Story number 1 for 4 Nov 1999

We begin today’s newscast in the Ukraine where incumbent President Leonid Kuchma (kooch-ma) is pitted against Communist challenger Petro Symonenko (sim-mon-YEN-ko) in a runoff election later this month. What this means for evangelistic ministry, Russian Ministry’s Peter Deyneka explains. “The fear is that if Mr. Symonenko is elected, he will return to past Communist ways of doing things. There’s fear among the Protestants that his emphasis will be more toward nationalism than the Protestants and that would diminish the opportunities for evangelism and church planting.” Deyneka says they’re using the time they have for planning for the future of missions in Ukraine. “Our goal is to train as many nationals as possible because we don’t know how long this window of opportunity will be open. It would remain open under Kuchma, but no one can predict what could take place under Mr. Symonenko. We’re praying that freedom will continue and opportunity will continue because there’s actually a great deal of interest.”