History of BIEM

Baptist International Evangelistic Ministries is an active and growing mission that emphasizes planting churches by supporting and training national workers dedicated to reaching their people for Christ. The mission was founded in 1981 by Dr. Peter Slobodian, a veteran Ukrainian missionary burdened to reach people behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union.

Evangelism through missionary radio was the initial focus. BIEM’s Gospel-preaching shortwave broadcasts in Russian and Ukrainian reached a Cold War audience of millions. Countless souls came to Christ, and even churches were established through this “open door.”

However, in those days, BIEM could provide only limited quantities of Bibles and material aid for believers under the yoke of communism.

By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in December of 1991, BIEM had established many strong relationships with churches in Russia and Eastern Europe. These relationships provided ideal contacts for recruiting, training, and supporting national church planters. By 1992 actual church planting had replaced radio work as our core ministry, and new churches were established in Russia and Ukraine. In 1997 BIEM broadened its scope to include Romania and Moldova. Furthermore, in 2005 we began outreaches into sensitive areas of Central and Western Asia.

Additional facets of our church-planting program include distributing Bibles and Christian literature, evangelism, children’s work, summer youth camps, and humanitarian aid. With God’s help, we have established schools that have trained over 300 pastors and church workers and planted over 100 churches and built over 50 church buildings in Ukraine, Russia, Romania, and Moldova.

In loving memory of Dr. Peter and Mary Slobodian