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.
Finally, in their sixth year of ministry, Ricky and Brandy met an Udmurt woman who wanted them to study the Bible with her and her husband. A year later, a church was planted in the heart of Udmurt territory. Today, it has more than 30 members.
However, things began to change with the start of the Russo-Ukraine war in 2014. ‘It started getting more intense. People started being more aggressive,’ Ricky said. With the support of the International Mission Board, Ricky decided to pass on senior pastor responsibilities to his co-pastor at the Udmurt church and move to Moscow to become a pastor at Russian Bible Church.
During their time in Moscow, the Wilhelms saw the church grow from 120 to 400 members, with around 30 baptisms each year. The church also started a training programme for pastors and organised a conference that grew to 1,000 attendees.
‘It was the kind of thing that missionaries only get to dream about,’ Ricky said. ‘I look back with tears in my eyes. There’s something really amazing happening in that country … It’s kind of a time of revival.’
However, the Wilhelms’ time in Russia was limited. ‘I’ll never forget that day, 24 February,’ Ricky said, recalling the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Forced to evacuate, Ricky and Brandy had just a few days to leave the country where they had raised their children and built a thriving ministry for 13 years. ‘When you weren’t raised in a Christian home and you move to another country, your church is your family,’ Ricky said.
A baptism in Penarth.
‘They’re with you in your worst times and in your best times. To lose that in a week is just devastating. It’s at that time that you have to say, “Do I really believe this theology that I preach?” You just start preaching the gospel to yourself.’
A new calling
Back in the US, Ricky was desperately trying to find a way back to Russia when a missionary friend invited him to help plant a church in Wales. Ricky and Brandy had felt strongly about their next move being to a place where their children wouldn’t have to learn a new language. ‘We saw this as such a precise answer to our prayers that we couldn’t ignore it,’ Ricky said.
The Wilhelms came to the UK in August 2022, and in November 2023, 30 members met together for the first gathering of Penarth Evangelical Church. Again, the Wilhelms had to adapt to a new way of life.
‘Russia and Wales are opposites,’ Ricky explained. ‘There was this massive culture that I needed to become a student of. British people are very polite, I think sometimes I still shock people with how direct I am.’
Reflecting on ministry in Wales, he added: ‘People, because of the level of comfort, are resistant to the gospel,’ he said. ‘It is very hard soil. Russians expect suffering to be part of the Christian life. I don’t think Christians expect to suffer here. Now that things are getting hard for people, they’re in shock. In Russia, when things were good they were in shock.’
God is growing His church
Nevertheless, since planting, the ministry has flourished. The church has had ten baptisms to date and has grown from 30 to 40 members. Currently meeting in a school, they are praying for their own building, and have ‘great gospel optimism’ that lives are being changed.
‘I have such peace about where we are now,’ he said. ‘We’re 100 percent confident this is where God has us.’
Since the Wilhelms left Russia, Russian Bible Church has planted one church and is planning to plant another later this year. The men Ricky was mentoring while he was in Moscow are now leaders in the church.
‘It’s only gotten stronger since I’ve left,’ Ricky said of the ministry. ‘Those guys are taking on the work — it’s continuing. It shows that it is His ministry and not mine. When God takes it out of my hands, He’s going to put it in the hands of someone else. I miss the people, but the ministry is God’s, the church is Christ's.’
‘I have no plans to leave south Wales but at the same time it’s “Lord willing,”’ Ricky added. ‘For now, my calling is to Penarth Evangelical Church but first and foremost it’s to Christ day by day.’
