The Christian Hospitality Center opened in Sochi on Feb. 7 with a ribbon-cutting by church leaders Ivan Chehunov, Richard Page and Vladimir Samoilov before the Olympic Games.
Page is the director of SOAR International Ministries, the primary organizer of the center.
Chehunov is a leader within Russia’s Association of Evangelical Christians while Samoilov is from In Rus, a Baptist organization.
Local Christians put up “centers of hospitality” on their properties near Olympic venues for anyone interested in watching live broadcasts of the games.
Their tents offer chairs, tables, computers and a plasma screen with projector, and can accommodate 150 people.
Facilitators of these centers are the Association of Evangelical Christians and Good News of Russia and Abkhazia, in partnership with In Rus.
The centers offer programs supported by volunteers from the Wave of Hope movement.
Amir Usmonov, leader of the Wave of Hope movement, has organized a network of partnerships from as many as 36 Russian cities to organize playgrounds or so-called “fan zones” – sites where people can watch broadcasts or play games similar to those offered at the Sochi hospitality centers.
The TV news channel “Russia” showed a film on projects that evangelical Christians planned to carry out during the 2014 Olympic Games.
The International Christian Information Center is currently on location in Sochi, Russia, and is sharing daily news and other coverage of Christian and secular events at the XXII Winter Olympic Games. Recent video reports are available here and here.
