JUDITH SKATES, Associate Missionary with BIMI

Adapted from the IROQUOIS COUNTY TIMES-REPUBLIC
Julia Bauer, Reporter

Since 1994, Judith Skates has made nearly a dozen mission trips to Russia and Eastern Europe. She takes medical supplies to doctors and hospitals, gifts for children and adults, and Bibles for Russian men and women.

Judith's interest in Russia and Eastern Europe began in the early 1970s shortly after she became a Christian.

"For over 72 years, individuals in Russia and Eastern Europe were brutally persecuted if they professed faith in Jesus Christ," she said. " I read Tortured for His Faith by Harlan Popov in 1974 and have had a heart for the persecuted church since that time."

Popov was imprisoned for thirteen years. After he was freed, he started an organization to send portions of the New Testament to people's addresses in Russia. After reading Popov's book, Judith wanted to do something to help the people of Russia and Eastern Europe, "but the doors to Russia were closed in those days," she said. Since it wasn't possible for her to go to Russia, she sent portions of the New Testament.

Twenty years after she first read Popov's book, Judith finally had the opportunity to go to Russia. On the back of a magazine from BIMI, she saw an invitation for twenty-three volunteers to pass out 100,000 Bibles in Russia. In May 1994, Judith and her husband Richard went with the group and distributed Bibles. She and Richard have been married for forty-three years with four children and ten grandchildren. Her goal is to take each of her grandchildren to Russia with her.

Judith visited Russia alone in November 1994. In December 1995, she went on her third trip to Russia, this time as a member of her first BIMI Mercy Medical Team. Her involvement with the medical mission ministry began when Dr. James Ray and Brant Holladay talked with Judith about their desire to have a medical ministry in the St. Petersburg area.

On the medical team's first trip, they brought medications, sutures, dressings, and CPR equipment to Lomonoscov Regional Hospital. The team conducted a seminar with the hospital staff and gave each staff member a Bible. The group also visited a children's sanitarium for children with respirator problems, and they passed out 1500 Bibles on the streets.

As an associate missionary with BIMI, Judith visits St. Petersburg and its surrounding villages as well as Simferopol, Ukraine, once or twice a year. Her visits usually last about two weeks. As part of the medical ministry, she takes medical supplies to hospitals and provides items that we buy in America without thinking - Tylenol, Advil, over-the-counter cold and flu medicines, and vitamins.

Over the years, many different friends have helped Judith in her ministry. Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago contributes excess medical supplies for clinics in Eastern Europe and Russia. Steve Fitzgerald, a commercial pilot, takes boxes of study Bibles, humanitarian aid, medical supplies each month to designated doctors, pastors, hospitals, churches or orphanages for Judith.

She also takes audio versions of Russian Bibles. On these trips, she distributes Bibles door-to-door and passes out tracts and Bibles at busy metro stations and street corners. She visits orphanages and children's TB hospitals. She also visits elderly Russian citizens in their apartments.

"One lady hasn't been out of her apartment for nine years," Judith said. "She is blind; we took a tape recorder to her and Bible tapes of the New Testament in Russian. She was so happy."

Besides her medical ministry overseas, Judith is a hospice nurse and Parish Nurse Coordinator at KSB Hospital, Dixon, Illinois. She also is the owner and administrator of Genesis Healthcare in Sterling.

Judith and Lauren with two Russian ladies who chop wood to warm their church.

Polina (2nd from left by Austin) blind Russian lady received a Bible.

Mittens and Caps for Children in TB Hospital (St. Petersburg)

Taking Bibles to hospital in St. Petersburg

Judith reminds us of the words of Jim Elliott:
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Please pray for Judith Skates and her ministry through medicine to Eastern Europe.