The first evangelical revival in Ukraine started in the 1830s. Since then the Baptist movement has been spreading in spite of the obstacles posed by the dominant Orthodox Church and the atheistic regime.

New unprecedented opportunities came with the “Perestroyka” in 1985. It resulted in a really impressive and stable growth of Baptist churches in Ukraine. Since the independence (1990) more than 1500 new congregations have been started and the Baptist Union registered increase from 90 thousand to over 160 thousand members.

“Grace” Baptist Church, Kiev

Presently there are 25 Baptist churches in Kiev, but several pastors are implementing a vision “Kiev 25” – a venture launched and led by pastor Nikolay Ponomarev, the goal of which is planting 25 new Baptist congregations.

One of the most successful Baptist church planters in Kiev is Volodia. He has been involved in the planting of congregations in the largest district of Kiev called Troenshtina situated by the Dnepr River and inhabited by 600 thousand people. Over 70 % of the population claim allegiance to the Orthodox Church.

Missionary reports

Volodia started his ministry in May 2003. Since the very beginning his target group was youth. Now this congregation draws about 100 regular attendees and is growing all the time. Here are some of the reports which describe the process of growth:

Sept. 2003

In 2003 God prompted me to go to Kiev, Troenshtina district. There is only one Baptist church of 34 members there. Our goal is to plant a new church there to reach unbelievers for Christ. Our target group is young people. We have a team of 6 men

Feb. 2004

Our church began its activity through a small group started in May, 2003. Now there are four small groups in our district. In November 2003 we began our Sunday meetings. We have regular attendance of about 50 on a Sunday including about 10 new visitors in a given meeting. Since the beginning 7 men have been baptised in our church. There are 4 new men who accepted Christ and we’ll baptize them this spring. Two of them are former drug addicts.

In January we carried out a performance for children using a puppet-show. There were about 170 children and 40 parents present! After that the management of the kindergarten where we rent a hall for meetings forbade us to carry out any action for children. Since then about 20 children have met in my apartment for Sunday school. Most of them are 12-13 years old.

Every Monday in our church we hold meetings for leaders. Tuesday is an Evangelism day and we encourage our members to share Christ with their friends. On Wednesdays there is English teaching. Twice a month we have our night prayer watch.

There is a good atmosphere of love and acceptance in our church. Since we have started to gather on Sundays people feel more than just visitors; they call the church their home.

Nov. 2004

We have a great church team that consists of 12 people and all of them are eager for ministry. There are 3 regular groups and one more group for ex drug addicts and alcoholics. We are planning to start 2 new small home groups soon. There are also many people who would like to join our English teaching groups.

As a matter of fact we are trying to develop ministry among the drug addicts. This is a wonderful testimony for their relatives who start coming to our church. 

We got invitations from several schools. We are going to distribute preventive materials about AIDS, drugs and sexual education of the young people based on Christian principles.Young people listen very attentively and we can tell them openly about Jesus but can’t invite to our church. Therefore we dream of opening a youth club for them.

Last summer we carried out a wonderful summer camp for youth. Altogether we had 58 participants. Four people repented. That camp helped a lot in building friendly relationships in our church and consolidated our unity.

In September we baptized 6 men. This was an open-air event on the Dnepr riverbank. After the baptismal we had a festival in our church where there were about 70 people (that is the maximum number of people that our hall can seat).

May 2005

Every Sunday about 80 persons visit the Grace Church. The hall which we now rent is overcrowded.We are praying for a new hall for our church meetings.  

We notice an increased role of small groups which are crucial for church life. There are 8 groups led by able leaders. Each of them has an assistant so that new groups may be started.

10 persons joined our fellowship by baptism in 2004. We plan baptism in June.

We continue ministry in schools about drug addiction, AIDS and sexual education based on Christian principles. We started also a new ministry which is addressed to orphans. We lease an apartment for 6 of them.

Prayer requests

Let’s pray for further success of this exciting church planting project under Volodia’s leadership, and several ministries started by his team. In 2006 they want to begin a daughter church in Kiev, Troeshtina. They are preparing a team of leaders and pray about it.

To help planting reproducing churches!

To help growing healthy churches!

For the glory of God!