Slavic Christian Ministries

April 2026

Dear friends,

Easter is coming very soon and I hope that your joy will be complete knowing what our Lord Jesus did on your behalf on the cross at Calvary and with his resurrection. With everything happening in both the Ukraine and the Middle East, the following passages may give you hope in our turbulent world:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy by being the firstborn of the dead” (1 Colossians 1:15-18). Trust and rest in knowing that Jesus is in control of everything. Another passage is this:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5). Because of Christ’s resurrection, we too can have a hope that there is something special awaiting you – an eternal inheritance kept just for you! May these two scriptures encourage you this Easter! Now for our update …

In our region of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, the war continues to rage on with an assortment of missiles and drone attacks. Just a few days ago, the Russian military bombed 17 different locations within our region: https://gwaramedia.com/en/russia-attacks-17-settlements-of-kharkiv-region-injures-25, however, this isn’t an abnormal occurrence. Because the Russian military has consistently hit hospitals, schools, orphanages, etc. many children can no longer attend school and parents are improvising when possible. Another report came out recently that approximately 20,000 children are attending school in bomb shelters within our region: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/16/in-ukraines-kharkiv-20000-children-go-underground-to-study.

Please keep these children in your prayers – there will be so much trauma, stress, grief and loss for years to come.

Good News Church – Nova Voldalaga

This month, I would like to share about Good News Church in the town of Nova Vodalaga, which is about a 50 minute drive from our city of Kharkiv. We have partnered with this church for over 20 years in many different outreach activities. Pastor Victor has been the only senior pastor that this church has ever known and he has been extremely faithful to his calling over the years. He needs your prayers for his own health, if you are willing to pray for him.

When this war began, many families that were unable to leave the country fled to this town for more safety. During the early parts of the war, many families would double or triple up in small homes, like sardines in a tin can – but they felt safer being away from the large city that was laden with bombs and missiles. The panic and fear has subsided with time and now families are attempting to live normal lives, due to the war being over 4 years in length. The horrific living conditions within many locations are the new normal.

Good News Church has done an excellent job of blessing many families over the past four years of this war. With little to no outside assitance (other than what Slavic Christian Ministries has provided), this church has sacrificially given food, clothing, Christmas gifts, and even opened up a school within their church, creating a classroom for local children to attend. God has miracuoulsy provided the funds for the church to grow and expand its facilities due to the increase of worshippers. The gospel is being preached and lives are being transformed, praise the Lord!

While the Russian military has been targeting schools, hospitals, orphanages, and energy facilities, churches have been targeted less often – and since Nova Voldalaga isn’t in one of the hotter military zones, families feel comfortable allowing their children to come together for school inside the church. Clearly, this church is meeting families needs on a weekly basis with food, clothes, the gospel message and lots of love!

Clearly they are living out Matthew 25:34-36: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”

I thank God for the faithfulness of this church showing the love of Christ on a daily basis. Your contributions help encourage them in their calling to help those less fortunate. Thank you too for also sacrificing so much prayerfully and tangibly for God’s kingdom work; thank you also for being my friend and ministry partner!

In Jesus’ love,

Ron

March 2026

Dear friends,

There are so many updates this month, but let me begin on a positive note: on March 1 our ministry had our 25th anniversary. Time has passed so quickly and I thank God that he has allowed us to partner with him through the years. Through our various outreaches to orphans, kids, theology courses, medical missions, English evangelism, drug rehab, refugee assistance and more, we have served over 16,000 people and seen around 1,300 people make first time confessions of faith. And during the war, we have touched 100,000+ lives with some sort of spiritual or physical help. This could never have happened without your gracious heart, so thank you for doing so much for Christ and his kingdom!

On a more difficult news front, we are all focused on the war between the US/Israel and Iran. We are truly living in perilous times and I am hoping this war will not be a drawn out war, like the one in Ukraine, where we just passed the four year anniversary (with 2.7 million+ people having been killed or injured). What you may not know is that Russia threaned western European countries this week. The headline in the newspaper named “The Mirror” reported that, “Putin threatens horror strikes on Europe in response to Iran leader’s death.” The article ends with a Russian representative stating that the only thing that Europe understands is force. We need to keep praying that this war in Ukraine will end soon and not expand to other parts of Europe. We also need the war to end so the Ukrainian people can mourn, heal and rebuild their country and lives.

In this update I want to highlight pastor Sasha (I am leaving his last name out on purpose). For those of you who have followed us for many years, pastor Sasha has been my friend and ministry partner for 25 years, and we have done much ministry together. As you may recall, pastor Sasha was taken captive and brutally beaten to an inch of his life by the Russian military for serving Christ, loving people, and caring for the displaced and hurting. You can go to our website’s war blog and scroll down to May 2022 to refresh yourself on his story. Many people in the Christian community prayed for his survival, including many of us, and thank goodness, he survived, is now physically healed, and continues to faithfully serve Christ and his church in Ukraine. Here is his update:

“I greet you Ron and everyone in America, in the name of Jesus Christ. I thank God that for the many years your ministry has helped us! We continue to live in very difficult times and with everything we have had to endure, this war has truly taken its toll on us; and honestly, it is hard to put into words all the horrors we have experienced, but God has shown us his mercy. At one point, our town, region, and our church building were invaded by the Russian military, but now the Russians are gone and we have resumed worshipping God and engaging in ministry again. Over the past four years, we have evacuated many families—both from our church and others who were in deperate need - and there were countless amount of people needing help. There was one family where a mother and daughter came to my wife because her family of five (which included a small child) were begging for food and asking if there was anything we could spare to help her youngest child, who was starving. We asked the mother if she had any food for the rest of her family? Her response was, “No, we have nothing for any of us, but we just want our youngest child to survive, can you help us?”

