Seventy new missionaries mark 70 years of Slav mission

The Slavic Gospel Association has marked its 70th anniversary by sending 70 new mission partners to spiritually- needy areas. Mark Foster, Director of Field Ministries, reports:

Covid-19 put an end to national and international travel in 2020, but not to gospel outreach and expansion. Slavic Gospel Association [UK], as part of its 70th Anniversary Projects, had planned to support the sending of 70 new missionaries into spiritually-needy communities – one for each year of its existence – to bring the good news of salvation in Christ. What would become of such a project in the paralysing lockdown due to the pandemic? Was there any hope of even getting near to that target? If it were reached, was any kind of spiritual return possible?

With joy we report that the target was reached and passed. Reports are coming back from evangelists and church planters of gospel expansion, of spiritually-dark communities penetrated, of hearts opened to the gospel, of new church plants, and opportunities grasped to take the message of Christ’s forgiving grace to an ever-widening mission field.

In the almost unreached areas of Pamir in Tajikistan a new convert opened his home as a House of Prayer, and invited family members and neighbours to hear the gospel. His mother was converted at the first meeting, and an SGA-sponsored missionary pastor, with a team of believers, now travels regularly to teach and encourage the new converts there. The journey is about 20 hours by very difficult mountain roads.

In war-torn Eastern Ukraine, Pastor Denis – a former drug addict who, in his own words, had lived like the demon-possessed man of the tombs – cares for two churches whose membership includes many former drug addicts whose lives had been corrupted and defiled by their addiction. Now they are living for Jesus and sharing the testimony of His grace and power with others still in addiction bondage. God has Denis right where He wants him, and the churches are growing despite the pandemic and the devastation and poverty caused by the war.

In the county of Blagoveshchensk, Far East Russia, right next to the eastern border of China, a young pastor, married with three children, is ministering in three villages where God has opened doors for the gospel, but his vision is for much more. He is training evangelistic teams with a view to reaching six more villages in his region. He writes:

‘The main direction of my life is to evangelise villages of the Amur region … May the name of Jesus Christ be glorified and may His kingdom expand in the Amur region, in Russia and around the world. Praise God. Amen!’