Jehovah's Witnesses

The Jehovah's Witnesses hosted a convention for Watchtower followers in St. Petersburg, Russia in June 1999. The 3 day conference, with an estimated 30,000 attending, was held at the Petrosky Stadium. The Watchtower Society regularly holds these annual conventions throughout the world where Jehovah's Witnesses everywhere attend -- anxious to hear the "New Light" (changes in the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses) which is typically introduced at these gatherings each year.

We had a wonderful time sharing the gospel with the Jehovah's Witness at the convention. We gathered along the sidewalk outside the stadium and gave out tracts as the crowds left. The tract we distributed, "Facts You Should Know About Jehovah's Witnesses" was translated by the Center in Russia and printed and donated to us by the authors, Gospel Truth Ministries in Michigan. Each tract contained 2 inserts. The first has a clear presentation of the gospel and the second allows people to ask for additional information or request to meet with the staff from the Center for further discussions.

We had Christians helping out from 4 Baptist churches, a charismatic Church, Calvary Chapel, and were joined by 2 evangelicals who attend an Orthodox church as well. They were all smiling and showing the love of Christ no matter what the response from the Witnesses. When we totaled up our remaining literature we discovered that we had given out over 1600 tracts! Praise the Lord!

The Jehovah's Witnesses have experienced unprecedented growth in Russia and the former Soviet republics. Starting with less than 40,000 members in 1990, when the Soviet Union was opened up to Western missionaries, this group has grown to over 250,000 in less than a decade according to the groups Awake! magazine published in February of this year.

Their Administrative Center, the Russian Bethel, is located in Solnechnoye. Its clean, modern buildings rise out of the forest like a brightly colored chunk of Scandinavia dropped from the sky. Over 300 Jehovah's Witnesses live and work there, and fully a third of them are translators who labor in tightly knit teams to convert Watchtower publications from Brooklyn, NY into Russian and 9 other languages. In fact, according to our tour guide, almost everything at this beautiful and expensive facility exists to support this translation effort -- including state-of-the art computer software and hardware -- so that millions of speakers of languages like Ossetian, Azerbaijani, Tatar, and Kirghiz will have steady access to the cult's twisted, Christ-denying gospel. Sadly, little or no Christian literature to refute this destructive heresy exists yet in these languages.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are also active in Ukraine. Their current Administrative Center in Lviv pictured here, has several large halls where 16 of Lviv's 46 congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses meet regularly. The building, which the Jehovah's Witnesses refer to as "Bethel", also contains offices for over 120 staff members working at their headquarters in Ukraine. The walls dividing the halls upstairs are removed periodically to accommodate over 1600 people for their regular Circuit Assemblies. The Jehovah's Witnesses have hosted meetings with over 2000 people in attendance at this facility.

They are currently in the process of constructing a multi-building facility on several acres of land outside the city. This will include offices for planning and coordination of their efforts in Ukraine and for their Ukrainian translation department. The facilities also includes warehouses and truck bays to organize the distribution of tons of literature being printed in Ukrainian, as well as a large facility for Jehovah's Witness congregations to meet in.

The work of Jehovah's Witnesses is very active in Ukraine. Witnesses can be seen throughout the country, spreading the doctrines of the Watchtower Society. The 1998 Field Service report in the January 1, 1999 Watchtower magazine records the activity of over 100,000 active Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine.

Hare Krishnas

In the Summer of 1998 we attended a rally being held by the Hare Krishnas in St. Petersburg. I expected to find a few young men dancing on some street-corner next to one of the more popular subway stations in town.

When we arrived we discovered that the Hare Krishnas had built a large shrine in the courtyard. Everyone was dancing around it and singing the cult's famous mantra: "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." At least 100 Hare Krishna devotees were there. Then, to my surprise, ropes were brought out and they began to pull the shrine (on wheels) out into the street! It was dragged by Krishnas, and others who joined in, right into the square in front of the metro. As they progressed the crowd got bigger and bigger as many passers-by joined in the singing and dancing. Pretty soon the crowd had swelled to over 300.

I usually picture Hare Krishnas as a group of young men, disenchanted with society, seeking refuge by adopting an extreme way of life. I was caught off guard by this rally. Not only by the sheer number of people participating, but also by the amazingly diverse group of people who have flocked to this unusual religion. Young men to be sure, but also many middle aged men, women, boys, little girls, as well as people who look more like grandparents than someone you would expect to find dancing in the street in Eastern garb!

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness claims tens of thousands of followers in Russia. The July/August 1998 issue of the Hare Krishna's back to Godhead Magazine list 22 ISCON Centers in Russia, seven in Ukraine, two each in Georgia, and Lithuania, and others in Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, and Tajikistan.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Mormon David G. Stewart reports that "Vyborg was the first city in Russia opened by the missionaries of the Finland Helsinki East Mission in 1989. The Russia St. Petersburg mission was created in February 1992 when the Finland Helsinki East Mission was dissolved. St. Petersburg had the highest seminary and institute attendance in 1993-94 (the year seminary was established in the mission) of any mission in Eastern Europe. Russia's first LDS chapel was dedicated in Vyborg in the summer of 1996."

Please pray for us at the Center as we try to train others to witness to those caught up in the cults and reach out to others who are so spiritually hungry that they will reach out for anything to satisfy the longing in their souls.