We had compassion on them and gave them as much as we had the ability to do, so they could survive – this is what we always try to do as Christ’s ambassadors! This is a common story in our area. Nevertheless, this family left us with joyful tears knowing that they made it a bit longer. As I have learned firsthand, providing aid to people in need puts us under great risk because the Russian’s are targeting us. Some of my friends who helped those in need are still missing and presumed dead. I am one of the blessed one’s where God showed me mercy by allowing me to survive after my torture.

At one point our church building was hit by a missle and the windows, roof, and sancturary were damaged. When our building was seized, the Russians stole many things and said, “Your Bible is anti-Soviet propaganda and your church will no longer exist and everything in this building is ours.” Well, they are gone, we are back in our church building, and God is glorified once again through our weekly worship! God is so much bigger than our circumstances and I thank God for his guidance and protection! It is still painful to look at all the damage caused by this war with so many destroyed homes and so many broken lives. I have known many people who had to endure beatings and were taken captive - many were killed and families were torn apart, but our Lord saves us. We ask God daily for his mercy and to keep us safe.

We continue sharing Christ and proclaim the good news in our town and 15 surrounding villages. We are doing our best to serve Jesus in a difficult situation. Any help you can send us is a blessing, so thank you in advance!

When the war began, many families fled from our area and there were only three children that remained in our church. The children could not endure all that horror, and the parents feared for their lives. I still remember those frightened little eyes—both of the children and of their mothers. As I prayed, I kept saying the same words over and over: “Lord Jesus, please protect these families and find them a safe place to live.” We continue to minister to families and we are seeing many more children in our church again. While we don’t want any child to experience war, we are thankful to serve and love them. Please pray for these children and families salvation. Thank you for remembering us.”
- Pastor Sasha

Friends, I have purposely not shared pastor Sasha’s photo and location for everyone’s safety, but thank you for praying. If you want to bless pastor Sasha and his church, our ministry will be sending him a financial gift in April. Thank you for not becoming numb to the realities of this war and always being a blessing to war-torn Ukraine, our ministry partners, and everyone they serve for our Lord Jesus. They are true heroes, living out their faith every single day under extreme conditions. You are a blessing too - thank you so much for being my friend and partner!

In Jesus’ love,

Ron Putnam

January 2026

Dear friends,

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We are just two weeks into the New Year and things seem to be unsettling around the world with news from Venezuela, Iran, and the on-going war in Ukraine. Can you believe that this war will be four years in duration next month?

Did you now know that the Russian’s aggression toward Ukraine has now lasted longer than the Soveit Union’s fight against the Nazi’s during World War 2? The Soviet military spent 1,418 days fighting the Nazi’s, however, as of January 13, 2026, the Ukrainians have spent 1,420 days trying to repel the Russians, with no end in sight.

Last week, the Russians fired a hypersonic missile and destroyed a very vital/strategic reserve natural gas storage faciliy in Lviv, Ukraine (western Ukraine, near Poland). In our region of Kharkiv, the Russian military continues to target the heating and electricity plants, causing blackouts and very cold conditions. While the attacks are regular in Kharkiv, a missile hit a residential area killing several (including a 3 year old child) and injuring 28 more people on January 2, 2026. While very heart-breaking it isn’t all bad news … there is good news too!

As you may remember, we gave each of our ministry partners the freedom to choose if they wanted to purchase firewood and/or Christmas gifts, due to the dire energy situation. Most of our churches engaged in a Christmas program and provided small gifts for the kids, mostly candy. We were able to help bless between 2,600 – 2,700 children this Christmas with your generosity. As usual, there was a Christmas program at each church, food, candy, Bhbles given, and gifts. It was a wonderful evening for many kids. Thank you for your amazing generosity this past Christmas season!

Here is what pastor Vlad Kalin said from New Life Church in Kharkiv:

“Hello everyone at Slavic Christian Ministries! During our Christmas program, we had 200 children in our church for the event. As we usually do at Christmas, we organize a large-scale event for the children and their parents. We invited 40 families who are in very difficult life situations with no home church and not much hope in life, due to everything being taken from them one way or another. These families were dealing with divorce, abuse, living in extreme poverty, etc. Thanks to your generosity, our church was able to buy presents for all the children and put on this Christmas program for everyone. Thank you so much for blessing our church and these wonderful children!” – Pastor Vlad

Here is another tesimony for pastor Sergei of Good News Church in Kharkiv:

“Hello friends, I want to thank everyone from Slavic Christian Ministries and I hope you had a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year. Thank you for blessing our children this year! In our main campus in Kharkiv, we had a big Christmas program for 650 children. Some were from our church and others were from the community and we were so delighted to see so many smiling faces and serve so many kids.

After this event, we then delivered 350 Christmas gifts and children’s Bibles to kids who are refugees and are living in various temporary housing around our city (that lived too far way to join us that evening). We also packed an additional 500 Christmas gifts for children in our satellite campuses around our region, who are just trying to survive each and every day. At these locations, we also had a Christmas program, but not as elaborate as within our home church, but all the children were super happy.

Lastly, we visited a village named Mirnoe, where many refugee families who left our city and have been living there for several years now. Many people here are the wives and children who have lost their husbands and father’s in the war and are going through a really difficult time dealing with extreme trauma, grief, and mental problems. We try to love on them regularly, but this Christmas, we were able to give out another 700 gifts and Bibles to these children too. Thank you for providing joy, if even for a brief moment to these beautiful children. We love you all!” – Pastor Sergei

Dear friends, thank you for making it another memorable year. We ended the year about $20,000 down from the year before, but we were still able to accomplish everything we budgeted for in 2025. Thank you so much for being a huge blessing to Ukraine and praying for our ministry regularly!!

In Jesus’ love,

Ron