At 5 a.m. sharp on February 24 we woke up to the new reality – the sound of exploding rockets, destruction, and loss. Our lives were uprooted in a moment, and we have not been able to return to the old “normal.” Perhaps, we never will. After a week in the church basement and making sure all our international students left the country safe, Anna and I made a decision to move to western Ukraine. A month later, we moved Anna to the USA; I followed her in the middle of the summer. Even though we are grateful for the provision of safety and generosity of people in the USA, our hearts are longing to return home. Yet, in the midst of tragedy, we have experienced God like never before. It is privilege to serve the omnipotent Savior!
The picture below is New Hope Church, where he pastors. Thankfully, only minimal damage as of Dec. 22, 2022.
BMI – Served as a BRIDGE OF HOPE During this War
With the war raging in Ukraine, many churches and individuals in the USA have responded by sending relief support to churches in Ukraine through BMI. Their generous support allowed churches in Kharkiv and its surrounding region to provide humanitarian relief, food packages, medical supplies as well as to host people in basements as they sought shelter from bombs. During the most difficult months of the war their unprecedented generosity provided for meals and aid for hundreds of hurting people on a daily basis. (BMI is not primarily a humanitarian ministry, but with our over 30 years of connections into Ukraine, coupled with Dr. Vitaliy’s broad influence in the region, we have served as such to help the pastors feed their flocks.)
MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: Moving full speed to make a difference in Africa
The war gave a new incentive to ministry. When the window of opportunity to be involved in mentorship closed in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, Vitaliy focused his efforts on developing BMI mentorship movements in Africa. He began to mentor four African Christian leaders to prepare them for a responsible role as BMI Africa Ministry Partners. Vitaliy has been intentionally
investing his time and experience in Kioko Mwangangi, Lincoln Chirochierwa, Pascal Ndagijimana, and Joshua Magwesela. These wonderful men are now ready to launch and lead sustainable national mentorship multiplication movements in 8 countries of the continent: Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Congo. Together we are
ready for the exciting task ahead! (Pictured here, Dr. Sorokun with Dr. Lincoln and Dr. Stephen Mwatha.)
Vitaliy has also continued to oversee the ministry taking place in Belarus and Russia. Even though for security reasons communication is not as easy as before the war, we are still actively involved in leadership development there.
Vitaliy has also been helping BMI Women’s Ministry Director Nadya Morokhvets in leading the training and discipleship of women. Nadya, herself a refugee, has been used by the Lord in ways never seen before. Our Father in Heaven has been opening amazing doors of opportunity for Nadya to mentor, train and serve women far beyond Ukraine – Hungary, Albania, and
Uzbekistan among many others.
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING and ENCOUNTERING CHRIST conferences
Even though the war prevented Vitaliy from actively teaching Seven Steps of Christian Living and Encountering Christ in Ukraine, we still use them extensively in Russia and Belarus. Our Russia Director Sergey Naboichenko and Belarus Ministry Partner Sergey Drozd have been traveling extensively, training numerous Christian leaders in conferences and in Minsk Theological Seminary, where these courses have become core courses for pastoral preparation.
Vitaliy has also released our new African ministry partners to train these courses in their regions. What a joy it was to receive their updates and see God open new opportunities for them! BTMP still taught in Ukraine!
For five consecutive years Vitaliy taught BTMP in Irpin Bible Seminary, a leading pastor training school in the Baptist Union of Ukraine. Even though the building of the seminary was dramatically damaged during the war, the brave staff has not given up hope. All the major programs have been resumed in the online format, including BTMP! Indeed, we are grateful for the gift of technology to be able to teach and learn from all over the world.
Irpin Biblical Seminary pictured above – same steps (present and past)
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Even though the war is still raging in Ukraine, Vitaliy looks forward to the future with great anticipation. BMI is developing sustainable national mentorship movements in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Vietnam, Nepal, in South East Asia, in Africa, and Latin America. We have over 30 countries where we are currently serving leaders of have a door of opportunity to serve. It is a joy to oversee our ministry and to partner with wonderful talented leaders who share the vision of multiplying mentors!
