Gospel Expedition

Today is the last day of the Expedition. It began with our usual wake-up and the last portion of our way, a distance of 110 km. The distance is not great, but the road is busy. Drivers in Vladivostok are not careful in their driving and often do not observe traffic rules. We arrived an hour later in the city, and waited about an hour for the escorting cars. They did not arrive. We prayed, entrusting ourselves and our lives into the hands of the Lord, and were not wrong to do so in light of what happened next.

Spared from an Accident

While we were waiting for the police cars, two well-equipped local cyclists arrived. They were obviously sportsmen on professional bikes. We looked like beginners in comparison with them. It turned out that they were preparing for competitions. We told them about our goals and they moved forward.

When we had cycled several kilometers along the town streets, we met them again. One was standing while the second was covered in bruises and wounds. We saw the car that hit them. But our Guide, the Lord Himself, kept us and we safely arrived at the Central UECB church in Vladivostok.

The Sunday morning service was already over, but Christian sisters who prepared lunch for us were waiting, as well as the church pastors. We were short on time as the meeting in the central town square was fixed for 5 p.m. Churches from other denominations provided us with additional sound equipment, so we had good sound and it was possible to hear us from a distance. We had permission from the town authorities for a one-hour meeting, and we were able to tell people about Christ during those 60 minutes.

Pouring the Ocean Water and a Baptism

After the official part of the meeting, we went to the central beach on the Pacific Ocean accompanied by police cars. We arrived at the place where we planned to pour the water from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

It so happened that last year’s Bicycle Expedition prevented one man fron being baptized. It was our doctor and fellow cyclist, Levon from Krasnodar. Last year he was with us during an Expedition from Bryansk to Omsk, and while he was away they held a baptismal service at his church. This year, he missed it again.

Brother Nikolai Sobolev, his pastor, asked us to find an opportunity to baptize brother Levon. And the moment came after the symbolic pouring of water from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean, we baptized Levon there. He was baptized on the same day as people in the Krasnodar church! It was already evening in Vladivostok, while it was morning in Krasnodar and the baptism service was in full swing at exactly the same time!

After that we went to the Good News Church in Vladivostok, where we prayed for the new members of the Krasnodar church and had the Lord’s Supper. We began our Expedition with the Lord’s Supper in Germany, remembering the sufferings of our Lord. We finished the Expedition the same way in Vladivostok. By the sufferings of Christ and His shed Blood, we have been redeemed from our former life.

The Happy Results

The Transcontinental Expedition, The Gospel to the Nations of the World, finished with God’s blessings and had demonstrated His grace. Over nearly four months, we covered 14,711 kilometers on bikes, had 130 services, mostly open-air meetings. Dozens of thousands of people heard the Good News about Christ. We prepared some 100,000 copies of the NT for the Expedition, and booklets about Christ. But this number was not enough. During the last stage of the Expedition, we borrowed books from the churches and gave them out. Praise God, people need the Gospel. The thirst for the Word of God was more intense than we expected. All the churches that we visited became active in evangelistic ministry.

Praise God that new people are coming to the churches. Here is only one example. There is a small group of 11 Christians in the Trans-Baikal area. Its number grew twice after our evangelization. The following Sunday after the Expedition visited, 14 new people came to the church. This is not the only example. Now our task is to pray that churches will accept these new people and work with them, that new leaders and ministers will grow from among them.

Leonid Kartavenko