Story number 3 for 21 Feb 2003

(Russia)–Former prisoners in Russian are now having a huge impact on evangelism and church planting. Slavic Gospel Association’s Michael Johnson says Sasha, the son of a Ukrainian pastor, is one example. He turned away from his upbringing and ended up in prison. “Through the ministry of a local Baptist church he got saved and he developed a tremendous passion for evangelism. Once he got out he connected with SGA and was trained in one of our seminaries that we sponsor, and he was eventually sent out into Siberia. He now is the senior pastor in a growing church.” Johnson says this story is repeated all across Russia, but the challenge facing church growth and evangelism is as well. “There are many pastors and church planters that are being graduated out of the Bible institutes and seminaries over there, but they simply don’t have the resources to be sent out into many of the unreached areas. And, these are areas where people are waiting to hear the Gospel.” 150 to 300-dollars a month can support a single outreach.