Advancing the Gospel in Eastern Europe Team

Though Artem’s* family struggled when the invasion occurred, God has used their family in ways they would have never anticipated. When war broke out, Artem sent his wife and children to another European country where he believed they would be safe while he continued leading his local church and investing in young leaders at the Baptist seminary. Over time, God showed Artem that he could operate a Scripture distribution ministry with the help of his family living abroad. Your generosity helps Artem provide much-needed Bibles and Christian literature to those living in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Like Joseph living in Egypt after his brothers sold him into slavery, Artem saw God use painful circumstances to point others to salvation. Now, Artem joins Joseph in saying, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20).

Thank you for joining our team in meeting basic humanitarian needs while focusing on sharing the gospel with all those we can. Your sacrificial giving and consistent prayer allow us to shine the light and hope of Christ into the lives of many who struggle daily in darkness.

Please continue partnering with us in prayer:

• Pray for Artem, his family, and partners as they travel thousands of miles to deliver God’s Word, often during dangerous attacks.
• Ask God to strengthen the families of Christians like Artem who are living apart during the war.
• Pray that those receiving humanitarian aid will hear the gospel with open hearts and be saved.

You co-labor with us through your gifts and prayers as we share Christ with Ukrainians during this difficult time. We value your partnership in reaching the lost.

*Names changed for security

While fleeing the war, Davyd*, a Ukrainian pastor, sensed the Lord’s leadership to remain in Germany, where he discovered more than 180,000 Ukrainians living in his area. Because of your generosity, he planted a church and started a training center to mobilize displaced Ukrainians to impact Western Europe for Christ. So far this year, they have baptized 10 new believers. Thank you for making this possible!

Your gifts enabled Pastor Davyd to organize and host a training conference with over 300 participants. The event brought together Ukrainian believers with church leaders who equipped them to share the gospel, disciple new believers, and plant churches throughout the Ukrainian diaspora in Europe.

Humanitarian needs continue as Ukrainians decide either to flee or to remain in their homeland. Your intercession and giving show ongoing compassion as the Body of Christ responds to their physical, emotional, and spiritual hurts.

Please join us in prayer:

• Pray for displaced Ukrainian believers to be catalysts for the gospel in Europe, the most lost continent on earth.
• Ask God to open the hearts of not-yet-believing Ukrainians to His love and grace.
• Pray for wisdom for our team as we give out aid and the energy to meet the rising demands of this critical ministry.

Thank you for joining us in addressing the world’s greatest problem: lostness. Your gifts and prayers for this team enable us to reach the Ukrainian people with the good news. You are a co-laborer with us in the gospel. We value your partnership!

*Name changed for security

Thank you for praying and giving to help reach the Ukrainian people for Christ. Long-term Christian workers and their local partners actively minister to Ukrainians, escaping the escalating conflict. With over 5.1 million internally displaced Ukrainians and another 6.2 million who have fled to other countries, your faithful intercession and generosity provide emergency supplies, water, shelter, and clothing and share the gospel through trauma healing, Bible distribution, and an online gospel witness.

War costs everyone. The war in Ukraine has caused prices to skyrocket, so many elderly and struggling families dropped into poverty. When the local people heard the church had established a feeding program for internally displaced persons, they came to the pastor and asked if they, too, could get food. Many had not had a regular meal for weeks, and some for months. They were scraping by with what little they had.

God uses few to impact many. Before the war, the small Baptist church in a border town ran about 30 people on a Sunday morning. Instead of feeling too small to do anything, they decided to help in any way God opened the door for them to serve. At the start of the war, they partnered with other churches to find housing for displaced people. Often, church members took in families and fed them at their own expense. The need for help with hot meals soon became apparent as many displaced persons could not afford gas or electricity.

The church started cooking soup with a little apartment-sized electric stove top by setting a large cafeteria-sized pot over the four small burners. Soon, displaced people volunteered to work alongside church members. As donations grew, the church hired one of its members as a full-time cook and another to oversee the needed changes to the building.

God continues to provide. Someone donated a large professional gas stove. Then, one man in the community heard about the need, took the gas stove top out of his own kitchen, and donated it also. When the pastor called to order gas lines run into the building, the gas company said sending someone would take three months. The pastor explained that the feeding program cooked over 500 meals daily on a small electric stove, and they sent a worker that afternoon who stopped on his way home from work. The man said he could not install two lines, one to each stove. Because of the high demand for new lines, the company enforced a strict one-line-only policy and then gave the pastor a wink. When the pastor entered the kitchen, he found a valve, allowing them to hook up both stoves from one line.

The church feeds people spiritually as well as physically. They hold evangelistic services daily, with about 30 people at each weekday service. Due to space constraints and language, Sunday services are divided between a standing-room-only inside meeting and another service in a tent in the courtyard. They recently had eight baptisms; another eight have gone through basic discipleship and will be baptized soon.

God’s provision is enough. The hired cook told our teammate that every night she goes to bed and says, “Lord, I am too tired to continue,” but when the alarm rings at 4 AM, God gives her the strength to get up and do it again. She works from 5 AM to 4 PM daily, then goes home, cooks for her own family, hoes the garden, and does other chores. She often goes to bed after 10 PM and then gets back up at 4:00. She says she is totally reliant on God to give her strength for the job because she has no more strength to give.

God is at work even in the time of war. It does not take a large church to make a difference in the Kingdom of God, only the faith to follow His leading. This small church has impacted the lives of thousands of people in their own town and hundreds of thousands of their countrymen. The church plans to keep the food program after the war, feeding the local poor and delivering food to neighboring towns with church plants.

Thank you for partnering with us to reach the nations for Christ. We appreciate your sacrificial giving and prayers as we labor together to solve the world’s greatest problem: lostness.

Thank you so much for your generosity to this ministry and the Europeans God calls us to reach with the gospel. Your prayers and sacrificial giving provide for the basic needs of hurting people in Europe and help IMB missionaries minister and witness to these impoverished and oppressed men, women, and children.

Meeting Ukrainians’ Needs. In addition to humanitarian aid and gospel presence, this ministry supports the presence, training, and equipping of Ukrainian missionaries, pastors, and seminary students throughout Europe and the world. Three pastoral training programs are starting this fall, so churches that have lost their leadership due to the war will again have leaders. Because of your gifts, networks of Ukrainian church planters throughout Europe are developing materials, sharing training, and receiving encouragement as they continue to evangelize Ukrainians, Europeans, and the world.

Join Us in Prayer:

• Pray for churches in Ukraine striving to meet the physical and spiritual needs of those living in war-torn areas of the country.
• Pray the upcoming pastoral training programs will stir revival in Ukraine as it trains new church leadership to reach out into their communities.
• Pray God will work in the lives of Ukrainian refugees living throughout Europe and worldwide to begin a church-planting movement among them.

Thank you for your generosity and prayers. Your sacrificial gifts and intercession are truly transforming lives as we partner together to solve the world’s greatest problem, lostness.