letter from Moldova
At the end of 2025, a group of 26 students graduated from the Slavic Gospel Association Mission School in Bălți, North Moldova.
It was the 16th such group to complete a two-year Bible training course designed to prepare men and women for a wide range of ministries in their spiritually needy land.
What began in 1993 as a tentative one-off experiment, teaching students over a week in three different locations in Moldova, led to the establishment of an ongoing Mission Training School located in Bălți, which has made a vital and significant contribution to the growth and development of evangelical church life in that needy region of Moldova.
Over 350 graduates of the school are now in ministry – pastors, church planters, children’s and youth workers, and women in ministry – so that the face of evangelicalism there has been transformed.
The churches’ greatest need in post-Communist Moldova, as in many of the former Soviet dominated countries, was trained leadership, and SGA’s solid contribution in Romania was noted by Moldovan leaders, which resulted in an invitation to initiate a similar training programme for their churches. Patrick Johnstone, in an early edition of Operation World, noted SGA’s contribution favourably, a divinely appointed answer to a pressing need. The progress made, and the ground gained is, by God’s grace, remarkable. In the early 1990s it was estimated that there was an evangelical church or witness for every 14–15 villages. Today there is a gospel witness for every two villages.
Church planting has been a major plank in gospel advance, and under the supervision and counsel of Pastor Peter Mihachiuk, students have been prepared and equipped to conquer spiritually barren communities and establish small but strong churches, committed to ongoing evangelism and teaching of God’s people. God’s people have been encouraged and the Mission School training is so highly valued that the proposed 17th group of students due to commence studies in 2026, is oversubscribed. Clear guidance from God is necessary as the selection is made.
Feedback from graduating students reflects the value of these studies: “an unforgettable opportunity”; “this great opportunity to study at Bălți Mission School, where we learn new things, study Scripture more deeply and grow spiritually”; “a wonderful and blessed time of studies”; “new knowledge, a new vision about ministry, a deeper understanding of the Bible”.
Pray for this ongoing SGA ministry of training and supporting students in preparation for a lifetime of gospel ministry, through which the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified in the salvation of sinners and the strengthening of the people of God.
