St Petersburg - a window to the west and to the east!

I am spending some hours in St Petersburg's Pulkova airport and am on my three week trip eastward. First stop is Novosibirsk, the geographical centre of Russia's vast landmass, where the Church Cornerstone has its annual conference. They do a fantastic job, having started about 70 churches and about 200 rehab centers for drug addicts. Truly impressive! I will get back to that later on.

It is nice to be back in St Petersburg and memories return. This beautiful 300 year old city was built by Peter the Great as a window to the Europe in order to modernize Russia, which had basically skipped the Renaissance and the Reformation. In one stroke Russia now accessed the fruits of these plus of the great discoveries and the scientific revolution.

Outside St Petersburg Word of Life's work in the Soviet Union started. Carl-Gustaf Severin preached in Gatchina, home of one magnificent palace built by Peter the Great. In the dog stables, the meetings were held as people travelled in from allover. Sign and wonders, miracles and transformed hearts and from here it spread to other parts of the country. For us St Petersburg became a window to the east.

In september 1992 I flew in from Magadan which is on the other end of Russia, 9 time zones away. We were to conduct three big events. First we filled the Lenin indoor stadium with approximately 10 000 people. It was broadcast on national television. Carola sang and Ulf Ekman preached. Then we had our first pastors conference with 200 pastors. These conferences were later moved to Moscow and gathered up to 4500 people. And then we put up our big tent that had been transported from Sweden. It was Europe's biggest circus tent that could seat 8500 people. We later gave that to a growing church in Mombasa, Kenya.

Now 22 years later, I rejoice over the fact that there are now Word of Life churches allover Russia and the other former republics of the Soviet Union. There is no need to be nostalgic. We thank God for His great work those very eventful years early 90:s. But we look forward to further growth, expansion and development. The work is vital and progressive! The best is yet to come!