Bike trip – August 28 – Bikin town

Bikin town with 19 thousand inhabitants and is located on the border with China. There is some light in Bikin town reaching it from China.

The church in this town originated at the time of spiritual revival in the Far East in the 20-ties last century. In the 60-ties the church bought a small house for the services. Last summer when believers celebrated at the Congress in Bryansk town, homeless people got into the church house to sleep there and fire began. Praise God, neighbors noticed the trouble in time. Fire brigade arrived very quickly and only an auxiliary room was damaged by the fire. But the church has bought another house and does paper work. Services are still held in the old church building.

When we arrived we were treated to a nice lunch, prepared by sisters. We had it with great thanks to God and dear Christian sisters. Right after lunch we sent some people from our team to the central park to put sound equipment. The service was planned for 18:00 p.m. It was a working day and it would be better to start later. But the time was fixed so we decided to begin our meeting. Not many people came. But there were many militiamen who came and left in shifts. We thanked God for the opportunity to have these men with us as they had an opportunity to hear about salvation. Gradually more people came. We were happy to feel the atmosphere of kindness and attention. Not many people were there but they were very comprehensive to the Gospel message.

Two elderly ladies sat by Piotr Ryazanov and after the service Piotr invited them to the church. They said they attended the Orthodox church, but they had never had the NT. One of them said that while she was sitting at home she felt an impulse to stand up and go somewhere she did not know where. She went out and went. Passing the park she head music, she went there, sat on the bench and it was not in vain. She received the Bible and found out where she could study the Word of God.

During the service I noticed a young lady with a child. She recorded the service on the video camera. After the meeting she came up to me and asked several questions. I asked her if she attended the church. She sighted and said that she lived far in taiga region in a very little village in Primorie area. Her relatives from Bikin town told her about the planned meeting and she took her little son and came to Bikin to the meeting. Then she would go back.

The meeting was planned for 90 minutes, but three hours passed and people did not want to go home. They asked us to sing more songs. How much we wish that the church grows here and that the light of Christ’ teaching will reach many local inhabitants!