Rick and Natasha are as unlikely a couple as you’d ever meet. A small-town boy from Amherst, Virginia, Rick grew up in a loving, yet legalistic, church. On the other side of the world, Natasha was a big-town girl growing up under the influence of a Communist regime in Izhevsk, Russia. In Rick’s words: “She’s young and pretty; I am older and have a good face for radio.” But what they have in common has led them on an incredible journey.
Rick’s legalistic faith was challenged and his excitement for church grew exponentially when he began calling BRCC “home.” His passion for Russia was borne when Pastor Woody invited Rick to be part of a short-term mission team to Russia. Rick fell in love with the Russian people during that short trip. The next summer he went back again as part of a PIONEERS summer mission team. And the next summer he went back again. That clinched it. Rick left his 18 years as a teacher behind and went into full-time missions with PIONEERS in Izhevsk, Russia.
About the time Rick went on his short-term trip to Russia, Natasha was attending a Bible study in English led by a missionary. She did not attend in order to learn about God or the Bible; she just wanted to practice her English. But as she listened, she found herself hearing less of how things were said and more of the actual message itself: that Jesus Christ offered a way out of the mess we’re in. Not through politics and world revolution, but a spiritual revolution that changes us from the inside out.
A year or so after accepting Christ, she started working in the PIONEERS office in Izhevsk and that’s where she and Rick first met. Years later their friendship would be the foundation for marriage and a season of ministry in Glazov, Russia. Together they worked on projects such as a Christian puppet show for kids, a humanitarian aid project for Christians called Breadline of Love, and a partnership with Campus Crusade to follow up Crusade’s showing of the Jesus film with Bible studies led by trained Russian workers. The fledgling church they worked on is now thriving!
Later, at the direction of PIONEERS, the two went to Bible school in Krasnodar, Russia, and after that, Kazan, Tatarstan. While there, Rick had a day job as an assistant professor of English, teaching American Studies and Drama, and an evening job working with a young pastor as well as trying to get two Christian associations to work together. Natasha worked in women’s ministry, starting the first women’s conference ever held in Tatarstan.
In time, their church-based activities would come to the attention of the Russian government and the couple would be required to move their ministry to Montenegro, a predominantly Muslim country in southeastern Europe. Rick taught essay writing at the University of Montenegro, and they both worked in their Montenegrin crafts business, Golden Hands. They used the business as an outreach tool as well as to provide extra income to the small number of Christians in the country.
A few years ago, Rick and Natasha joined People International, a Christian mission agency centered on reaching the Muslims of Central Asia. The new positions brought them to the U.S. for this next time of service. Natasha works in the finance department and Rick is Resource Director. He oversees print, web, and video design, speaks to Bible students in various colleges, and helps provide ways to get more resources into the hands of the people in the field. They recently relocated and opened an office here in the Lynchburg area. Together they continue to answer their call to bring the Gospel to the unreached of Central Asia.
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