For over a decade, evangelist Don Betts has been promoting evangelical Christianity in Eastern Europe, and especially in the Ukraine, through preaching crusades, ministerial support, and other ministries. In 1996, he was accompanied by members of his home church's choir for ten days of evangelism in the regions of Luts'k and Rivne. During the trip, we ate and slept at various local host homes. The schedule was hectic, and the trip was filled with surprises from the beginning. In the end, the Lord worked through this ministry for the conversion of thousands and for the encouragement of Ukrainian Baptists.
Too often we forget that most evangelical Christians do not live in the United States. We are also scarcely aware that the persecution most Christians face around the world and throughout history is far greater than the restrictions on public expression that annoy us here in the US. Persecution has had both positive and negative effects on evangelical churches in the former Soviet Union, as has the lack of such persecution here.
The lives changed as a result of this trip, including the lives of the members of the mission team, merit a public disclosure and celebration of these events. This on-line record is essentially an edited transcription of the daily log I kept during the trip, supplemented by photos taken by various members of the team. My hope is to refresh the memories of those who have served the Lord internationally, and to motivate those who have not, that the glory of our Lord might be proclaimed to all peoples and nations.
Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and home of over fifty million people. It is north of the Black Sea, surrounded by Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova. Ukraine's captial, Kiev, was the major cultural center in Eastern Europe in the ninth century, but it was slow to accept Christianity in the form that dominated the continent at that time. When Christianity was established as the official religion by Prince Volodimir in 988, its doctrines did not appear to offer a comprehensive worldview, and so in their practical life most of the common people integrated the faith with local pagan traditions. This syncretism has had a profound impact on Orthodox theology and mysticism in the Ukraine to the present day.
In succeeding centuries, the area fell under the political and religious influence of the Mongols and then Western Europe before being absorbed into the Russan empire in 1654. Though without their own country, Ukrainians always remained nationalistic among themselves, and the move for one national church came to lessen the influence of minority groups such as Socinians, Adventists, and Baptists. Only Greek Catholicism ever competed with the Orthodox Chuch for dominance.
By the time of the Soviet Union, Orthodox preaching in this area had already been reduced to bare ritual and civil religion, coupled with the conviction that the Orthodox Church was the "one true church." Under Soviet restrictions, Orthodoxy was (rightly) deemed harmless, but Protestant churches that openly preached the gospel were heavily persecuted. When various Soviet republics began declaring independence in the early 1990s, groups as diverse as Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, and Baptists sent missionaries to win converts. Most of these groups found a receptive, even hungry, audience, but the Orthodox Church considered such proselytizing to be religiously and socially disruptive.
There is a nominal "freedom of religion" in most of the republics today, but the power of the Orthodox Church in the region nevertheless influences government policies against Protestants. Often, ad hoc regulations are enacted to disrupt the travel and public meetings of evangelical groups. But despite the persecution, most believers are outspoken--though vigilant--and there is a definite hunger among the general populace. Unfortunately, most missionaries have their ministry exclusively in larger cities to reach the most individuals, while the smaller villages remain untouched by the gospel. (This is a perpetual, worldwide problem.) Partly as a result of Don Betts' ministry, a number of high government officials in the Ukraine and elsewhere have become supporters of, and even adherents to true Christianity.
In their strengths and weaknesses, Baptists in the Ukraine are nearly the opposite of their American counterparts. They have a deep sense of the necessity of repentance, the seriousness of sin, and the importance of reverence in worship. They also have a high regard for the ordinances and for personal testimonies at conversion. They know what it means to surrender one's life wholly to an idea, to suffer for the glory of Christ, and to be content even in poverty. But there is missing in most of the churches a sense of joy, of celebration, and of an open expression of delighting in the service of God and the spiritual blessings they share as Christians. And whereas we in America tend to be too quick to accept churches with divergent teachings and to admit the unconverted to church membership, many Ukrainians are at the opposite extreme. There is much we can learn from each other.
Basic Facts about the Trip (members, music, itinerary, etc.)
