How we started

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, who had a deep concern for the spiritual well-being of his compatriots wherever they were to be found.

How did we begin?

1950 marked the formation of the first British Council, with work centred on the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe who had become refugees in the displaced persons camps of Austria and other Western European countries.

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

From these camps, SGA developed its ministry in the former Communist controlled Eastern Bloc and engaged initially in a ministry of encouraging and assisting Slavic believers and the provision of Bibles. 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 who remained true to Christ.

Bible training in the forest. Beyond the eyes of the Romanian secret police.

How did our work develop?

During the 1970s SGA (UK) began to develop a more focused ministry, by responding to specific requests from Eastern European church leaders. The major change was in response to the desire for Biblical leadership training and the equipping of national believers who were working among their own people. This programme began with 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 1980s there were seven groups meeting across Romania in strategic places. Similar invitations came from other countries where believers longed for instruction in God’s Word.

What is the core of our work?

Following the dramatic fall of Communism in 1989, at the request of national leaders, this Bible teaching ministry was enlarged and accelerated and today is the core of SGA[UK]’s work. 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).

What do we do?

Slavic Gospel Association is committed to working in partnership with local churches across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, helping them to address the particular challenges of building the Church of Jesus Christ in former Communist lands. Our work can be divided into 4 main areas of ministry.

Biblical Leadership Training is carried out through a number of lay training Mission Schools under the leadership of national Christians. This is the focal point of all SGA’s activity.

Throughout Eastern Europe & Central Asia Slavic Gospel Association assists local churches by providing solid foundation courses in Biblical leadership, with the aim of equipping emerging leaders for Gospel ministry. Whether through our extensive network of Mission Schools, the funding of Bible correspondence courses or the sponsorship of key individuals for higher theological study, the aim is always the same: that gifted men and women would be better prepared to reach succeeding generations with God’s word, by planting churches, pastoring believers, and using every available means to evangelize those in spiritual darkness.

Leadership Support is provided for national Christians, who are called and equipped by God.
A range of Bible and literature projects are supported, with our main emphasis on ‘in-country’ publication.

The legacy left by fifty years of Communism in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is a desperate shortage of Bibles, concordances, commentaries and Christian books which many in the West take for granted. Through its literature ministry SGA’s aim is to give everyone in Eastern Europe access to good Christian literature which will help meet their spiritual needs and equip them for service.

To achieve this, resources are used in two ways. Firstly, in consultation with local denominational leaders, books by some able theologians in the West are translated, published and distributed. Secondly, national Christians are supported and encouraged in the work of writing and publishing material suitable for, and addressed particularly to the needs of their own countries.

SGA’s desire is to provide a wealth of material that will be of benefit to the churches in Eastern Europe for generations to come.

From its very beginning SGA has sought to show the love of Christ by ministering to the practical needs of people.

Working in fellowship with local churches, and through its wide range of contacts with trusted spiritual leaders in many countries, Slavic Gospel Association helps to sustain ongoing programmes of help for widows and orphans. Help is given to finance orphanages, homes for the elderly and educational programmes. Its support for many widows across eastern Europe and Central Asia is providing a life line to vulnerable people who struggle on a daily basis.

In addition substantial emergency aid has been directed to various crises situations in which Christians have sought to respond to natural and man made disasters. Through this aid local churches have been given invaluable opportunities to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.