Vladivostok,
often referred to as the Eastern Gateway of
Russia, is a vibrant port city with about 1
million population. The terminal point of
the great Tran Siberian Railroad 9,298 km away
from Moscowlocated on Russia's Pacific Coast,
Vladivostok is the administrative capital of
Primorye Region, the territory of over 166,000
square kilometers in the southernmost end of the
Russian Far East.  Not only so, Vladivostok
has long been seen as the city of an unmatched
significance on the map of the whole Russian Far
East, a vast area that stretches from Russia's
Pacific Coast in the east as far as to lake
Baikal in the west, also covering scarcely
populated northern areas of Yakutia and Russia's
Arctic coast. Even the name given to the city
upon its foundation in 1860 was meant to reflect
its strategic importance for Russia. The name
"Vladivostok" is derived from a Russian
phrase literally meaning "Rule the
East". Being the capital of
Primorye, Vladivostok is located within near
reach of the Chinese and North Korean borders and
within 80 minute flying distance from Japan. This
accounts for its growing business and trade and
the good percentage of its international
population.
 There are over 30
protestant churchesin Vladivostok today,
both registered with the authorities, and
unregistered. They represent a variety of
Christian denominations: evangelical full gospel,
Pentecostal, Baptist churches and Methodist
churches. Lutheran, Anglican and Catholic church
are also represented in Vladivostok. The Orthodox
church claims to be the largest, yet the number
of born-again Christians with it is much smaller
than the alleged membership numbers. Most of the
churches have been planted in 1990s and are
relatively small in size of under 100
members.
The churches do
express the tendency to growth, however they grow
slowly. Part of the reason is the
challenging spiritual environment dominating in
this key city. Being a large port, and
center of rapidly developing business and
commerce, sometimes compared to the New
Testament Corinth, the city
experiences a lot of problems, such
as corruption, prostitution and
adultery, drug and alcohol abuse, involvement
with various kinds of occult and magic inherited
from the past and present time. The deceiving
teachings of New Age does not help either. There
are many dysfunctional families along
with neglected street children
and beggars. The local authority appears to
have done little to alleviate the current social
issues.
 Vladivostok
Government University is one of the major
universities in the city, has invited us to help
their English education in both long-term and
summer short-term programs. The short-term
programs will be summer English camps and
University's English club. We are planning the
English Bible study and American
Religion Class in the evenings to
separate them from the official programs.
Most
western churches and missions organizations are
focusing on Russia Europe, due to lacking of
contacts and information, few have come
to this area for His service. Christian
population is less than 1% in this
area. Young people tend to be more
open to foreigners and the Gospel than any
other people segment in Russia.
Churches in Vladivostok have repeatly requested
us for sending teams to help their evangelical
outreaches in the past, it is about time for
us giving heed
to God's calling and stretch our hands to
help our dear brothers and sisters in Christ in
Russia Far East.
Please open your heart and pray to join our
summer team of 2006 for 2 weeks
in Vladivostok.
Please come for the
Russian student summer camps, Vladivostok needs
salvation!
The churches of
Vladivostok needs encouragement and a
breakthrough!
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