BARNAUL – The Lord Jesus said that when we visit prisoners, He accepts it as if we were visiting Himself. He gave a direct command and blessing for prison ministry in His Church. That is why for a long time now prison chaplains and their teams have been working in many regional associations of our Russian brotherhood.
On April 18–20, an interregional conference on prison ministry was held in Barnaul. The joint forum of the two Pentecostal Unions gathered more than one hundred ministers from 20 cities and towns of Russia, from Moscow to Irkutsk.
The conference agenda included spiritually edifying sermons, prayer and worship, and experience exchange.
One of the preachers was Oleg Bulkin from the Black Seaside area. He worked for 22 years in the Prison system, became the head of the prison, became a believer there, and for the last 12 years he has been a pastor of the church in Sochi.
A separate block was devoted to cooperation with non-church partners in prison ministry. Representatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Altai Region, and the Deputy Minister of Social Protection of Altai Region addressed the audience with greetings. An Orthodox bishop, who heads the prison ministry department in the Barnaul diocese, also spoke at the conference.
An important part of the forum were testimonies about different forms of prison ministry, which is not limited to visits to colonies, but includes short visits with convicts, correspondence with them, meeting those who are released when they leave the gates of the colony, spiritual care for the families of convicts. This also includes monthly inter-church prayer meetings in Barnaul, where they intercede for the development of prison ministry in Altai.
At the conclusion of the conference, ministers Sergei Konstantinov and Sergei Khariv, supervisors of prison ministry in the two Pentecostal Unions, prayed for all participants.
The Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith Pentecostals
