Changing Ukraine, One Heart at a Time
“The Ukranian people are fed up and calling for change,” says BCM Ukraine missionary Igor Kotenko.
And with good reason. A former Soviet republic, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe with a population of 46 million. Upheld as a Western model of free-market democracy, the country is currently rocked by financial and political instability. A recent dispute with neighboring Russia over natural gas has resulted in shortages, super inflation, even going without heat when gas shipments were halted. Ukraine’s currency, the hryvna, has devalued to the point where banks have issued cash limits, and Ukrainians stand in the freezing cold for hours to withdraw daily amounts of their savings. Disillusionment reigns.
But in the village of Kijliv, fifty miles from Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, change is just what Igor and his wife Oxana are committed to bringing to their countrymen. The same change that transformed their own lives when they came face to face with God’s Word and a Savior’s love.
As successful professionals, Igor and Oxana Kotenko were steadily building a life together. A Ph.D., Igor was on faculty at Kiev Polytechnic University. Oxana had graduated from Odessa Business and Accounting University. They were raising two sons, Roddy and Eugene. Then thirty-seven year old Igor went to the Kiev market to buy food. There for the first time, he picked up a Bible. As he held it in his hands, he knew he had to have it.
Instead of his groceries, Igor spent almost half of his salary, 80 rubles, on the Bible. “At first I was scared of my wife’s reaction. That she’d think I’d wasted money set apart for food.”
Oxana’s reaction? “I asked myself why this book is so expensive. Maybe this is reason to read it as well.”
“She said we had no option but to read this book as I had spent such a crazy amount of money on it,” adds Igor. The couple began reading the Bible together.
“I wouldn’t claim we were unhappy living without Christ,” Igor expresses. The couple had a good relationship with co-workers, family, and friends. “We were happy in our ignorance.”
What changed?
“Five years before my conversion, my wife and I met with a woman who witnessed boldly about Christ without fear of being captured and imprisoned. Her witnessing made an impact in my understanding of the relation between man and his Creator and the role of Jesus Christ in this relationship.”
Igor and Oxana continued to read their Bible, but without much understanding. Christian friends tried to help, but couldn’t break through. Two books translated into Russian—Peace With God by Billy Graham and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis—moved them forward. The next step was to overcome their fear of being considered part of a sect, as Bible-reading Christians were accused. They attended a Baptist church, which led to Igor studying at Odessa Bible School.
“Step by step, due to contacts with believers and the reading of those books,” Igor shares now, “the wall that separated me and the Bible began to melt. The Word of God brought faith in my heart.”
Ukraine Summer Camp
As both Igor and Oxana grew in their faith, the Kotenkos found they could not keep the good news of their changed lives to themselves. After Igor graduated from Odessa Bible College in 1993, the couple joined BCM International and began sharing their faith in the Kijliv region through Bible Clubs, camps, and university outreach. Meanwhile, they continued studying God’s Word. Igor received a Masters in Divinity from Tyndale Theological Seminary in the Netherlands in 2000. Oxana graduated in 1995 from Odessa Bible College, received a diploma in Christian Education from Kiev Theological Seminary in 2000, and is currently a Master of Arts student of the Talbot Seminary at Biola University.
Today Igor and Oxana Kotenko are part of a team of twenty-three BCM Ukraine missionaries serving in a wide variety of ministries around the country and even into Russia. The Kotenkos train Sunday school teachers and supervise the Bible Club Ministry across Ukraine. Within their own church, Igor preaches and teaches while Oxana works with teenagers and runs a women’s ministry that meets in the Kotenkos’ apartment. They have worked to translate and print BCM Bible curriculum in the country’s two main languages, Russian and Ukrainian. Igor translated BCM’s program for sharing Christ’s love with children and adults who have mental or physical disabilities. This became the first Christian manual in the Ukraine for such ministries. Both Igor and Oxana have also been involved in editing Hristianstvo, a Christian magazine with a circulation of 10,000.
Summers are busy with camp ministry. Oxana serves as director of the Christian camp program, Compass, which in 2008 accommodated approximately 200 children and more than 30 volunteer workers. The original program was designed for children 7-12 years old. But as those children grew, camps were added for teenagers. A second camp, held at the Black Sea shore on the Crimean peninsula, accommodates about 50 participants. There is also a special program for 15-18 year olds who serve as assistant leaders in the camp. “An after-camp ministry overgrew itself,” jokes Igor, “into a year-round ministry for teens.”
It has been exciting to see campers become active in sharing their own faith. Many are now camp leaders themselves. This year the Kotenkos facilitated six missionary trips for teenagers who were former campers to minister in orphanages around Ukraine. Members of Oxana’s teen ministry run holiday programs for children with disabilities.
While the economic and political situation in Ukraine may be unstable, the church situation is not. Approximately 30 percent of self-identified Christians are evangelicals, as compared to neighboring Russia with less than 2 percent. There are no restrictions for ministry as in other former Soviet republics. The only real difficulty for starting new churches is the huge price for premises, construction, and land. Even this constriction relaxed when Parliament issued a law excusing churches from land tax.
“This law was initiated by the evangelical lobby in the Ukrainian parliament,” explains Igor.
And as God’s love changes hearts, it has an impact on local economy and politics as well. With the recent gas crisis, many areas in Ukraine struggled with lack of heat and gas, as services were cut off to force price negotiations with Russia. But not the region of Kiev where Kotenkos live, thanks to the city’s mayor, who identifies himself as a believer.
“This area is inhabited with low-income people,” the mayor announced publicly, “so it is sinful to cut heat from them.”
That’s the kind of change Igor and Oxana Kotenko remain committed to bringing to Ukraine, as the good news of salvation melts walls of separation between Ukrainians and a loving Creator and heavenly Father, one transformed heart at a time.
