In ‘nervous’ Moldova, U.S.-based mission supports church-run efforts to help vulnerable orphans, bring stability, share hope

LOVES PARK, Ill. — A new evangelical church movement is bringing hope to Moldova — a vulnerable, ex-communist nation on the edge of the Ukraine war.

“Concern among Moldovans is very real that, after Ukraine, they could be next,” said Eric Mock, senior vice president of ministry operations at Illinois-based Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), a 90-year-old mission agency that supports local evangelical churches and local missionary pastors across the former Soviet Union.

Since the Ukraine war began, Moldova has hosted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, despite its own economic challenges. And thousands of Moldovans, worried about the future, have left the country for elsewhere in Europe.

Moldovans’ nervousness is fueled by a breakaway region known as Transdniestria along the Ukraine border that has declared independence, a claim not recognized by Moldova or the international community.

“Knowing this,” said the mission agency’s president Michael Johnson, “we’re building a solid relationship infrastructure with the local pastors and churches in Moldova so we can distribute aid if and when it’s needed.”

Until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova — like other former Soviet countries — was officially atheist.

Now local evangelical churches are growing — and keeping hope alive.

Increasingly, Moldovans are turning to faith in God and looking to local churches for hope and stability as war rages on their doorstep.

The Baptist Union has approximately 400 congregations across Moldova, a nation roughly the size of Maryland, sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania.

Clinging to Faith As War Rages

“It was not always like this,” said one local ministry leader. “Even 20 years ago, Christians were much more persecuted, and 70 years ago you could be imprisoned for your faith.”

SGA supports local Moldovan missionary pastors in towns and villages, assists families who’ve welcomed orphaned children into their homes, and sponsors church-run summer Bible camps and its Christmas outreach, “Immanuel’s Child.”

“We directly serve the local churches and respond to the heart of the local pastors, serving them in their unique cultural context,” Mock said, adding that the organization’s U.K.-based ministry team has been partnering for nearly 30 years with local churches in Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries.

“Whether it’s responding to war, a pandemic, or any other need, local churches offer the long-term solution in their own communities, bringing stability and sharing the good news of the Gospel,” Mock said.

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Founded in 1934, Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) helps “forgotten” orphans, widows and families in Ukraine, Russia, the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel – caring for their physical needs and sharing the life-transforming Gospel. SGA supports an extensive grassroots network of local evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across this vast region.

PHOTO CUTLINE: MOLDOVA: CHILDREN FLOCK TO CHRISTIAN SUMMER CAMPS AS NATION HOLDS ITS BREATH: Moldovans are turning to faith in God — and looking to local evangelical churches for hope and stability — as war rages on their doorstep in neighboring Ukraine, fueling concern they “could be next.”