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RUSSIA AND BELARUS 2022
Sergey Naboychenko – BMI Regional Director for Russia
Sergey Drozd – BMI Belarus Ministry Partner
Ivan Kozorezov – BMI Russia Ministry Partner
MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: a key priority
BMI has been involved in Russia and Belarus for many years; Russia for over 30 years! In both Russia and Belarus our partners make it a priority to intentionally and personally disciple other Christian leaders. For example, Ivan is building the ministry of his entire church around the ministry of mentorship. Twice a year he leads special training workshops for the leaders of his church. They in turn invest into the members of their congregation. Sergey Naboychenko is mentoring a group of local pastors and church leaders as well as a young businessmen. The goal of these mentoring relationships is for each Christian to mentor others and so on, and so on.
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING: in high demand and keeps growing
Training conferences on the Seven Steps of Christian Living remain in high demand in Russia and Belarus, and is a top ministry priority for our partners. Sergey Naboychenko is a true leader in this effort. He personally travels all over Russia bringing the training to remote areas of Siberia, North and Far East. An important focus area of this training ministry is follow up on the leaders who have been trained. Sergey hand picks the most talented among them and continues to invest in their leadership formation.
BTMP: an example of partnership with seminaries
Sergey Drozd is the vice president of Minsk Theological Seminary. We have partnered with him since 2012. Sergey integrated Seven Steps of Christian Living and Encountering Christ to the curriculum of the seminary. Now, Seven Steps is a core course for all seminary students. To be effective in the training, the seminary even hired a young professor who is dedicated specifically
to training on mentorship. Not only the students listen to lectures, they are required to work with a personal mentor between the sessions, and they also have specialized workshops. Encountering Christ has become a special 2 credit hour course on Christology. It is taught by recognized Byelorussian pastors who had earlier been trained by Dr. Burnham.
WOMEN’S MINISTRIES
Recently BMI has been focusing on developing women ministries training on discipleship in Russia. Sergey Naboychenko’s wife, Dianna, has been very effective in leading it. She personally trains women leaders in her regional Baptist association. She is also modeling it by personally mentoring young women. Dianna, in turn, is being mentored by BMI Women’s Ministries
Director for Eastern Europe, Nadia Morokhovets.
TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR FAMILY: in high demand
Technology and Your Family is a rather unique course for BMI. We wrote it to help young Christian families make wise decisions on the use of technology in their families and with their children. This course quickly became one of our most popular ones internationally. Sergey Naboychenko, who himself has an impressive background in technology and aerospace engineering, leads the training all over Russia. He is a frequent speaker on the subject at multiple conferences and workshops.
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AFRICA 2022
MINISTRY PARTNERS:
Dr. Kioko Mwangangi – Kenya
Dr. Lincoln Chirochierwa – Malawi
Pastor Pascal Ndagijimana – Rwanda
Joshua Magwesela – Tanzania
NEW AFRICA MINISTRY PARTNERS
Early in 2022 Vitaliy Sorokun began to mentor four potential BMI Africa Ministry Partners: Kioko Mwangangi (Kenya), Lincoln Chirochierwa (Malawi), Pascal Ndagijimana (Rwanda), and Joshua Magwesela (Tanzania). The leaders have been spending much time focusing on BMI mentorship multiplication philosophy, strategic planning, and learning the BMI training materials. Towards the end of the year each leader has been released to launch their own mentorship movement. Between themselves, these dedicated leaders run projects in eight countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and Congo.
MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS
Each of our Ministry Partners has been modeling our mentorship multiplication philosophy in personal relationships with growing Christian leaders and marketplace professionals. Indeed, these are amazing stories of mentorship! Many of their disciples are already discipling others. This is exactly the outcome we want to see – disciples who reproduce!
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING
Each Africa Ministry Partner has conducted multiple training conferences on the Seven Steps of Christian Living. We believe that effective ministry flows out of good relationships. As we follow this principle, we see wonderful results of partnership: pastors and seminary leaders whom we had trained earlier have been opening doors of opportunity for our Ministry Partners to go and
train. In turn, they have started to develop their own networks of mentorship.
