165 church planters supported in 1991-1993

Soon after the doors to the former Soviet Union opened, Mission Possible established a missionary school in Ukraine close to Odessa. App. 1000 people from various parts of the former Soviet Union finished our three-week chuch planting seminar. Seminars were held almost every month for two years.

The students were chosen and recommended by local churches. All students were monitored and 165 of them were chosen to be supported and sent to missions field. They were sent to unevangelized territories to Russia, Ukraine, Baltic Republics and Central Asia. Mission Possible supported them finacially for1 -2 years.

Church planters' seminar in April, 1993

The fruit of the first church planter remains and has grown

These missionaries founded over 100 seurakuntaa that continue to function today. Many of them began to do active missionary work themselves. An example: Mission Possible support 12 people in Asbest (Ural mountains area) who founded 12 churches. As a result of the work of these churches there are today over 100 new churches in this territory.

Belarus church planters in 1998-1999

Our next target area was Belarus. Since the previous church planting program the expense level in the former Soviet Union had significantly risen. Mission Possible supported here 10 church planters for 1-2 years.

New project begins in 2003: Udmurtia, Tatarstan, Ekaterinburg region

In 2003 we felt strongly that it was again time to support church planters. In Russia there are still thounsands of towns and villages without any Christian witness.

In 2003 Mission Possible's representative Vadim Taran visited different territories in Russia, monitoring the needs of the churches. He also contacted and visited many of the churches established during our first missionary program. As a result of this research, we decided to target the republic of Udmurtia in cooperation with the local "Delo very" ("Work of Faith") chruches who have a strong vision of evangelizing.

These chruches already had 40 persons who had finished Bible school and were willing to serve as church planters if support was available. The first four church planters supported by Mission Possible began to work in April 2004.

Ignat Ivanov (on the left), Vadim Taran (on the right) and local church leaders in Udmurtia discussing the joint church planting project (2004).

A new structure: one church planter is responsible for several towns or villages

This new project has been tailored for a territory that has a large number of totally unevangelized, relatively small towns and villares. Church planters don't relocate, but using their own church as a base they travel during the week to 4-5 neighboring towns to start new groups and chruchs. In theory, 5 churches can be started as a result of the work of one person, and the first year of support has shown that this also works in practice.

A new structure: one church planter is responsible for several towns or villages

In 2004-2005, the eight church planters supported by Mission Possible started 40 new groups and churches in the villages and towns where they ministered. Every group has at least 20 members. This was a great result!