THE PROFESSOR'S SECRET DOOR

By Benjamin Greeson and Rick Tuma

Misha leads a double life. Most of the time he's occupied with normal kid stuff: baseball practice, tests at school, annoying younger brothers. But every day after school, Misha goes to visit his neighbor, Professor Ilya. The Professor's apartment has a secret door... a door that leads to a gigantic underground facility call NIIZAP. NIIZAP

• Language: English
• Publisher: Benrick Productions
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9780578912813

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NIIZAP Productions

Copyright ©2022 Ben Greeson

All rights reserved

Hardcover: ISBN 9780578912806

Ebook: ISBN 9780578912813

Hardcover - Dyslexic Font Version: ISBN 9780578357782

Cover Art by Milan at Chameleonstudio74

Layout by Spiro Books

B.G. : To Mom and Dad. I love you

R.T. : Thanks to the great mentors, family, and friends, who inspired and encouraged me along my journey as an artist. It’s been so much fun.

Onward (aka Foreword)

Of all the times and places on earth, the 20th century was not kind to believing families in the former Soviet Union. In addition to other types of persecution and hardships, children in believing families were taught from the earliest school grades that there is no God. One school room poster showed a cosmonaut on a spacewalk. There is no God up here., it proclaimed. The message was clear; modern science and technology had disproven the existence of God. Any Soviet young person who wanted a career in science or engineering had to acknowledge that fact as a first step.

But the light of the Gospel never went out in Russia or the other former Soviet bloc countries. Under the vision of Peter Deyneka Sr., Russian emigres and their sons and daughters gathered together to fan the spark of belief in the former USSR and the Soviet bloc. The organization he founded was the Slavic Gospel Association. They produced Russian language Bibles, Christian literature, and Gospel radio programs. These bright messages of hope found their ways into that country despite government threats, censorship, and restrictions.

I learned of the darkness facing Russian believers through a prayer group with several Russian language majors at Indiana University, not long after I myself had responded to the Gospel. I too had come to the realization that faith and science were not totally exclusive, though prior to that, I had always assumed that they were. I wanted to share those wonderful discoveries with others like me who were interested in nature and science, but skeptical when it came to the Bible and faith. While in grad school studying Atmospheric Science, I attended the Urbana Missions Conference (1979) sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. There I learned of the Slavic Gospel Association and their work to bring God’s Word back to the land of their ancestry. They were starting to develop Russian language science apologetics radio programs in answer to the Soviet anti-religious propaganda. That sounded like a message for someone like me, before I had come to Christ. That was a message I could get behind. So when my course work in Atmospheric Science was complete, I moved with my new bride, Holly, to Wheaton, Illinois, to work with the Slavic Gospel association, writing and editing those radio programs.

While working at SGA, I developed an idea for a program geared for Russian students of middle school age. Imagine a Russian research institution that studied all kinds of scientific mysteries. We’ll call it the Scientific Institute for the Study of Puzzling Problems (In Russian the initials would be NIIZAP). Now imagine the director of the Institute, a well-known Professor, Ilya Vasilievich Bogolubov. Unlike most Soviet scientists, this professor is a man of openly expressed faith. Believing scientists were rare in the USSR, but I created Ilya Vasilievich to be like the scientists (and astronauts) that we interviewed for other programs; men and women who successfully integrated their faith with their scientific pursuits. Now imagine Misha, an extremely bright and inquisitive middle school student who can’t get enough of the study of nature and science. Misha and Ilya Vasilievich are neighbors in the same apartment building. They soon develop a great friendship and the Professor allows Misha full access to the many research projects at NIIZAP. Through Misha, I hoped to allow listening students to explore issues of faith and science and ask questions without getting in trouble. Through the Professor, I hoped to introduce listening students to answers from God’s Word, viewpoints they would never get in school.

I loved writing those radio scripts. I loved working with the team of dedicated staff at SGA. I loved seeing the way my co-workers there brought the programs to life, translated and edited them, and broadcast them around the world. But I particularly loved that I could, in a small way, help bring the Gospel to a people group that was thirsty for it, Russian youth. Because the Gospel was for me, I knew it was for them too.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union came a new and unexpected period of religious freedom in Russia. SGA could then start to work directly with pastors and churches in Russia, and the need for foreign broadcasts diminished. Holly and I moved to Alaska, and eventually got involved in very different English language ministries here to very different people groups. I turned the page on that amazing Russian radio part of my life, and moved on to