In 1999 - a mere 9 years ago - I went with the ministry Hope International on a mission trip to Russia. What a glorious time we had as the LORD opened doors and windows for the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit! We visited orphanages where we sang to the children, gave them toys and candy, and shared with them the life-changing Good News of Jesus. We visited women in prison where I led them in worship and gave my own testimony of being led out of the "prison" of sin and into the freedom of the Kingdom of God. We toured the old warehouse buildings that were being rebuilt into a Christian worship center, to include a soup kitchen and a school.
Yet, in the midst of all this, we knew in our hearts that the window was open for but a brief time. We sensed by the Spirit in our prayer times that this message of relationship with the Messiah, the true and Living God (as opposed to the CLOSED RELIGION of the Russian Orthodox Church) must go forth quickly while there was yet time.
Pastor Alexei and his wife Tanya have labored for the Gospel in Russia for a very long time. They sponsor an orphanage there, they have a widespread, glorious ministry to the youth of Russia, and they have also spear-headed a campaign against abortion, teaching young people the sanctity of LIFE. Today he sent me this article and asked for our fervent prayers for all the pastors and congregations in Russia. And don't forget also to pray for all the Jews in Russia, who come under more and more persecution every day, and who live in abject poverty, rejection, and scorn.
Russia is moving swiftly back into the times of Communism, dictatorship and oppression. Please read below and pray for the Jewish people - and the believers in Christ - who live, work, teach, pastor, and suffer in Russia.
Thursday, May 1, is our "National Day of Prayer" here in America. Wherever you are, please set aside time to intentionally pray for Russia, for Israel, and for those around the world being persecuted for the Name of YESHUA - Jesus the Messiah.
James Hill for The New York Times:
A Crackdown on Russian Protestants
There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin.
Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin's surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia.
This close alliance between the government and the Russian Orthodox Church has become a defining characteristic of Mr. Putin's tenure, a mutually reinforcing choreography that is usually described here as working "in symphony."
Mr. Putin makes frequent appearances with the church's leader, Patriarch Aleksei II, on the Kremlin-controlled national television networks. Last week, Mr. Putin was shown prominently accepting an invitation from Aleksei II to attend services for Russian Orthodox Easter, which is this Sunday.
The relationship is grounded in part in a common nationalistic ideology dedicated to restoring Russia's might after the disarray that followed the end of the Soviet Union. The church's hostility toward Protestant groups, many of which are based in the United States or have large followings there, is tinged with the same anti-Western sentiment often voiced by Mr. Putin and other senior officials.
The government's antipathy also seems to stem in part from the Kremlin's wariness toward independent organizations that are not allied with the government.
Here in Stary Oskol, 300 miles south of Moscow, the police evicted a Seventh-day Adventist congregation from its meeting hall, forcing it to hold services in a ramshackle home next to a construction site. Evangelical Baptists were barred from renting a theater for a Christian music festival, and were not even allowed to hand out toys at an orphanage. A Lutheran minister said he moved away for a few years because he feared for his life. He has returned, but keeps a low profile.
On local television last month, the city's chief Russian Orthodox priest, who is a confidant of the region's most powerful politicians, gave a sermon that was repeated every few hours. His theme: Protestant heretics.
"We deplore those who are led astray - those Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ's robes like bandits, who are like the soldiers who crucified Christ, who ripped apart Christ's holy coat," declared the priest, the Rev. Aleksei D. Zorin.
Such language is familiar to Protestants in Stary Oskol, who number about 2,000 in a city of 225,000.
The Rev. Vladimir Pakhomov, the minister of the Methodist church, recalled a warning from an F.S.B. officer to one of his parishioners: " 'Protestantism is facing difficult times - or maybe its end.' "
