Throughout its history, the Soviet Union was one of the most closed places in the world to missionary work. As perestroika came in the late 1980s and the Soviet Union fell in 1991, a spiritual vacuum formed as massive numbers of people became interested in Christianity. An unprecedented freedom allowed evangelicals to engage in missionary work.
Much has been written about foreign evangelical missionary work during this period, but virtually nothing has been written about nationals doing ministry. This book examines the remarkable surge in Ukrainian evangelical missionary work from 1989 to 1999.
Both Baptists and Pentecostals engaged in a wave of missions, flowing from Ukraine to the end of the earth: Siberia. What were these pioneering missionaries like? What motivated them? What enabled them to do what had been forbidden for so long? What legacy did they leave for us today? What can we learn from their example for future missions?
This book also looks at how a surge in missions takes place, analyzing the factors behind the Ukrainian evangelical missionary surge by looking at different models for change. Here we consider: what steps can we take to help bring about new missionary surges?

John Edward White is a missionary with WorldVenture and the Director of Missiology Programs at the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary in Kyiv, Ukraine. He was formerly a teacher of missiology at Donetsk Christian University in Donetsk, Ukraine. He has a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Biola University. He is married and has a son.