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Five hundred.
A significant number in the Ukraine ministry with Odessa Seminary.
Recently I had the privilege of spending time with Slava Gerasimchuk, the professor of Old Testament at Odesa Seminary. We visited churches in Sacramento and Lodi, California. His observations about the war were very helpful.
The symbolism of the number is stark.
In Ukraine, 500 Baptist churches lost their pastors, as that many pastors left quickly at the beginning of the war. Now those churches are without trained leaders. Slava’s words to me, “Gary, as soon as this conflict ends, we have an even greater mission for the NAB to help. One, train new pastors for the churches. Two, help the churches rebuild.”
We have been consulting with the seminary with the idea expressed by Steve Neuman at a luncheon in Lodi with Slava. He shared some really helpful insights with Slava that he has learned in Lodi First Baptist outreach in Africa. He suggested they start by providing weekly sermons that could be read by the church leadership, thus providing a bridge of good teaching, even if the current leader of the church isn’t a trained pastor. This idea is under careful consideration by the seminary.
Along with us on our visits was Sergei Borushko, a former teacher at Odesa Seminary who teaches in Roseville, California. He is the one who leads the camps for widows of the war. This year they ministered to over 500 widows, a ministry that continues through the churches in Ukraine. This is a definite need.
We visited some Slavic churches in Sacramento. One has a large ministry for over 2,000 weekly. The second church was a church mainly ministering to Russian migrants. They are being helped by some of our people to learn basic life needs, like banking, etc. One of the leaders there was a leader originally from Russia who works at Church Investors Fund.
I felt like I was back in Russia. Our time with Slava was at Encounter Church led by John Stone and Joe Walters. Both had taught in Ukraine in past years.
Here are some views of the time in Sacramento.
Finally, a quick note. I mentioned I had gone into AFib earlier in the year. I had a procedure, a Cardio-version. When I was finished, I was still in AFib. However, about four hours later, and as of today, I’m back in normal sinus rhythm. My cardiologists said, “I can’t explain this. You must have had a bunch of people praying, because this doesn’t normally happen.”
He said, “No guarantee it will stay in proper rhythm, but a win is a win.” Thanks for your prayers and support of the ministry. The war will end, hopefully soon. I hope to visit Ukraine in a couple of months when it is safe.