Free Christian music albums being sent to Eastern Europe.

A SCHEME has been launched which will see tens of thousands of Christian music albums distributed free in Eastern Europe.

The major initiative, called The Song To The East Appeal, has been launched by Cross Rhythms magazine and Word (UK) and will involve emptying the Word warehouse of approximately 30,000 vinyl LP's for shipping to Russia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Poland. The albums, by major gospel artists including Amy Grant, BeBe And CeCe Winans, Cliff Richard, Keith Green, Michael W. Smith, Adrian Snell, Maranatha! Singers and hundreds more, are to be distributed free-of-charge to churches and Christian groups across Eastern Europe.

Says Chris Cole, Cross Rhythms' publishing director, "The church in the Eastern block is crying out for resource material and is particularly eager to get spiritually encouraging music which for so long has been denied them. They don't have any money to buy gospel albums. But thanks to the generosity of Word (UK) we've come up with a scheme which, with Cross Rhythms readers' help, will see tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters blessed with tremendous music."

The Song To The East Appeal will call upon Cross Rhythms readers to donate money to pay for the shipping of the albums. Explains Word (UK)'s A&R director David Bruce, "We recently made the corporate decision to cease vinyl production of future albums and to rid ourselves of all existing stocks. CDs and cassettes have now replaced the demand for vinyl albums and there's no big demand any more for such a format in Western Europe. But in Eastern Europe the Christian community is crying out for all forms of gospel music, and the format they want is vinyl albums -- they don't have CD players! They desperately want Christian music but have no money to buy the albums. Now with this scheme we've found a way to meet their needs."

Cross Rhythms, which is administrating the scheme, will be announcing the first shipment, to Russia, within the next few months. Says Chris Cole, "It is now up to Cross Rhythms readers to respond prayerfully to the Song To The East appeal. We have an abundance of material resources in the West. I know Christians in Britain will want to share a little of our riches with Eastern European believers." CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.