Commonwealth of Independent States (MNN) — Churches in the North America are partnering with churches in the former Soviet Union to reach the lost with the Gospel at Christmas. Since that area of the world celebrates Christmas with the Russian Orthodox Church on January 7th, Christians have 13 extra days to get ready.
Slavic Gospel Association is spearheading an effort to resource the project through a program they’re calling, “Immanuel’s Child”. It started three years ago. SGA’s Tom MacAdam says, “The idea was to support something that’s already going on in Russia to a greater level and that’s outreach at Christmas time to children and families in communities that aren’t reached otherwise.”
MacAdam says this program grows each year and this year is no exception. “We started out with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Last year we reached seven nations and this year it’s in nine countries; Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
Churches in North America help facilitate the outreach by collecting gifts and donations, which are sent over to the national church who invite families to their Christmas program. MacAdam says, “At that program they receive a wrapped gift, a children’s Bible, they receive evangelistic literature, fruit as well as a star ornament signed by an American for the children, which includes a greeting in Russian and an explanation of God’s love to them.” More than 11,000 children and 6,000 adults will hear the Gospel for the first time this year.
Over 230 churches in the U-S participated this year, but MacAdam says more are needed for next year. He says now is the time to begin planning for Immanuel’s Child outreach for 2005. If you’d like information, go to their website, http://www.SGA.org or call 1-800-Bible50.
