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New Life Radio, a small Russian Christian radio station, continues its efforts to broadcast the good news to both Ukraine and Russia. This is despite tightening restrictions and the war.

We all have a role to play in the kingdom, and for Daniel Johnson, one of the founders of New Life Radio, that role is broadcasting sound Christian content in the Russian language into Russia and Ukraine.

New Life Radio has been broadcasting in Russia for several decades now. However, due to increasingly censorious Russian media laws, the team had to migrate from Russia to Odesa (or Odessa), Ukraine.

Then war broke out.

Relocating New Life Radio — The Ukraine War

Daniel Johnson says that station manager Ivan Zhurakovski called him one morning in late February and said solemnly, “It’s war.” The station needed to move.

Most of the New Life team fled to Romania, while a single courageous worker named Yuri decided to stay in Ukraine to operate the station from Odessa.

From Romania and Ukraine, New Life Radio has been able to keep broadcasting the Christian message of hope and redemption to Russian-speaking listeners.

People are desperate for hope, and the team have been able to harness radio technology to speak truth and life into one of the most desperate situations on the planet.

The station reports that they have experienced a noticeable rise in Russian listeners since the outbreak of the war, an encouraging sign that people may be increasingly receptive to the Good News.

Says Johnson,

“This is a really critical time and people are really searching for answers. As people face war, destruction and death at any moment they are much more open to hearing from the Lord. We are not completely sure of the reason that people end up finding us, but we just know we are getting new listeners. However they find us, our challenge is to give them what they need know, which is the Gospel and the assurance that the Scriptures give us.”

In response to the crisis, New Life Radio has increased the proportion of programming dedicated to Bible teaching. They aim to clearly present the Gospel to as many of their listeners as possible.

The war in Ukraine poses a constant problem (Odessa is under threat from missile strikes). Baptist Press reported that a direct missile hitting the station’s headquarters in Odessa “would naturally amplify” New Life Radio’s problems. I suspect that is an understatement.

Increasing Restrictions and Difficulties

Nevertheless, other challenges confront the New Life Radio workers.

Firstly, while they originally left Russia over restrictive media laws, similar laws are now in place in Ukraine. Just a few weeks ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law restricting the use of Russian music on the radio.

As New Life Radio is a Russian language broadcaster, this inevitably affects their programming. Unfortunately, there are no exemptions for Christian content.

Similarly, however, Johnson says that he has heard reports that the Ukraine government is going a step further. Apparently, it aims to restrict the country’s internet to Ukraine-language websites only.

“We’re working to see exactly where this mass media law affects us, and it may turn out that if we’re going to continue our Russian language broadcast, we’re actually going to have to move our operation outside of Ukraine.”

“We need to find a way to do both national channels in both languages,” he said.

Despite the difficulties Johnson and his colleagues are facing in the midst of war, they continue to use the means available to them to share the Gospel.

“We’re going to trust God that He will allow us to have the technological means to put the Scripture on air and teach people. The need for proclaiming the Gospel will never end, and we’re going to keep finding a way to do it. Nothing is going to stop us until God takes it away from us.”

In the midst of a divided and war-torn region, the Gospel is bridging divides and reaching out to the broken and hurting.

Let’s pray for Ivan Zhurakovski, Daniel Johnson, Yuri and the team at New Life Radio. Ask God to give them the strength to accomplish His will in Ukraine, Russia and Romania through their radio broadcasts. Pray for protection for Yuri, in particular, and for wisdom as the station staff navigate increasingly difficult media laws in Ukraine.