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TV CRUSADE RUSSIAN FAR EAST – USSURIYSK, VLADIVOSTOK, MAGADAN

September 2007

Three minute Far East Crusade Clip

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Ussuriysk

Despite the rain, 7000 people came to hear the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ in the open air stadium in Ussuriysk. The crusades were also broadcast on regional TV. When David first evangelised in Ussuriysk twelve years ago, there was only one small church with 8 members – today there are 25 churches – with many of the Christians being converts from David’s meetings in the 1990s. The same can happen in your town when hearts are filled with compassion for the lost.

David said: “The love of God is the strongest power in the world today. There is no power on earth as strong as the love of God. The love of God can change you, heal you, give you a hope and a future. God wants to change your whole life, your family, your home, everything. He wants to touch you, take away your sadness, your pain, your sin. Jesus is the Son of God, He has power on earth today, and to show this there will be miracles of healing, lives changed tonight. God wants to do this in front of your own eyes – in people that you know, people that you recognise. God sent His Son Jesus so that you can see the power of His love here in Ussuriysk. God wants to forgive you. Healing is a demonstration that your sin is forgiven. This is not ceremony or empty words. The power of the Gospel of Christ today will turn your whole life around, change your whole direction, bring peace into your whole family, reconcile you with your children, give you hope and a future. All this begins when you come to Christ, when you call upon Him, ask Him to deliver you and forgive you.”

Vladivostok

For three days thousands filled the largest auditorium in Vladivostok – these meetings were then broadcast to the Russian Far East. In total 23 churches of all denominations came together to organise the meetings – this unity is one of the reasons why we saw such powerful conversions and healings.

Vladivostok is Russia’s largest city port on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative centre of Primorsky Krai. It is situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay not far from the Chinese border and North Korea. It is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet. As the main naval base, the city was closed to foreigners during the Soviet years.

The direct distance from Moscow is 6430km – Vladivostok is closer to Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing than to Moscow!

Two thirds of Vladivostok’s suburbs are so polluted that living in them is classified as a health hazard – some areas are so polluted that they are defined as ‘ecological disaster zones’. Only a few areas have permissible levels of contamination. The pollution, which includes arsenic and mercury, severely affects the respiratory and nervous systems.

David said: “When you repent and ask for forgiveness of sin and receive Jesus into your life, that is only the beginning! I received Jesus when I was 8, I’ve been preaching the Gospel for more than 60 years, but every day I find something new, more powerful, about Jesus! Every day is an exploration, an adventure. Jesus is so much more wonderful to me than when I first knew Him! I want you to begin to know Jesus, and to go on, to know Him more and more! Jesus is the Son of God, God put all power and authority in Him, not just in Heaven but on earth, here! Our God is the Creator of Heaven and earth: God created Russia, God created the oil and the gas in Russia, God made you! He loves you! What is God’s Name? Jesus said, call Him Father! All over the world the greatest need is for fathers who love their children, not dictators, not presidents, but fathers. We all need a father. We have so much crime committed by boys who have no father. No laws, no money can change these young people. But one simple thing can change a nation, can change our young people – they need fathers – you need a father. God is your Father, a God of love, of forgiveness, of healing, hope and happiness. God is concerned about you. God has power on earth to save, to bring calm and peace into the most troubled life. God sent His Son Jesus to come into the world to show His concern, to demonstrate that He can change the very circumstances, the very situation in which you live. The Bible says, in the time of trouble, call upon God. Jesus is only one prayer away. Prayer is simply a cry from your heart to God: Help!”

Magadan

Despite enormous political pressure from the old-style Communist authorities we were able to hold the crusade meetings and witness many powerful conversions and hear testimonies of lives changed. Over the three days unbelievers crowded the hall desperate for Jesus. These meetings were broadcast on TV reaching the desolate Far East coast of Russia.

In an area of permafrost deemed unfit for human habitation, Magadan was established as a place of exile and death for Soviet dissidents and criminals. During Stalin’s reign of terror, Magadan was used as a major transit centre for prisoners sent to build an infrastructure and to labour in gold and uranium mines all over that remote and inhospitable region. Everything you see today is literally built on the bones of the dead – and that same oppressive communist spirit still rules over the lives of the people today.

Magadan in the subarctic north is totally isolated – nine hours by air from Moscow, the nearest major city is Yakutsk, 2000 km away via an unpaved road that can only be used in winter when the rivers can be crossed on the ice. Every conceivable thing, from construction equipment, trucks and cars to potatoes, meat and milk, has to be brought in by sea or by air. Nothing is manufactured here and nothing grows here. In the 1970s gold mining provided high levels of employment, but as mines closed for lack of investment, unemployment and alcoholism became rife, and those who could afford the air ticket left the city. The situation has begun to stabilise only in the last few years with new investment in the mines. Now oil has been found.

David said: "God has power and authority. The power of God is the most important thing in the world, because only God has the ability to change men. You cannot change men by persecuting them. I’ve seen the power of God all my life. I was in a communist prison – I got to know the power of God more in that prison than in any Bible school! God is a God of love, power, action, every day, every hour! And I want to introduce you to Jesus! Jesus came into this world, sent by His Father as an ambassador, a missionary, a messenger to reveal the power of God. His whole objective was to meet with people like you. God didn’t send his Son for the righteous, but for sinners, for the needy, for the poor, the sick, for you. God can meet with you wherever you are. Who can love us as God loves us? Jesus said, call Him Father! He’s the best Father in the world. He answers every prayer, He heals the sick, mends broken hearts and lives. Who else has such a message of love and forgiveness – not punishment – but blessing and healing? I have the best news in the world! The problem is people live so far from Jesus, they have cut God out of their lives – they did this in your nation. Yet only God through Jesus can bless and change our lives. There are things in your life no one can change, no one can heal, no one can put right – only Jesus! There are some whose hearts are hard and cold; they have no love for others. But Jesus can change the hardest heart. If we want God to forgive our sin, if we want to know the love of God, we must be the first to forgive. If you have been persecuted and punished, and you want God’s forgiveness, forgive those who have tormented you, tell them God loves them! Forgive each other. But the greatest sin is not against men but against God: there is an enormous barrier in our lives, we have rejected God. – But God sent His Son for the whole world and for you. God wants to prosper Russia. Where did your gold come from? – God created it. The gas, the oil, the wealth in Russia is a gift from God to bless this nation. But God has not just blessed the ground, He wants to bless the people, you! He wants to take the hardness out of your heart, He wants to give forgiveness, happiness, healing, new life; all the best things come through Jesus because He loves you! God will remake the whole of your life, He will make you what He intended you to be. You see, there is something more than forgiveness, more than healing, He wants to put His own life in you!"

To view crusade film clips please click here