Russia (MNN) — Cyclists from evangelical churches across Russia have embarked on a nine-thousand mile bike trek. It began at the coast in northern Germany and is crossing Europe through Russia to the Pacific coast.
Four teams of bicycling evangelists will pass through 89 towns, holding 117 planned evangelistic events in town squares, concert grounds, community centers and churches. The teams are made up of musicians, evangelists, counselors, journalists, and Sunday school workers.
Slavic Gospel Association's Joel Griffith says the team reached the Ural mountains a couple weeks ago. He shared one experience that bore a typical response the team encounters: "It was just warming to our hearts to see the reaction they got there as the expedition came and bicycled in and put on their program. The curriculum director of the orphanage said, 'Thank you very much; the doors of this orphanage will be open for you at any time. You not only talked about love, you also demonstrated it. Thank you for the Bible, which I dreamed to have.'"
SGA is providing resources like Bibles, books, and Russian-language evangelistic literature to be handed out over the course of the entire outreach. SGA will also be helping with rental of venues for evangelistic events.
They're also urging prayer. "We're just intrigued and praying for them all along that they will continue to have these open doors for the Gospel, that they'll continue to attract this kind of attention, and that they'll be able to lift up the name of Christ. When people get curious and come see what all the commotion is all about, we pray they'll get to hear the Gospel and that the Lord will draw many to Himself."
The tour wraps up in September. Please pray daily for the cyclists, asking the Lord to go before them and prepare the hearts of those who will hear their powerful testimonies.