ENCOUNTERING CHRIST
Our Ministry Partners have been trained in Encountering Christ directly by Dr. Jonathan Burnham during his conferences in Africa. Now they are prepared to use it in their extensive mentorship networks, in Bibles schools and in training conferences in the countries where they serve. One of the exciting projects we are praying to launch in Kenya is partnership with DayStar
University where Encountering Christ can be used as a Christian formation course for all the students.
Jonathan was accompanied in Africa this year by his son, David Burnham, and son-in-law, Dr. Alex Levit!
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BMI WOMEN’S MINISTRY 2022 UPDATE
BMI has incorporated women leaders into all of our conferences, including the Seven Steps of Christian Living and Encountering Christ. Women want to know theology, and women want to learn how to mentor other women! Beyond this, we have designed a special program geared for women. WMP, the Women’s Mentoring Program, consists of the 7 Steps, Encountering Christ and 5 other training materials. It is designed as a curriculum for women to learn through churches, community groups, one on one, and as seminary courses. The 5 training materials consist of: Women’s Ministry, Small Group Ministry, Children’s Ministry, Living with Your Emotions, and Technology and the Family.
We have several women who are directing the ministry in their part of the world, Rita Kabo in Nepal, Nadya Morokhovets in Ukraine, and Dianna Naboychenko in Russia. Faith Burnham is in process of mentoring and training several other women. We encourage women in all walks of life to live the mentorship life.
Rita Kabo has been highly involved in developing women’s ministries in Nepal. She is one of the top, Christian women’s leaders in the entire country and is a very effective trainer in women’s Bible studies, training events, even national days of prayer, educator conferences, and leadership gatherings in both Nepal and India. Rita and her husband, Sonam, also represent the Christians of Nepal before the government. They have even had discussions with the Vice President of Nepal regarding the rights of Christians in Nepal to worship.
The Global Nepali Speaking Christian Fellowship, which took place in November in India, was a unique event: for the first time in their history GNCF had a woman speaker, and it was Rita! Rita powerfully spoke on the role of women in global ministry! She is also the principal of Elim Christian Academy, a Christian school for 200 children.
Nadya Morokhovets lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine, before the war. Now she and her husband, Vitaliy, are refugees in western Ukraine. Vitaliy is the president of Kharkiv Bible College and also pastors a church. At the beginning of the war, Nadya and Vitaliy were supporting many church parishioners who were all taking shelter at the church – much of the time in the basement. Vitaliy risked his life for many weeks going out to find food for everyone amongst the bombings. Their adult children begged them to flee to western Ukraine when the bombing increased where it was no longer bearable. There, they found refuge, and to their surprise, great need to minister amongst other refugees! Among the ashes of war, this has been a great joy! Vitaliy preaches to the people multiple times a week, and Nadya has had limitless opportunities to encourage the women there and in many other areas of western Ukraine, and even Kiev. Please pray for them; the tragedy of war continues.
Dianna Naboychenko, wife of our Regional Director of Russia, has recently been focusing on developing women ministries training on discipleship in Russia. She personally trains women leaders in her regional Baptist association. She is also modeling it by personally mentoring young women. Dianna, in turn, is being mentored by BMI Women’s Ministries Director for Eastern Europe, Nadya Morokhovets.
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COSTA RICA 2022
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING
Costa Rica is a new place for our ministry. Several years ago, before the COVID pandemic, Dr. Jonathan and Faith Burnham visited San Jose with a vision casting meeting.
In December, 2022, they were able to go back, this time to conduct the first training conference on the Seven Steps of Christian Living. We are partnering with ESEPA (Escuela de Estudios Pastorales) – the leading theological school of Costa Rica. Our key partner there is ESEPA’s professor, Sadrac Meza. Sadrac gathered together a group of 15 key local pastors and Christian leaders from 11 churches in San Jose. We see an increased interest and demand in the ministry of mentorship multiplication in Latin America, and our plans are to continue to build partnerships with Sadrac and other leaders in the region.
The Costa Rican people were warm, friendly, lively and dedicated to King Jesus! Dr. Sadrac Meza is a faithful servant of the Lord at ESEPA!
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