Outside of the International Center of Culture and Arts. In this same building in 1960, former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, declared that within 25 years religion would be
Evangelist Mark Finley is speaking at a monthlong seminar in the Ukrainian capital's International Center of Culture and Arts.
Evangelist Mark Finley, speaker emeritus of “It Is Written,” an Adventist television outreach, and director of global evangelism for the Seventh-day Adventist world Church, began a month-long series of meetings in Kiev, Ukraine. Dubbed “ACTS 2005,” the meetings are being broadcast via satellite across the former Soviet Union as well as to Russian-speaking congregations worldwide.
Nightly crowds in the International Center of Culture and Arts—Kiev’s most prestigious public hall—exceed 7,000 in two sessions. The broadcast audience is far greater, according to regional church leaders.
More than 1,300 satellite dishes have been established in Adventist churches and public buildings, such as palaces of culture, cinemas, clubs and city administration buildings across the region.
Along with the live meetings and public events, numerous cable channels in Russia and other former Soviet Union territories are carrying the broadcasts, including the “Young Culture” cable system in Novosibirsk. Reports indicate there are numerous satellite dishes in homes that also are tuned to the broadcasts.
A concerted effort is being made to reach Russian-speaking audiences in other countries, also via satellite. Downlink sites have been set up in Serbia, Belgium, South Africa, Israel, Germany, Lebanon, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Nigeria, among others.
Three satellite downlink locations are in operation in Vassenberg, Germany, where tapes of the programs are made and distributed. Three prisons in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan are receiving the program, it is reported, while Adventist believers welcomed the satellite program to Perm, in the Ural region of Russia.
Finley’s meetings will run through March 26, and complement the NET 2005 event, “The Prophecy Code,” held in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, featuring Pastor Doug Batchelor.