EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning with this post, Journey begins a summer series, “Stories From the World of Missions.” Every two weeks this summer, we will publish an article recounting a story from the experiences of our founder-director who was privileged to serve two decades as a missionary in Europe. We hope you will join us here for a summer of rejoicing at the works of our great God.

In 1992, I was privileged to help launch a Bible and ministry school in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine. Making it even more special for me was working alongside my father-in-law, a missionary in Europe at that time. Responding to an invitation from national church leaders in Ukraine, my father-in-law and other missionaries had assembled teams of teachers to assist in the new thing (Isaiah 43.19) God was doing in this nation now freed from communism and its atheistic totalitarianism. 

Ukraine had declared its independence from the Soviet Union (USSR) less than one year before. These were the early days of independence when basic national and local systems were barely functioning – telephone and postal service, banking and currency, the availability of gasoline and diesel fuel, and basic foods. Electricity was usually available but not dependable. The present – day-to-day life – was difficult for the people of Ukraine, and especially for those in rural areas. 

The future prospects for the people of Ukraine were equally challenging. Leaving the USSR was not “clean” or free of conflict; it had been, and still was, a tearing more than a cutting. Many Ukrainians wondered if their nation would even survive. Would they be able to organize a stable government and the systems required? Would some form of the communist USSR reconstitute itself and come back to claim Ukraine, even forcibly? These, and other questions like them, filled the thoughts of many.

While most Ukrainians welcomed freedom, many were nervous and afraid. Having never experienced freedom, they did not know what it meant in real life, especially with the totalitarian shadow of the old USSR still evident and almost tangible at that time.  Adding to the tension was the reality that there were Ukrainians advocating for unification with Russia. Ukrainians debated whether they should continue to speak Russia or return to their mother tongue. These were challenging days for Ukraine and its people. 

A NEW THING

It was in this environment of uncertainty that church leaders in Ukraine took the bold step of faith to launch this ministry school. Bathed in prayer, and with little more than the promise of God, they announced its opening. Day One of classes, enrollment was at capacity. Young men and women of God heard about the school, and responded by coming from across Ukraine and even parts of Russia to receive training. Our large enrollment was all the more amazing given that this was before the days of the internet there. Word had simply gone out from pastor to pastor, church to church, believer to believer that a Bible school was starting: “Come and be a part of the new thing God is doing!” was the call.   

And come they did. They came by bus and by train. They came by bicycle and even walked. Not for an hour or two but for several days and even more than a week. Many arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs. And the call of God on their lives.

They had just come out of a life completely subject to tyranny, a life that had never known and could not comprehend the freedom to worship freely. Many had friends, family members, and pastors who had been arrested and imprisoned for doing so. These days of oppression appeared to be gone. At last, they could gather openly to worship and hear the teaching of God’s Word. At last, they could attend a school and be trained in ministering the Gospel to others.

EVERY DAY

The initial semester lasted two months. Academic classes were held from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm every day. After classes came lunch, before heading out to conduct evangelistic outreaches across the region almost every afternoon. Some of these meetings were held near the school while others required us to travel, packing vehicles with equipment, the entire school population, and even new believers who had come to Christ in our previous evangelistic meetings. Most afternoons, we preached in city squares, town halls, and civic auditoriums. Then it was back to campus for dinner and quiet time for study and prayer. There was no grumbling at the heavy schedule or workload. All were grateful for the opportunity and excited to be a part of the new thing God was doing. Including me.

Classrooms were packed.  No student ever missed a session. Students arrived early to get seats at the front. When a teacher walked in to begin class, the students stood in respect. After prayer, they took their seats, notebooks open and pens to the ready. Again, these were pre-tech days. When class concluded, students lined up at the teacher’s desk to ask questions about what they had just learned. When the next instructor entered the room to teach the next course, students would again stand in respect, pray, sit in anticipation, always ready to learn more.

Morning classes were as electric as the afternoon outreaches. Anticipation filled the air in every session. Silent prayers were offered, asking God to slow the clock. You could feel the energy in the room as students and teachers dove deep into what God was doing in and around us.  

