Story number 1 for 26 Dec 2000

Our newscast begins today in Russia, where the breakaway republic of Chechnya is defiantly refusing Russia’s authority. Sporadic fighting has led to concerns that the area is unstable and may be trouble for mission groups. However, Far East Broadcasting Company’s Jim Bowman says that’s not an accurate picture of the situation. “All these little rebellions that are going on probably will go on for a long time precisely for the reason that there’s not a lot of respect for the government. We can expect to see these things more and more in the future. But, I don’t think they’ll hold back the spread of the Gospel at all.” In fact, Bowman says FEBC just got a license to operate an AM station in Moscow, which means the Gospel could reach as many as 20-million people. “I think what’s really exciting about this is these stations are all being run by young Russian Christians, all of them, 100-percent. They have seen the value of radio, and they’re finding ways to scrape the rubles together to make the stations go.”