Student population: 250,000
Cities with University students: 10
Cities with Staff teams: Minsk
SLM Staff: 4
Religion/Faith Statistics:
Orthodox Christians- 40%
Catholic Christians- 7%
Other Christians- 1%
Non-religious- 50%
Jewish- 0.6%
Other- 1.4%
Belarus is a country located in Eastern Europe, it has around 9.5 million people. Its capital and largest city is Minsk, located in the central part of the country.
Belarus has a rich cultural heritage, with a long history of art, music, and literature. Christianity is the predominant religion in Belarus, with the majority of the population belonging to the Eastern Orthodox Church. There are also significant numbers of Catholics and Protestants, particularly in the western regions of the country, there are also smaller communities of Muslims, Jews, and followers of other religions. Belarus has a long history of religious tolerance and diversity, and the government officially recognizes the rights of all religions to practice freely. However in the last decade or so there are more restrictions on religious freedoms, particularly on minority religions.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in spirituality and alternative forms of religion among some Belarusians. New Age beliefs, paganism, and other spiritual practices have gained popularity, particularly among young people. In our ministry we notice that young people have interest to discuss apologetics and even theology. We have a good number of students who were part of evangelistic events and their favorite topic is apologetic. We have an theology club where students continue to come and express their interest to know more. Even though there are very few students who put their faith in Jesus and become His followers. The majority of students who we are discipling come from Christian families or had connection with Christians.
Being a small team of staff the majority ministry activities are run by students, evangelism and discipleship are happening a lot through personal network of our students, big evangelistic events help a lot to integrate students in the movement.
Receiving Needs/Desires
Short term team for projects or specific tasks:
Staff and/or students to join our Summer and winter evangelistic conferences who can help us with different aspects, communicate with students, lead discussions (preferably Russian speakers)
Staff and/or students join our 4 days evangelistic projects which we organize in September, before Christmas and before Easter. The project includes training and going out to connect with students using Solarium or surveys.
Staff or STINTers serving for one year or less
we are open to have staff or volunteers serving for a shorter period of time joining th team in Minsk to strentghten the team and add critical mass
Long term team to serve in your country:
Staff moving to Belarus and serving in actual team or start ministry in new city
Sending Opportunities/Desires
We would like to send our students for short term projects in countries where ministry is strong for envisioning, development, learning
We would like to send students to help with a project a country which have need (the majority of our students do not speak English, just Russian)