Association of Christian 
Churches in Russia
St Petersburg

Dear Friends,

Kaliningrad

I am just back from Kaliningrad region, which in the very west of Russia. It used to be Prussia territory. We met with pastors and overseers of the Association and the bishop of the Pentecostal churches there. It was a wonderful meeting and gathering of co-workers in Christ. We talked about the strategy of the Association in the west of Russia. Kaliningrad is known as former Prussia territory. It's a little part of Russia that was occupied in the Second World War. It is an island of Russia in the middle of Eastern Europe, surrounded by different countries -Poland, Lithuania & Latvia.

One of the biggest problems there in that problem is aids and drugs. In Kaliningrad there is also a large part and the prostitution there is an overwhelming problem for the city. The salaries are very low and not so many people even have jobs. Please pray for our churches of the Association there. Most of the churches of that region are part of the Association. We have wonderful relationship with the churches of the different denominations there - Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal churches.

The overseer of the region, Alexander Simeonov, has a vision to build up the unity in his region. Another brother, Leonid Kalotsky, who is the bishop of the Pentecostal churches and been in prison for several years for preaching the Gospel, is helping us to have the same vision of unity. The Lord has given us wonderful co-workers in that region.

We preached 5 times on Sunday in 5 different churches. The services, they said, were some of the most wonderful that they had with the biggest offerings they ever had. We preached in several different towns in one day.

An interesting thing happened on the way to the church service Sunday, when we traveled from morning service to the 2:00 service, we drove 1½ hours and the traffic police stopped us. Pastor Vladimir was arrested.

You see, about 6 months ago his car was stolen. He came to the leader of the Mafia and said that he was a pastor and that the Lord instructed him to come and tell him that he can't touch the belongings of the Christians because they serve the Almighty Lord. In 2 days he received a phone call and someone told him that where his car was in the street. He picked up his car with the keys in the ignition and nothing had been stolen.

BUT.the police had forgotten to take out of their computer that the car had been recovered. So it was still in their computer as a stolen car. So he was arrested and we were sitting in the car and praying. Then Vladimir explained the situation to the police, but they insisted that they had to take him to the police station for several days to check if it's true. He said that he was a pastor affiliated with ACCR. The main officer asked if he could prove that he was a pastor of the Association.

Every pastor of the Association has a membership card. Pastor Vladimir took out his card and showed it to the officer. The main police officer said, "let him go, he's a man of God." So we went to the service a little bit late. But it was another testimony of the glory of the Lord. So please pray for Kaliningrad and for the Russian police too.
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Igor Nikitin, Sankt Petersburg 2000

Leben in Kaliningrad ein Bericht aus der Süddeutschen Zeitung, vom 10.06.2000