You almost couldn’t get two more different places than the bustling metropolis of Moscow and what Ricky Wilhelm describes as the ‘sleepy seaside town’ of Penarth, Wales. Yet, married missionaries Ricky and Brandy have seen the gospel powerfully at work in both.
Ricky and Brandy grew up in Oklahoma and were married at age 19. Inspired by a visit to their campus from missionaries in Russia, the couple decided to enter the mission field and spent the next eight years of their life working with the Udmurt people in the Volga region of Russia. ‘Love for the people came quite slowly,’ Ricky explained. ‘It was hard … Americans are admired in many ways but not necessarily loved by other cultures.’
The first five years of ministry in Udmurtia were extremely challenging due to the pagan beliefs of the Udmurt people. ‘We were absolutely dependent on God doing a miracle,’ Ricky recalled.
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