Belarus

An "Official" Russian Orthodox chapel in Bobruisk with the Soviet monument next to it. The Soviet monument was required to be taller than the chapel!

The evolving Belarus mission.

Our mission to Belarus has changed greatly over the years.
It started with Pastor Rob visiting Belarus at the request of Peter Martynovich, a Seattle building contractor with ties to Belarus.
We then supported an underground Pastor who was ministering without government approval.
We moved to building churches, physically constructing them for congregations without buildings. We sent several construction missions from our church body!
We started doing youth camps with a church in Bobruisk. There were several teams that went to minister to the youth.
We worked to develop a church campus in Shestavichi.

Now we support Pastor Slava! Slava Konavalchik (the serious fellow in the hat!) was a young man in the church in Bobruisk when we first went to Belarus (actually just a boy). He became the youth pastor at that church and is now married and pastoring his own church. Belarus has very restrictive religious laws, laws that favour the "traditional" churches mainly the Russian Orthodox Church. There is some risk and resistance involved in Pastor Slava starting a new church. And we try to support him as best we can in prayer, finance and deeds. 

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