CEE Story From The Mission Field
Biking Through the Heartland
October 22, 2004
IMB Missionaries and Ukrainian Baptists partnered together in Kiev, Ukraine, recently to take the gospel to their neighbors in a most unique way. The Gospel didn’t go out over the airwaves, or through a multi-media campaign, and it wasn’t proclaimed by a well-known evangelist flown in from the States. It was carried by dedicated Ukrainian church members riding bikes from village to village.
Four teams of 10 or more left Kiev on August 5 to encourage and help village churches in the four corners of Ukraine. They rose each morning between 6:30-7 a.m., ate a quick breakfast and started peddling. The riders took an hourly break to eat a snack, often taking advantage of apricot or apple orchards along the way. Each day the bike riders, many of them inexperienced, rode between 34-62 miles along paths that were often hilly, rutted, muddy and bumpy!
IMB missionary Joe Ragan helped the team by following close behind in a van filled with materials, luggage and non-riding team members. He describes what the afternoons were like:
“We would arrive in our destination village and would have lunch and a short rest. Then we would hit the streets to invite people to whatever evangelism event was planned for that city. Typically, we showed the Jesus Film on the street or in a culture house, held ‘paint talks’ in the center of the village, and had evangelistic meetings at a local church or somewhere else in the city.”
He went on to explain the strategy: “We wanted to reach as many varied people as possible with our evangelistic efforts, so we tried to have several types of evangelism going. It was quite successful as people from all walks of life were able to hear the gospel.” Joe reported that in every village people responded to the gospel’s call.
One stop was the small village of Grushkevka, near the city of Kamyanka. The church in Kamyanka is trying to start a church in the village, so the team planned to do some door-to-door witnessing and then have an evangelistic meeting on the street. The speakers were so loud that the preaching could be heard throughout the village. After Team Leader Anatoly shared from the word, over ten people (children to grandmothers) stepped forward indicating they wanted Christ in their lives.
"It was incredible!” said Joe.
That was not the only village that saw incredible success. “The tour was a great opportunity to encourage these small village churches and to share the good news with the people in the Ukrainian heartland,” said Joe. “God truly blessed the efforts!”
To find out how God can bless YOUR efforts to reach the Ukrainians for Christ, contact Strategy Coordinator Sam Taylor at samtaylor@pobox.com or visit their website at www.hope4kiev.org.