KIEV, Ukraine — There were 48 new church starts across the country of Ukraine during the months of August, September and October. This work was accomplished by the cooperative effort of the International Mission Board, the Ukrainian Baptist Union and the leadership of Don Betts, a full-time evangelist from Dayton, Ohio, who has conducted similar crusades across Ukraine over the past 20 years. The crusade meetings were conducted by 13 teams from the United States and 35 teams from Ukraine. Each meeting was conducted in a district center city that had no evangelical or Baptist church. The outreach was part of a two-year effort called Project 125, referring to the 125 district center cities in Ukraine. Since new church starts were established in 48 of these cities, the remaining 77 cities will be targeted in 2009.
Slavic Nesterurk, president of the Ukrainian Baptist Union, and Slavic Gruntkovsky, evangelism director, led this project with assistance from Southern Baptist representatives Shannon Ford and Mick Stockwell along with Betts.
Emphasis during the weeklong crusade was given to sharing the gospel with children ages 5 to 14, as well as with youth and adults. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people prayed to receive Christ during these meetings. Pastors for the 48 new churches were supplied from seminaries within Ukraine. Ford indicated this was the first time Ukrainian pastors have demonstrated such a step of faith to establish church starts across the country.
For more information on this project, go to www.DBEA.org or e-mail dbea@winning.com, attention Don Betts.
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