TV Outreach stirs large Russian city

At a time when the voice of the protestant church in Russia is being muted and civil liberties curtailed an historic evangelistic outreach took place in Russia's third largest city Nizhny Novgorod. A whole mega city was moved

A Special Report From Russia on "Mega City Outreach in Russia"

NIZHNIY NOVGOROD, RUSSIA :-- The mega city campaign in Russia's third largest city Nizhniy Novgorod in May surpassed all expectations. The mega city campaign has changed the spiritual landscape and the left unforgettable memories in the carrying out of the Great Commission of Christ in one of Russia's largest cities. The campaign amounted to the saturation of a major city of 2 million with the Gospel for a 30-day period.

An ancient fortress in Nizhny, also called the Kremlin, currently housing the city and provincial governments

Russia's churches have not seen similar massive scale presentations of the Gospel in recent history. Nizhny Novgorod was the seventh Russian hub city to have been reached in the last 3 years.

Other cities reached so far are Volgograd (previously Stalingrad), Ufa (Ural Mountains), Petrozavodsk (Karelia), Archangel (Northern Russia), Voronezh, Samara (Central Russia), Almaty (Kazakhstan).

From Governors to Mayors to government officials, the military, professors to inmates have been touched by the campaigns, which also include a humanitarian element. Aid, clothing, food, hygiene goods along with the Gospel are delivered to hundreds of children in scores of children's prison camps. Social issues such as alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, abortion are also persuasively addressed from a spiritual standpoint.

A key element in the 30 day long campaigns is prime time television every night on secular channel. The programs are watched by millions and trigger thousands of telephone calls in response from the government, the armed forces, mafia, students, pensioners, and down
In Nizhny Novgorod compelling testimonies of changed lives produced locally by IRR-TV production teams were broadcast on both secular radio and TV channels daily to over 2 million residents of Nizhny Novgorod and its surrounding areas. The Gospel was presented in hundreds of thousands of homes over a period of 30 days.

A total of 36 churches in the city participated in the campaign. Fifty thousand (50,000) copies of a 10 page evangelistic book, tailor-made for the city, containing local testimonies were distributed by the local churches. 330,000 flyers were hand delivered to homes in the city by participating churches.

Thousands of city residents called the 24/7 call center. There were surprise calls. The Kremlin of Nizhny Novgorod (headquarters for the provincial government) ordered 15 copies, the Interior Ministry ordered 16 books, and the FSB (formerly KGB) wanted 6 books.

By the third week of the campaign the call center had logged over 5,000 calls. An additional thousand calls were received in surrounding cities stemming from the TV programs seen over a wide area. The call center was staffed by 126 trained counselors. Each call was followed up by visits to homes. In four weeks 4,639 homes were visited. About 2,000 homes were visited 3 or more times at the request of the families themselves. During these visits many made personal decision for Christ.

Vadim Kruglikov, the campaign's assisting director, recounted the campaign's success. "We see opened doors to the local and regional government. Churches have gained exponential visibility in the city. They have gained confidence and assurance in their mission. The authorities view, respect the congregations in a totally different way."
A part of every mega city campaign is ministering to boys prison camps in Russia. There are 64 in Russia with 18,000 juvenile

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