American preacher Franklin Graham is coming to the Protestant festival at Chizhovka-Arena. Cole and his wife are also expected
Belarusian Protestants have been allowed to hold an unprecedented evangelistic festival at Chizhovka-Arena. According to Nasha Niva, John Cole and his wife Greta Van Susteren may attend. Will another group of prisoners of conscience be released on this occasion?
Franklin Graham speaks alongside US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump. Photo AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
On May 16-17, Belarusian Protestants will gather in Minsk for the "Festival of Hope". For the first time, two Protestant denominations have united to hold this forum: Evangelical Christians and Baptists. The authorities have allowed them to rent Chizhovka-Arena. The main guest will be Franklin Graham — a well-known Baptist preacher from the USA and the son of the iconic evangelist Billy Graham.
Franklin Graham heads the Samaritan's Purse charity foundation. He is an influential preacher in the USA: he has met with President Donald Trump on several occasions.
The event will be so large that the choir alone, which will sing at the gathering, will number 1300 people.
Rehearsals for the performance are already underway; Belarusians from 42 cities and villages will sing in the choir.
In addition to the choir, various musicians, including from the USA, are promised.
On April 28, the prominent political prisoner Andrei Pachobut was released. John Cole, the US President's Special Envoy for Belarus, was in the Polish capital Warsaw on that day. At a press conference with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, he stated that he would return to Belarus "in two to three weeks."
Most likely, John Cole's new visit to Minsk will be timed to coincide with the major Protestant forum.
But what does Cole have to do with this? The thing is, his wife Greta Van Susteren has long cooperated with the Samaritan's Purse foundation and covered its work as a journalist. Franklin Graham is not only familiar with her, but he also knows about John Cole's work on the release of Belarusian political prisoners: Graham reposted a video where Greta announced one of the mass releases of political prisoners.
Graham calls Cole his friend. There is a photo of Cole with his wife and Graham in Alaska.
In December, Franklin Graham, reposting an article about Cole's negotiations with Lukashenka, wrote: "I hope that someday I will be able to preach the Gospel in Belarus."
John Cole in Vilnius, September 2025. Photo: Yauhen Yerchak / Anadolu via Getty Images
According to Nasha Niva, Greta Van Susteren will also come to Belarus for the current gathering. It appears that John Cole will accompany her. It is possible that new releases of political prisoners will also take place concurrently.
"I expect we'll be able to achieve some prisoner releases in the next month," John Cole told Reuters on April 28. "And I'm going to go back to facilitate that in the next month. Nothing firm, but perhaps next month."
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