Slavic Gospel Association To serve the Church among the slavic nations of the world by assisting it to become fully equipped to fulfil the great commission of Jesus Christ

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How we started

SGA is a global, non-denominational, conservative evangelical Missionary Agency, founded in 1934 by Peter Deyneka, a Russian emigrant to the USA, with a deep concern for the spiritual well-being of his compatriots wherever they were to be found.

How did we begin?

1950 saw the formation of the first British Council, with work centred among the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe who found themselves as refugees in the displaced persons camps of Austria.

At that time, SGA (UK) was mainly a relief organisation and servicing Mission. Vehicles were packed with food, clothing, and other necessities, as well as Bibles and Christian literature and driven overland to camps in various locations.

From Austria, SGA moved into the former Communist controlled Eastern Bloc and initially engaged in a ministry of encouragement and support for Slavic believers. SGA workers faced many difficulties and dangers in making their way through the Iron Curtain. However, these were nothing compared to the suffering experienced by believers in those countries for remaining true to Christ.

How did our work develop?

Forest School During the 1970s SGA (UK) began to develop a more focused ministry through responding to specific requests from Eastern European church leaders. The major change was to answer requests for Biblical leadership training and equipping of national believers who were working among their own peoples. This programme began in small groups meeting secretly in homes or in forest and mountain locations away from the prying eyes of the secret police. Other believers heard about these Bible studies and invited SGA teams to their areas. By the late eighties there were seven groups meeting across Romania in strategic places. Similar invitations came from other countries where believers longed to be instructed in the Word.

What is the core of our work?

Following the dramatic fall of Communism in 1989, at the request of the national leaders, the Bible teaching ministry was enlarged and accelerated and today is the core of SGA’s work from the UK. Autonomous International SGA Offices in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA and UK work together in a unified strategy. Within this framework, SGA (UK) concentrates its Bible teaching and equipping ministry towards the Slavic nations of the world. The other four SGA International Offices work predominantly in the C.I.S. (the former Soviet Union).