Story number 3 for 1 Aug 2000

Evangelist Sammy Tippit is seeing a tremendous harvest in the former Soviet block country of Belarus. Believers traveled from villages and cities throughout the region to spend three days in a weeklong series of leadership training and evangelistic meetings. Tippit says God really blessed. “The response was just tremendous, in fact I would say that 50-percent of the people in attendance were non-Christians – the first time ever to be in an evangelical setting. And out of that 50 percent who were there, I would say 50 percent of them responded.” According to Tippit, the harvest didn’t come without difficulty. “There are more restrictions on the church in Belarus than the other CIS countries. They’re not ashamed of being Communists and so they’ve taken a little bit of a stronger stand with the church. It forces the church to pray.” Tippit is asking people pray that these new believers grow in their faith as local churches begin the discipleship process.