September-October, 2007
"Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people." Psalm 96:3
Dear Pastors and Friends,
Greetings from the Slobodians and all at BIEM! We are always grateful for each of you that are “holding the ropes” by prayer and giving as we continue our efforts in reaching souls and planting churches overseas. We are glad to update you concerning our most recent request for your prayers for the Muslim missions conference that was held last month in Ukraine.
God tremendously blessed the conference even though the idea of a conference for the purpose of reaching Muslims was not one that was universally received. A common response even by pastors in Ukraine and Russia was, "What does that have to do with us?". Certainly our hopes of filling the 1,200-seat auditorium were affected by that, nevertheless those who came were serious about missions and ready to open their minds and hearts to the need of the Muslim masses without Christ. It was a great privilege and exciting event for BIEM to organize the first mission’s conference of the Brotherhood of Independent Baptist Churches of Ukraine. Following are some very encouraging notes from this historic event we would like to share with you.
1. Decisions Made: 70 indicated that they were interested in being missionaries. Of these, 32 marked that they felt God has called them to be missionaries and 18 marked that they were interested in Muslim missions!
2. Attendance: The total attendance was 750 different people attending from Monday through Saturday with 600 people present for the Friday evening service.
3. There were 13 different countries represented at the conference:
Russia Ukraine Uzbekistan Turkey Byelorussia Azerbaijan Iran
Moldova Tajikistan Kazakhstan Georgia Turkmenistan United States
4. Already on Sunday, many churches in Ukraine were making prayer for the surrounding Muslim nations a regular part of their worship services.
5. A follow-up conference on Muslim missions has been planned by the youth in the Kiev area for the end of October.
6. Many pastors and leaders stated that this event has made a historic and significant impact on the churches in this area of the world and that the conference and the decisions made at the conference may be only the beginning of a movement for Muslim missions in Ukraine and Russia.
Please pray for our follow-up efforts for this new crop of 18 missionaries for Muslim lands. This is a significant number especially considering those that made this decision did so after hearing the first hand accounts from several speakers who had suffered greatly for Christ in these areas where Christians are severely persecuted. Those in attendance heard of arrests, beatings, imprisonments, exile and even one account from a surviving friend of a preacher who was gunned down at the pulpit! Those in attendance were told over and over that surrendering to serve in these areas may mean surrendering for suffering. It is really remarkable that after all this, 18 made such a bold decision for Christ. We believe that one of the reasons for these decisions was that God greatly used the testimonies of some well know Baptist preachers who spoke at the conference who themselves had spent many years in the Soviet Gulag. No doubt these moving testimonies spoke to young hearts, bolstering their faith and encouraging them that they need not fear the difficult path since God always abides and strengthens those who serve Him.
Certainly there is a great need of prayer for God’s direction and enablement as we address the task of preparing and finding support for this special new crop of missionaries ready to go to such needy and challenging places. Thanks for your prayers and may God bless you all!
The Slobodians