Story number 3 for 9 Jan 2002

(Russia)–Because the Orthodox Church still recognizes the Julian Calendar, Christmas in Russia fell on January 8th this year. To help them celebrate, Russian Ministries in partnership with Samaritan’s Purse, handed out 160-thousand shoe-box Christmas gifts to Russian children. Russian Ministries Andrew Semenchuk. “In every one of those packets are some Christian books. The way of salvation is clearly presented. The Bible stories are being told and in many cases when we do the distribution, in fact, in most cases this is the first time they’ve heard the Gospel story. So definitely, in all cases the Gospel story is clearly presented.” Semenchuk says the boxes are effective evangelistic tools. “As a result of this distribution, it helps to open up doors into the homes (and) orphanages so that they can carry on a ministry to the children throughout the whole year.”