After two months four people were converted and the first baptism was held. At the same time he began to look for a house or small building which he could buy to use as a church. He found one not far from the city centre, formerly offices of a local builder, and bought it with his own money. Using his skill as a carpenter he spent the next six months converting the offices into Meeting Room, flat, Sunday school and library. The 'House of Prayer' opened with a service of dedication in October 1997.
Today there are seventeen members with twice that number attending the services.
It is connected to the outside world only by the railway line as there is no road. Several people were saved and they began to hold meetings for children. When two drug addicts were converted and their lives transformed, people's attitude to the 'Sectarians' began to change from open hostility to one of respect. The Mayor of the town invited Nikolai to his office and asked him if he would be willing to provide teaching and recreation for some of the town's orphans. Some months later the Mayor showed Nikolai a new timber building that the Army had begun to build as a depot but had abandoned when they left Priobye.