The picture below is New Hope Church, where he pastors. Thankfully, only minimal damage as of Dec. 22, 2022.
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.)
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.
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)
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
