On Monday December 2^nd, 1990 I accompanied Pastor Strader on his second trip to Moscow. He was teaching ministerial training to the ministers of the 1300 reportedly underground churches. 

We stayed in the Ismailova (Izmailovo) Hotel, near the Kremlin in Moscow, which is also where the classes were taught to the young ministers. I was impressed with how my pastor Strader quoted so much scripture as he lay on his bed before going to sleep each night.

It was an exciting time witnessing what God was doing now that the Communist government was releasing the tight grip it had held on this nation for 70 years. The people were so hungry for the Gospel.

I wanted to be a part of proclaiming the gospel in Russia so I quickly responded by procuring the Jesus Film in the Russian language. I provided the necessary funds for Calvary Ministries International to order the Jesus Film from Campus Crusade for Christ so I could cause it to be shown in the unreached villages of Russia. I also purchased a new 15 passenger van, had the seats remove, and used it to transport the video with a projector, speaker, generator, and other equipment. I paid a couple of the young Christian in Moscow to show this Jesus Film in various communities in Russia. They also carried it to Siberia where there was also great success in wining souls to Jesus. Thousand were saved from these efforts.

Jesus Film:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM4mMOWSP1g

A few months later, Jim Puhr, one of the minister with Calvary Ministries International wrote me a letter reporting that my Jesus Film had recently been shown by my evangelism team more than 100 times and had registered over 20,000 conversions.

Near this date, the Church of God in Cleveland organized a strike force that included Rev. Carl Richardson, Mitch Maloney and others leaders to as 15 church planting teams to plant churches in different locations in Moscow. Some of them remember seeing me in the Moscow airport. Mary Nell and I travel with a different group for Calvary Ministries International in Jacksonville, Fla. 

Mary Nell and I traveled to Russia in July 1991 and helped plant a church in Tula, which is about 50 miles south of Moscow.  This was a glorious experience for us. We stood with Pastor Karl Strader and others on the steps of the Kremlin and sang, “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Afterwards Mary Nell and I went outside the Kremlin wall where together with another couple we laid our hands on the wall and prayed in the spirit, “This wall shall come down and this Communistic government shall allow the gospel of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed.” We felt a mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit. We felt we were expressing this prayer on behalf of multitudes of Christian who were praying in America and other parts of the world. Within a few months the government collapsed, and the country was open for the gospel to be freely proclaimed.

In Moscow we visited a worship service in a church we believed to be a Registered Pentecostal Church. Pastor Strader introduce our group and invited me to greet the congregation. Attached is a 3 minute video of my greeting. https://youtu.be/ZAMZbS3XhFo

During our time of preparations for this missionary trip, I suggested that our group not just plant a church, but that we also visit the Mayor and business officials of the City. They needed to hear the gospel also. It was very intriguing to accompany Pastor Karl Strader and a group of 11 other people down to city hall to visit the communist leader who was mayor of Tula. We were thought to be the first Americans to spend the night in this City. We sent the mayor of this large city word that there were businessmen from Florida among our group and who would like to visit with him. Upon our arrival, the mayor was very cordial; however, another man who sat across the room was very stoic and thought to be a member of the KGB. We witnessed to the mayor as to what we were doing and about the new church being planted. We presented the mayor with a copy of a children’s Bible, and a small gift from the Florida Citrus Commission. Pastor Strader testified to the mayor as to how he had been saved, and about his life as a Christian and then asked if we could all have prayer with the mayor. We all held hands around the conference table and prayed. We made a video showing the group praying.  However, the mayor appeared somewhat apprehensive.

Good food and bottled water were scarce in Tula except that which was provided for a few communist party members. The mayor arranged for our group to have plenty of bottled water and to eat excellent food at a special restaurant from that time on.  The mayor arranged for me and my group to have a nice lunch with some of the local industry leaders. It provided an opportunity to witness and share our testimonies.

The mayor assigned a member of his staff to escort or accompany our group. We held worship service each night in a rented auditorium and the building packed out. Most of them had never heard the gospel nor experienced this type of worship.

