Russia

Saint Petersburg Russia, September 1993

 

Eldeon Poisel, Yuli Gerry Mahn. Gerry Mahn had the conviction that the Ten Commandments should be mad available to everyone in the world that would like a copy in about 1986. The first person to join and make the first trip in 1993 was Eldon Poisel.

 

The man in the middle is Yuly Andreveich Rybokov.

We were to meet with mayor Anatoly Sobchak but he got called out and Yuly was an assistant along with Vladimir Putin at that time, they were both in the office of the Mayor. It just happened that we met with Yuly. He told us the Ten Commandments would be the only thing on the walls of the conference room. Yuly went on to serve in the national Duma in Moscow for ten years from 1993 to 2003.

This is our first trip to a leader to present the Ten Commandments, the Word of God.

Story:

In 1993, when Gerry read the article from a local newspaper about Russia wanting to base their moral code on The 10 Commandments he immediately responded, I’ve got to get to Russia, I’ve got to get them copies of The 10 Commandments. He contacted his friend Matvey Finkle from Whitworth College and asked him to translate them into Russian. The next step was a Letter of Introduction from the Mayor of Coeur d’Alene, and through Matvey’s connections with his friend the Mayor of St. Petersburg, Gerry was able to get a meeting at the headquarters in St. Petersburg, Russia with Yuri Andropov Robokov, (Yuly) an assistant to Mayor of St. Petersburg. Gerry shared his story and presented Yuri with a beautifully framed copy of The 10 Commandments. Yuri proclaimed, “this copy of The 10 Commandments will be the only thing that hangs on the wall of this room”. Years later, Gerry met a woman at a conference in Spokane, WA who had visited the very same office in St. Petersburg and wondered how in the world a copy of The 10 Commandments got there. Gerry was so excited to share with her how he was able to present them to Yuri through the open doors God provided, and how blessed he was to hear that they were still hanging in the same room.

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