RUSSIAN EASTER TV CRUSADES

It is now more than 3 years since we began our All Russia TV Crusade Broadcasts and more than 18 months since we added the free-phone number and call centre. The broadcasts show Russian praise and worship, David’s preaching and call to repentance, and the sick are healed, live on TV! Those that repent or are healed watching the broadcasts call up in their thousands for further counselling and to find a church in their region. At Easter this year we received over 47,000calls! We now broadcast the live Gospel of Jesus Christ every Christmas and every Easter, reaching up to 80% of Russia every time, on the ordinary TV, not satellite. The people are watching and responding! Even the Kremlin knows what we are doing! In 1000 years there has never been freedom like this to preach the Gospel in Russia – but for how long? We must act now!

Perm

At the same time as the All-Russia Easter crusade broadcasts, we held live crusades in the Russian cities of Perm, Kudimkar and Syktyvkar. It is the church in Perm which mans our TV call centre, and which also sacrificially sends its worship team to provide the worship for so many of our crusades. The crusades in Perm were held in the city’s purpose-built circus building – the first time it has ever been used for the Gospel! To the smell of lions and the glamour of the circus ring, 3000 packed the stalls every day for 3 days; on Easter Day itself an extra 1000 crammed the balconies behind the stalls and packed the foyer; that’s more than 10,000 in a country in which large crowds do not gather together! Thousands gave their lives to the Lord and the miracles were, as always, outstanding. The meetings were broadcast live on a big screen into the square outside; cars and buses stopped so that people could see what was going on and give their lives to Christ! Those watching on the regional TV called in with their testimonies: one woman in a village was so ill with heart disease, her family were too afraid even to let her to travel the 80km to the hospital in Perm – but God completely healed her as she listened to the preaching and watched the programme.

Kudimkar

The crusades in Kudimkar were held outdoors in Lenin’s Central Square, deep in mud because of the early thaw. In two days about 3000 (7% of the population) came: from members of the local administration to drug addicts and the mafia, from the very old to babies in arms, they stayed in the biting wind – even the chief of police gave his life to Christ. One of the local people explained to me that this is one of the poorest regions of Russia, where grandmothers go to bed with their grandsons and sell their granddaughters for a bottle of vodka (the majority of girls have been raped in their own homes) – I looked with tears at the men and the grandmothers who were still drunk as they listened to the Gospel and I wondered at the young mothers with their children – truly the blood of Jesus CAN forgive every sin and heal every sickness! They need Jesus.

Syktyvkar

Because of the early Spring, we could not drive the direct route to Syktyvkar over the frozen rivers – they had begun to melt – and there are no bridges that way. So to reach this city we had to take the long way – 1000km through the forests and tundra on roads cratered and broken up by the sub-zero winters: the Russians think that the faster you drive, the fewer potholes you hit! Despite the loneliness of the route, we passed many wrecked cars, trucks and buses and wondered how they would ever receive help in these remote regions where often there was not even any mobile network cover. In the whole 1000km journey we came across only one roadside fuel station and restaurant! The city of Syktykar was built at the heart of the gulag system: here Jews, German prisoners of war and Russians perished together in their millions – live was worthless. Today Syktyvkar is prospering with its oil and gas wealth. But the hunger for God over-filled the sporthall and on the Sunday morning packed the foyer with unbelievers: 5000 came for healing and repentance.

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