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the Soviet Union, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in this prison. And before you know this, he says, God starts bringing people to faith. And this passage of the scripture, if you if you remember uh Matthew 24, this is when the disciples are asking Jesus about the future. So, what's in the future? You know the future, you see the future, you made the future. So, what's in there? And Jesus gives them this wonderful picture of the future, right? No, it's a horrible picture of the future. He says, Well, you'll have wars and rumors of wars, you'll have earthquakes, you'll have famine, it's gonna be dark, people will be hating you, people will be killing you. Do you know anybody who was killed for uh for Jesus' sake? I know four people, my good friends. This is happening today, and Jesus is speaking about that and and says, people will be, and and the scariest part in all of this dark picture that he's painting, he says, you know, those things and things will come against the church, and because of that, so many people will lose faith, and so many people will lose love. Must have been very, very depressing listening to Jesus as he's unveiling the future. But then he comes to the verse 14, and this changes everything, this changes the whole thing, doesn't change the facts that it's gonna be bad, doesn't change uh the reality that it's gonna be horrible and difficult and dark and people will be dying. But he says this verse the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, and those disciples have no idea what the world is, they don't have any idea, they are living on a on a globe, even you know. But but Jesus is speaking about global Christianity, he's speaking about the gospel being proclaimed everywhere. He has this powerful vision, and he he doesn't say it's just the gospel uh of love, just the gospel, uh just the gospel that helps people live. This is a powerful gospel. This is the kingdom kind of gospel, the gospel that changes people from inside out, and everything changes for those people. Not everyone will be changed, but the gospel will be proclaimed to all nations, all people. And it is so wonderful to see that what Jesus was speaking about is happening today. And if you see is right in the middle of this, right in the middle of what is happening. All of this is happening, the wars are happening, uh, the devastation, the uh the false prophets, we were just talking about that. It's everywhere, and in spite of all of that, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of kingdom, the powerful gospel that changes people, is being proclaimed, and people are becoming Christians. So when when you step back and and think about it, he's speaking about this wonderful future where the access to the gospel will be increased. And we are living in these times. This is our generation, this is you and me. We are so privileged to be living in the 21st century and being able to proclaim the gospel to millions of people. We're gonna be uh soon in Almaty and we're gonna be speaking uh with the young people. Ed will be there and and we'll be will be helping the young people of FBC reach the young people of their countries. And uh it is it is amazing. Today, a young person, 17, 21-year-old, can take a phone and speak to not thousands but millions of people. And and this is such a powerful tool. But what do you say? It's one thing to have access, uh, and you can make jokes and and do cute pictures, but do you have something to say? So, this is what the conference will will be about. We we're gonna be inspiring and praying for the young people and training them and and uh taking care of them spiritually because they will be the voice of Christianity, they will be the fulfillment of this prophecy that Jesus gave to the disciples, speaking about the future. I was once privileged to be uh with two of my heroes of faith, um, two giants of faith. Um, Dr. Bob Bowman was there, and and and my dad was there. And my dad did not speak much English at the time, and uh and I was there to to translate, and and we had this wonderful conversation, and then we had a meeting just like this one, and uh we came on stage and Bob Bowman was saying, Friends, I have I have somebody who is very special to me. Uh, somebody who said no to his scientific career because he wanted to follow Jesus, someone uh who proved his faith by spending 11 and a half years in Soviet gulags, uh, some somebody who is my hero of faith. And I'm translating uh all of this back to my dad. And as soon as he understood what what Bob is saying, he says, no, no, no, he interrupts Dr. Bowman and says, Don't say that. I'm not your hero of faith. He says, for me that the choice was well difficult, it was simple, it was black and white. It was it was either you uh deny Christ and you have your wonderful scientific career, or uh you stay faithful and you go to prison and and there there's it's black and white, you you just go to prison. You never did deny Christ. But he looked at people and said, but for you it's it's a little different. For you it's not black and white. You you have so many messages and and and and good ministries. And he said, um, I know that for decades, for decades, as FBC was broadcasting into China, for decades as FBC was broadcasting into the former Soviet Union, you did not get any response. And you had to go by faith, you had to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, as he was telling you this is the ministry worth supporting. And uh you would receive like three letters a year from people living in those areas. So, friends, you are my heroes of fame.
SPEAKER_02The story that Victor was talking about at the end there of decades of not hearing anything, was the uh shortwave broadcast going into primarily China but also Russia and a number of other countries at the very beginning of our ministry, and no response. Uh, Dr. Bowman and his staff had no real idea how many people were listening, if anyone was listening. And it's certainly if there was any response until um several individuals had uh contacted FEBC. One man came to the studio and told us many people are listening to your broadcasts. And at that time, uh it seemed the pressure in places like China led up a little bit and Russia, and we started receiving not three letters a year, but three thousand letters a day. Bushel baskets of letters would come in from the post office at La Marata to the point where uh we had to have our own post office box, and it was P.O. Box 1, La Marata, California. And it's it's peak of the letter writing uh period of time for FEBC. FABC China Ministries alone received 870,000 letters in one year of people responding, saying, I'm hearing your broadcast, I'm hearing the gospel. And it is that that v Dr. Bowman uh had to endure those years of nothing. Silence, yeah. In faith, believing that someday people would hear God's word and they would come to faith, and they did by the millions. And that's what Victor was talking about. Yeah. And that's why Victor's father, knowing that story about Dr. Bowman's faith and perseverance resulting in such a good outcome. That's why uh Victor's father claimed that Dr. Bowman was his hero. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01What a story. I'm so glad we had a chance to share this today. Now it's not so much letters, but emails and social media interactions, phone calls on the cell, many, many text. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's just Oh, it's it's over a hundred million years, though.
SPEAKER_01It's immeasurable, really, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02And it it's really all a testimony to the faith of our founders who started, gave us the very simple, clear instructions that FEBC is going to use indigenous voices close to the listener, networked with the local church, and that we proclaim the whole truth of God's message through Jesus Christ, the gospel in its entirety, unvarnished, so that people hear the truth from God's lips and place their faith in his son.
SPEAKER_01Well, just like uh God used Victor Oktorov's father and Bob Bowman to be heroes for Victor, Victor is that kind of hero leading the staff today for this kind of response in Eurasia. It's it's it goes on. It's incredible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's right. And I had the privilege, Wayne, at the very beginning of my career here, to meet Dr. Bowman, and he was such a fatherly figure to me, a godly man, a prayer warrior. And so today, as we think about offering a tribute to our fathers, I think about my father, but I also think about Dr. Bob Bowman as the father of FEBC and um the founder of this great organization.
SPEAKER_01Very good. Well, we're gonna wrap it up for now. We'll be back next time with another episode of Until All Have Heard. But in the meantime, why don't you sign up for the Prayer Target at our website, FEBC.org. It's a great tool to uh help you understand how to pray for the countries we've talked about today and many, many others. So sign up for the prayer target today, and it's also a great thing to share with your Sunday school class, your Bible study, maybe your whole church. So look for the prayer target at febc.org. Well, thank you, Ed. Again, happy Father's Day to all of you who are listening now and to you, Ed, and we'll see everyone next time. And you as well, Wayne, and to all of our listeners. All right, this has been Until All Have Heard, our production of the Far East Broadcasting Company.