A LESSON DRIVEN HOME 

Our final “outreach” event was not held in a town hall or city square, but in a local church. I was honored to preach in that evening service. When the leaders of the school and I arrived, we were ushered into a room behind the pulpit where we met church leaders and shared a time of prayer. Then it was into the sanctuary to begin. The room was filled to capacity. Locals sat on benches while our students stood along the walls around the room. The anticipation in the room was palpable. It was clear that God was in His house. And it was equally clear that His people had come ready to meet with Him. 

God’s people worshipped God from the depths of their souls, souls that had known decades of persecution and hardship for Christ, souls made strong by their suffering. Tears formed in my eyes as I listened to songs I did not know, songs sung in a language I could not speak. Still, they were strangely familiar. Songs that called to mind the Strong Songs of the Western Church: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand,” “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less,” and “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Strong Songs because they are focused on our Strong Savior. A quartet of older men set the seal on our time of worship by singing an old hymn of the church without musical accompaniment. The Rock of Ages was clearly in His place among us, mighty and bold. 

Taking it all in, I caught my breath as I realized that, aside from our students, the congregation was overwhelmingly female; there were few men. I asked my translator why this was so. A subtly curious look on her face, her eyes fixed in mine, she told me that most of the men in this church had been arrested for their faith – they were gone. Like many Ukrainian Pentecostals, they had been imprisoned, sent to labor camps, and even exiled to Siberia. The leader of the movement, seated with me on the platform, had been on death row years before, but miraculously set free. Those who lived to tell the stories had paid a terrible price for following Jesus. She told me that while political freedom had brought religious freedom, no one was sure it would continue. Even now, it almost certain there were informers among them, ready to turn them in if communism returned to Ukraine.

THE ETERNAL PROMISE

It was in this setting that I preached from II Corinthians 4.7-18 on the hidden realities of suffering:

“But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are constantly being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. So, death works in us, but life in you.

“But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written: “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that grace, having spread to more and more people, will cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

“Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Many of the older saints wept as they listened to the preaching of God’s Word. The already deep and strong sense of God’s presence in the room grew greater still. Heaven came down to earth and filled that room that night. It was a taste of what the prophet Isaiah saw when he wrote: 

“When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.” Isaiah 64.13

God shook me that night. This was a people who knew God in a way that I did not. Confronted by hardship and persecution, they had counted the cost and met the challenges of their times with their breath and blood. Though it cost them dearly, they stood strong and united in the face of persecution, God’s empowering presence and their faithful witness of Christ their only medals. In this life.  

Encircling this congregation were the students of our school, a generation of young men and women at the ready to take their place in the great cloud of witnesses. Whatever the future, in freedom or enchained again by communism, by the grace of God, they would serve Him and, if given the opportunity, step up to lead Christ’s church. Whatever the cost, they would take up their crosses and follow Him. 

Two days later as we said our goodbyes, the students lined up to thank our teaching team for our ministry. But as we received their emotion-filled farewells, I wasn’t sure who was the teacher and who was the student. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Let’s continue taking the Gospel of Jesus to all the world as He commanded (Matthew 28.18-20).

Let’s continue financially and prayerfully supporting the missionaries who permanently live among the peoples of the world. Our short-term efforts are needed, but what is needed most is resident missionaries who learn language and culture, who have built relationships and networks. As a former resident missionary in France and Belgium, I know. 

Let’s continue financially and prayerfully supporting Bible schools around the people where pastors can be trained to preach the Gospel, make disciples, and lead the church. 

Let’s continue going and sending as servants in an effort to reach, teach, and train people to become and make disciples of Jesus; Americans have much to learn from our brothers and sisters overseas. 

Much of Christ’s church around the world stands in great need of our help. In light of the command, the need, and the times, let us double our efforts to make disciples of all nations.  

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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching exists to provide pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.

Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.

We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry. 

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“Of all vocations, surely the gospel ministry is the one whose paradigm is most radically formed by the dynamics of godly mentorship.” 

Stephen Baldwin