In Depth:  Slavic Gospel Association

letter from Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has until recently been a very difficult country in which to openly share the gospel, but there are encouraging signs that the newly appointed government is less hostile to evangelical believers.

With this new openness, gospel opportunities are arising. Where other more traditional means of Christian witness may be restricted, there is no difficulty in using community buildings called ‘Hope Centres’ where vulnerable and disadvantaged children can receive hot meals, warm clothes, support and education.

Thirty years of a Biblical leadership training scheme in Moldova are being celebrated.

Recently, Slavic Gospel Association staff members had the joy of joining with church leaders, and past and present students of the Mission School in Balti, Moldova, to mark the anniversary.

Ismoil was a radical Muslim in a Central Asian country, who attended the mosque every day. For 12 years he rebelled against his family, who were Christian believers.

He regarded it as unclean to eat with them, one of the reasons he spent much of his time in the mosque. His sister faithfully witnessed to him and told him about God’s salvation, but his reaction was fierce, almost violent in opposition. Then God stepped in and the ‘impossible’ happened! Ismoil suddenly felt a deep need to repent and to come to Jesus for forgiveness. It was clearly a powerful divine intervention, creating in him a desire to tell everyone of his new allegiance. Soon his wife was converted and together they began missionary work.

The tragic early death of a young man, Filip Faragau, after a long battle with cancer, is providing the inspiration for a unique ministry in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Violeta, Filip’s widow, carried out their shared desire to provide affordable accommodation for cancer patients and their families in the city. In the months leading up to Filip’s death they met many who could not afford the cost of staying there, either to access treatment themselves or to care for loved ones receiving cancer care. The seed was sown for what is now ‘Casa Filip’, in Violeta’s own words, ‘a nice, comfortable place, where people could come and stay without having to spend a fortune for their accommodation’. Slavic Gospel Association (UK) have supported this vital work prayerfully and practically from the start. Filip and his family were valued, long-term friends of the mission.

A 69-year-old pastor with bone cancer who is receiving daily chemotherapy is refusing to leave Kherson, Ukraine, so as not to abandon his congregation and others in the city.

Sergei Synii has been urged by his daughters to travel to the USA, where they are, for safety and medical treatment.

In parts of Far East Russia there are those who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Alexander Balagansky, a missionary sponsored by the Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), in the Buryatia region, is involved in the difficult and sometimes dangerous challenge of reaching them. Villages and communities there are isolated, often cut off and inaccessible due to extreme weather conditions. However, strange as it may seem, the extreme weather can become the missionary’s friend and associate in pioneering gospel ministry!

Demand for Bibles has multiplied exponentially in Ukraine since the vicious Russian invasion, new figures are revealing.

Some national church leaders are comparing the situation to that of immediate post-Communist days, when there was a significant and strong spiritual movement, resulting in many conversions to Christ. The Ukrainian Bible Society reports that in the first nine months of 2022, more than 359,000 Bibles were given out – at least two and a half times more than the number distributed in 2020. The trauma of the war, far from setting many hearts against God, has in fact created a desire in many thousands to know God and the nearness of His presence.

Mongolia is a large, sparsely-populated, landlocked country, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south.

It is a windswept land. Windstorms blow soil off the land and make agriculture nearly impossible. In the winter, powerful gusts of bai mao feng – literally ‘white hairy wind’ – can blind drivers and knock their cars off roads. In the 1920s, the wind blew the clothes off famous explorer Roy Chapman Adams.

Christians in Lviv shared the gospel ‘from morning till night’ during the Eastern Orthodox Easter period (a week later than in the West).

The Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) writes: The people of Lviv brought Easter bread to Bucha and Gostomel. Volunteers from Lviv distributed 600 pieces of Easter bread to the residents of Gostomel and Bucha.

The region of far east Russia is almost as vast in area as the USA. Within it lies some of the most inhospitable territory on earth, subjected to the harshest and most extreme weather.

Many regions lack the most basic infrastructure and amenities. Nevertheless, faithful servants of Christ, 12 of them supported by the Slavic Gospel Association’s (SGA’s) Project 70, are taking the gospel to scattered communities in seemingly unreachable corners of this huge landmass. They find ways and means of overcoming the absence of roads and basic communication facilities such as telephone and internet to carry on their ministry, presenting the gospel by any means possible.