Here is the letter from Sergey Mochalov:

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Hebrew.13:3

Blessed and Loved by the Lord, Dear in the Christ, brother Joseph, your family and Jesus Christ's church at you,

Mercy, the Peace and Grace of the Almighty, yes will be with you always! We lift praise and glory to the Sovereign God, for Him providence with which He operates all events all over the world. We now have some problems about which we ask you pray:

I wrote to you earlier, that we have some conflict with administration of the prison where we preach the gospel of grace every Thursday. For the 2 months of this year, the administration has interfered with our attempts to preach. They demand from us a bribe, 31000 roubles (1270 $), for their personal needs. At the slightest pretext, they interfere with our ministering in prison. There are 2 good brothers who carry out this ministry among prisoners. The administration began to put pressure upon them and fiercely beaten brother Vladimir, already 2 times. To him threaten and speak, that he would pass in an orthodox church, that Baptists any more would not be in prison. (I am not certain just what this sentence means except that, if Vladimir does not gain the approval of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Baptists would not be able to preach there any longer. –ed.) The second brother, Dmitry, was beaten once, and likewise threatened. They do not love that they are children of the God and preach the gospel of grace. It is a long way from our church to this prison, so when I visit them, I drive my car. After I visited them, and preached to them God’s Word I left the prison and to go to my car in the parking lot. But my car had been stolen by criminals! I have reported this to the police, but the police have not found my car.

In all event we see "spiritual opposition from powers of darkness of this age ". We do not panic, for we believe this:

" And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. " Rom.8:28.

From the God’s Word, we are learned to trust God in all events happening us, to the Lord and His to works of Providence.

We ask you to pray to the Lord for our ministering in prison, we ask you to petition before the throne of grace for brothers: Vladimir and Dmitry, that the prison administration would not beat them and that they would remain true to the God in these severe tests of their faith. And pray for us, that the Lord would give us clearness, that the Lord wants from us that we would carry out His will. Having remained without the car, I now am limited in a number of ministerings. We had planned that Brother Vitaly would be sent as pastor of the church in Alekseevsk. Without the car, we have a greater problem of how to move him there. We believe, that the God operates all these events. We read in the Bible:

“Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.”Acts16:6-7

And, according to the letter of Paul: “Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. 1Thessalonians 2:18

We fear God and we search for guidance of the Holy Ghost, in all these circumstances. Pray for us.

We ask you prayers as for the wife of brother Vitaly, Larissa. She had a tumor in her chest, have her performed operation, and now she requires healing from the Lord.

The Sovereign Grace Baptist churches in the West of Irkutsk area, asked me to visit them and encourage them in the Word of the God. But the Lord has changed these plans. Therefore, some churches will be left without God - appointed spiritual support for a while, (evidently there are no preachers in these churches – ed.) We ask you pray for the brothers and sisters, that nobody would falter in their faith in this period of time.

We Praise the Sovereign Grace of God of the Almighty! The Russian Orthodox Church and other Arminians, fiercely abhor us and in every possible way interfere with our ministering, to preach Glory of the Great Lord. We are pleased to the God and we praise His Holy Name! We are ready to suffer affliction for glory of the Lord of our Jesus Christ.

We pray for blessing your ministering to the Most High God!
Graces and the Peace to you from the God!, your brother in Christ,
Sergey
bro.sergey@inbox.ru