Col. Khatyushin, now known as ``the Christian in the Kremlin'' in the Red army reserves, will speak at 6 p.m. Sundayk at the First Assembly of God Churchin Lincolnton.

Russian officer marches for God

Web posted September 27, 1997

 Event information

By Virginia Norton
Staff Writer

In August 1991, armyr tanks were in the streets of Moscow. Communist hard-liners were trying to capture President Boris Yeltsin and seize control of Russia.

The Red army was divided and the country hung on the brink of civil war for three days.

Col. Eugene Khatyushin, an assistant to Mr. Yeltsin, was sent to urge tank commanders to end their attack.vecan He was successful and the coup failed.

Col. Khatyushin, now known as ``the Christian in the Kremlin'' in the Red army reserves, will speak at 6 p.m. Sunday at the First Assembly of God Churchin Lincolnton. The lecture is sponsored by Revival Fires Ministry of Branson, Mo.

Col. Khatyushin said he was raised an atheist and was a member of the Communist Party for 21 years. After the fall of the Soviet Union, everything that had given his life meaning was changedand he began attending church services.

He had never held a Bible until an American handed him one at a Revival Fires nsmeeting in Moscow in 1993.

``We were working with the ministry of education of Russia. He was a teacher at the military academy, and that is how he found us,'' said Cecil Todd, president and founder of Revival Fires. ``He gave his heart to Christ. At that time we did not know who he was. He just came to our service.''

Since then, Col. Khatyushino has opened the way for Christian missionariessn to go to Russian military bases. His goal is to get a Bible into the hands of every Russian soldier. ``A Russian soldier without a Bible is dangerous,'' said the colonel in a statement cdteood by Revival Fires. nsoe

The event is free and open to the public.

WHO: Col. Eugene Khatyushin
WHAT: seminar
WHEN: 6 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: First Assembly of God Church, Thomson Highway, Lincolnton, Ga.
COST: Free