Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord! Greetings to all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

It have been such a joy to serve the Lord together with you this year, helping many Russians to abandon drug or alcohol addiction and come to the Lord Jesus Christ!

I want to thank all of you for your prayers, help and participation and to wish you all

many blessings from our glorious Lord in the new 2009 year.

This year have been a fruitfull one. Rehab Centers have been started in Smolensk and Kaliningrad regions, in Smolensk they are even already thinking about the second one, because the first one is full, hosting 13 men at this time.

Very active social work with addicted people and their families have been organized in Voronezh and Komi regions, so they are now the first in the line for having Rehab Centers in their regioons.

A new web-site have been set up in order to help people in need find their way to Rehab Centers, and we have now people calling and submitting requests online from regions of Russia which has not been reached yet. Also we are integrating our work with Centers that have been started by Baptist Churches in Siberia and Far East, focusing our potential and efforts on reaching other regions with our ministry. Their 21 Centers together with our 15 make up total of 36 Rehab Centers. Below is a picture of Christians in Siberia, active in the ministry; all of them came to Christ from drug or alcohol addiction through Christian Rehab Centers.

Main page (Russian): www.narcostop.org

Main page (English): click here

We would like to have also pages on the site on other languages, especially in Scandinavian (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish), since many of our helpers live in these countries. If you feel that you can help with translation from English or from Russian into any of these languages - your help will be very appreciated.

Statistical results of this year can be summarised this way:

• 560 persons approached us for help (even more, this figure we have is only for Saint-Petersburg)
• 396 of them made their way to Rehab Centers
• And the most valuable result for us - 24 persons have been baptised in local Churches (data for Saint-Petersburg area and 3 other nearby regions)

We praise the Lord for these many souls coming to repentance and into the glory of saving relations with our Lord and Saviour. At the same time we understand that the need is much, much larger. Let me quote from our appeal you can find on the main page of our English-language site:

"We believe that the need is huge in Russia - there are 2,5 million drug addicts in the country, according to an official Drug Control Federal Board as of September 2008. The vast majority of these would be below 35 years of age, their life expectancy after they start abusing injection drugs, especially heroin, is 5-7 years. Annually about 30.000 die because of various reasons connected with drug addiction - that is twice more that during the whole ten-year perion of the Soviet-Afghan war. This comes to 80 young people daily.

Neither the state nor the official medicine offer them any real help. But God does. He is the one who miracluously saves them today, delivering from all these evils and letting them live free lives. When you see it for yourself -- you cannot be the same.

We really believe there is a need for thousands more Christian Rehab Centers in Russia - and we devout ourselves to making this come to existence, with God's help. So we look for those with the same hearts and minds, willing to participate and to help."

We are also very thankfull for other developments:

New Churches being started:

Less than a week ago, on January 4-th we witnessed a birth of a third "Social Church", in Saint-Petersburg area, this time in Saint-Petersburg itself. First meeting took place in a rented facility in Rzhevka neighbourhood, attended by approximately 25 people - almost all of them are ex-ers -- as we call ex drug or alcohol addicts; or their relatives, who have reconsiled with God.

New congregation in Vyborg continues to develop, with weekly meetings hardly fitting Vyborg Christian Center

Brothers in Vologda region said they want to follow this example and try starting new Churches through social work.

Ministry in faces: exactly one year ago Sergei came to the "House of Hope" Rehab Center in Vyborg. He was a drug addict for many years, have been convicted for crimes connected with drugs and have spent a term already in prison. Came to Christ in the Center. Graduated in September 2008, returned back to his wife and a child in Saint-Petersburg. Works, attends Central Baptist Church. Actively helps in the ministry whenever he can.

Sergei, Saint-Petersburg, first day in Rehab Center

During Rehabilitation in Vyborg Center, one month later

Half a year later

Brother Dima Glinskih, whom many of you know as the first leader of Vyborg Rehab Center, got married this December, and at this time he continues to effectively develop ministry in Smolensk region, so that the senior pastor of Central Church in Smolensk says that they are thinking of at least three Centers now.

We are very gratefull for your faithfull participation in this ministry. To name just a few areas which you have helped us with:

• Continuation of support for the "House of Hope", Rehabilitation Center near Vyborg, which enables brothers there not to just continue with daily routine, but to be actively involved in mission work in the area (see picture below - placing posters about Rehabilitation Centers in Petrozavodsk, Karelia). It comes from Si-REISER and "Help to Vyborg", our Christian friends in Norway
• Support for building a new Rehab Center for women in Vyborg area near to the existing "House of Hope", provided by the same people. We are planning to start working on this early this spring
• Plans of another group of Christian friends in Norway to "adopt" organizing of a new Rehab Center in Leningrad region, in Shugozero. We are truly thankfull for this initiative and are praying that their example will encourage also others to participate in the same way. Initial trip to Shugozero is being planned at the end of February
• Tremendous help we continue to receive with food from multiple people in Finland and Sweden! God bless you all abundantly for keeping this important life-line up and working!
• Renovating of big facilities in Luga Center, where major help was received in the last two years from University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington.
• Other initiatives in the areas of ministrering to HIV-positive people, ministering to orphan children, sheltering victims of trafficing in Saint-Petersburg and many, many others. We can't name everything and everybody, but the Lord knows every name and avery heart.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, inasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Your co-servant in the social ministry to the addicted people of Russia and their families.

Valery Tolkachev.