SPASENIE BAND IN JACKSONVILLE

September 30 Proclaim hosted Spasenie (Salvation), a Christian band from Belarus that shares with us a conviction of the call to proclaim the gospel with creativity, humility and boldness.

For over 20 years these men have been pursuing music full-time in Belarus and across Europe. Their musical style has adapted to stay contemporary and relevant but the message remains constant.  In many places where Spasenie ministers there are restrictions on how and where the gospel can be preached. But their name recognition draws people to their concerts where personal testimonies and song lyrics point listeners to the Lord.  Audience members are then invited to visit churches and Bible studies. Through their ministry in their hometown of Brest, Belarus, a city of about 300,000 near the Polish border, hundreds have come to faith. A church planted in 1996 now has 700 members.  And in many other places believers have been encouraged and churches have been planted through their ministry. 

On this visit they shared the amazing opportunities they are having as they are increasingly being invited into schools. In fact, they began receiving too many invitations to personally fulfill, so they are sending other bands from their church to be involved. 

For some time Proclaim has been anticipating responding to the invitation of Spasenie to join them in an evangelism effort in Belarus. This is now scheduled to become a reality in February 2011. During their two days in Jacksonville we had a profitable time sharing together our common goals  for working together and coordinating plans. At the concert people caught the vision of how strategic this ministry is that we will be involved in.  On the tour our horn section will play with Spasenie, so on parts of this concert Jim joined them playing sax or percussion.

Please pray for Proclaim and Spasenie as we continue to plan for this ministry together in Belarus and Ukraine.