St. Petersburg

The Team has now been in St. Petersburg for 3 days, and it has been exciting to see how people from many different churches and two countries can flow together in such powerful ways. There is one uniting passion—to bless the people of Russia with the reality of God’s love. Already we have ministered in two churches, one theater, and one orphanage. The churches in Russia face a difficult struggle against traditional religion on the one hand and on the other a new, full-blown capitalistic pursuit with all the evils that goes with it.

It has been a joy to bring a refreshing encouragement to our fellow Christians here. They have been enthusiastic in their response, and very appreciative of everything we are doing. We have also seen an impact with non-Christians who are there every time we minister. Sunday evening we were in a Lutheran Church, but people came to hear the advertised “jazz and southern gospel group from the west”. In fact there were even some prisoners there who had been given permission to attend, and they were amongst the most receptive. They asked us to teach them to sing like we did! Only the Lord knows how many have been saved in the meetings (there is only a corporative sinners prayer at the end), but we believe there will be much permanent fruit that will be the result of the seeds planted!

At the orphanage, the kids were all over us with their curious minds, wanting to play all the instruments and check out all the equipment. Though we could not communicate in words, the love expressed and received was very real—especially when we got to the gifts at the end!

The orphanage is located in a small town about an hour from the city. Actually, we sang to more than the children, because this was an outdoor concert with speakers aimed directly to the town. Several young people came, as well as older folks too. It was obvious they were having a good time by their smiles and enthusiastic clapping, and more importantly, they all heard a clear presentation of the gospel.

Tomorrow we leave the colder climes of the north to travel 2,000 miles south to a city on the Caspian sea where the weather will be in the 90s for the next several days. Thank you for praying!