With a population of 25 million, Siberia represents a vast challenge for the Bible Society and other Christian organisations. Although people are increasingly migrating to the cities, where the economic conditions are more favourable, there are still many living in small towns and remote villages. This is why the Siberia Branch, created in Novosibirsk in 1994, has been running the To the Ends of the Earth project since 1998*. Mr Bulatov is only too aware of the ongoing need to spread God’s Word here.

Something special

“There are 40 languages in Siberia,” he says, “of which only a handful have a translation of some part of the Bible. There is a great need for more translations. The Bible Society is currently working on the Buryat and Yakut Bibles.

“Most people here understand Russian, but there is something special about having the Word of God in your own mother tongue. We must show them that God is not just Russian, simply because they can only read about him in Russian. If they can read the Bible in their own language, then they will know that God is for everyone.”

Ideal location

Mr Bulatov and four others work from new offices in the centre of Novosibirsk. The location, among shops, offices and a higher education college, is ideal, and Mr Bulatov makes the most of it by placing a sign on the pavement outside to encourage people to come into the offices and the bookshop. The latter is one of only two Christian bookshops in the city. It does good business, but the Bible Society sells mainly through mail order and church-based bookstalls.

Mr Bulatov, who is now 44, made a long spiritual journey before becoming a Christian at the age of 30. So did his wife Olga, who also works for the Bible Society.

“One of the subjects I studied at university was philosophy,” he explains. “I encountered many people who asked questions about life, beliefs and religious faith. My friends said that only crazy people who didn’t know any better became Christians!

“I found that I was unable to accept widely-held opinions about God. I wanted to discover the meaning of life for myself, so I visited many different churches looking for answers. At one church there were too many children, another church was too noisy and another used too much liturgy. Eventually I found a Pentecostal church where the people were very friendly. But I still felt like an outsider because I didn’t understand what the others obviously did. The third time I went there, they called for people to come forward to make a commitment to Jesus. I didn’t think that it was for me, but the Holy Spirit prompted me and I was a Christian from that moment on. Later I found my spiritual home in a church closer to the Baptist tradition.

Found meaning

“My wife couldn’t understand why I wanted to be a Christian or how I could feel at home in that church. She thought they were very strict and boring! But I’d found meaning in my life, so I wanted to stick with it.

“Later on, she came to a few meetings with me, and after seven years she too became a Christian.”

* For earlier reports about this project, see Special Report 28 and World Report 378/13.