We witnessed in this ripe harvest field with hundreds coming to Christ during each service. Mary Nell and I gave our personal testimonies and Mary Nell sang solos for the people. When people were invited to come forward for prayer, almost everyone came forward. There were about four different prayer lines.  After people were prayed for once, they would often go to the back of another prayer line. The people were so thirsty to feel the presence of the Lord and experience the freedom of His salvation. (insert video of Mary Nell at Tula)

The spirit of the Lord was present at every worship service.  Our guide or escort was a former secretary to the communist party. During one of the worship services she told Mary Nell that she was experiencing a nice warm feeling about all of this and wanted to know if she could be saved although she had been secretary of the local Communist Party. Mary Nell had the privilege of personally leading this former communist leader to pray the prayer of salvation in Christ Jesus.

When Bibles in the Russian language were given freely to the people, they were so eager to get them. Many hands were always reaching out to receive a Bible. Thank God we had enough for every person to receive one. We also delivered Hosanna Praise tapes. This was a life changing experience. Mary Nell and I now knew better what is meant by “Go out and have fun.”

(see video of this trip) July 13, 1991.

01:28:00  Dan (good pic) and others speaks in Russian Church service. Strader says In youth camp Spirit of Lord told him he would preach the Gospel in Russia. 14 months ago he was in Moscow with Re. Terry Law. Today the prophecy is being fulfilled.

Idea for a Christian Embassy in Moscow

On this trip we became aware of some of the difficulties Christians from the West experiencing to interact with new converts in Moscow. I felt that a Christian Embassy was needed to help solve the problem. I discussed the situation with pastor Karl Strader, and he agreed with the concept, so he and I wrote letters to several church leaders to garner support for a Christian Embassy in Moscow. Vision Foundation and Carl Richardson contributed a total of $5,500.

Several of the invited persons responded agreeing to be founders including:

• Eugene F. Rubingh, International Bible Society
• Tommy Reid, Full Gospel Tabernacle
• Charles Green, Word of Faith
• Paul Crouch, TBN
• Stephen Strang, Charisma
• Bob D’Andrea, Christian Television Network
• Jerry Barnard, Christian Faith Center
• James Weller, World Christian Ministries
• Richard W. Thomas, Abundant Life Christian Center
• Jim Puhr and Brenda Puhr, Calvary Ministries International
• Carl Richardson, CRM
• Paul Zink, New Life Fellowship
• Karl D. Strader, Carpenters Home Church
• Marilyn Hickey responded.

Apparently, this was not the type of missionary work any others wanted to participate in.

Jan 6, 1992 Mark and Carrie Tedder from England phoned me that they were interested in going to Russia to become directors of the proposed Christian Embassy in Moscow. I flew to England to meet with them. Later, they encounter so much personal difficulties in Moscow that they decided not to pursue the endeavor. By April After a few months of major difficulties they decided to return to England, so we refunded the $5,500 to CRM and Strader notified the founders. I abandoned the idea of a Christian Embassy in Moscow

A few years after providing the van truck and equipment to show the Jesus Film in the Russian language to tens of thousands of the Russian people; in August 1992, the Church of God General Assembly in New Orleans implemented phase one of “Mission Moscow”. On August 31, 1993, general overseer, Dr. Lamar Vest declared “Through our special ministry strike force, on the scene in Russia, we have planted 21 new congregations in metropolitan Moscow and won 12, 000 new converts to the Lord during the past 11 months. “…Mission accomplished.”

Phase two of “Mission Moscow” was operational to network with our colleagues among the 100,000 members and 1,500 congregations of the unregistered Pentecostal church of Russia and the other nations of the former Soviet Union.

World Missions board extended the special assignment until the general assembly 1994.

(See “Catching your Second Wind to finish well“, written by Carl H. Richardson, page 185, Chapter 12, “What Really Happened in Russia”.)

In 1994 I visited the country of Moldova.

Visit the page “Moldova” on this blog.