February Ministry Trip to Russia and Belarus On February 08 – 12, 2016, Dr. Jonathan Burnham conducted the first part of Encountering Christ conference for top pastors from Belarus and the Baltic States. After four years of training among the leaders from Ukraine and Russia, BMI made a decision to share our ministry principles and training materials with the leaders from Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Ten pastors attended the conference – Leonid Mikhovich, Sergey Lukyanov and Dmitry Lazuta from Belarus, Heldur Kajaste from Estonia, Peteris Sprogis and Kaspars Sterns from Latvia, Henrikas Zukauskas and Alexander Kostin from Lithuania, Mykola Romaniuk from Ukraine and Igor Shaifulin from Russia. The team of international pastors was joined by the team of pastors and business leaders from the USA – Alvin Sanders, Austin Shaw, Glen Schrieber, Mark Krone and Sean Acosta. Pastor Emmanuel Ndolimana, the President of the Baptist Churches of Rwanda – was the special guest at the conference. During the conference Dr. Burnham taught the first part of his book Encountering Christ. Before this main training event, Dr. Burnham conducted a special one day marriage seminar for 17 pastors with their wives. The couples came from Moscow and other parts of Russia. Several of them were the pastors who had already attended our conferences. The marriage conference was organized by the invitation from the leadership of the Baptist Union of Russia. Dr. Burnham also had a privilege to preach at the historic Central Baptist Church of Moscow. It was in this very church where his father, Dr. David Burnham, met with the President of the Baptist Union of the Soviet Union pastor Vasily Logvinenko in October 1990. BMI dates its ministry in former Soviet states from that landmark meeting. After the conference Dr. Burnham and Dr. Vitaliy Sorokun traveled to Minsk, Belarus, where they visited Minsk Theological Seminary – the largest theological training school of Belarus – and had special meetings with the President of the Baptist Union of Belarus pastor Victor Krutko, the General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Belarus pastor Leonid Mikhovich, and our ministry partner pastor Sergey Drozd, who also serves as a dean at the Seminary.