Dr.Alex Leonovich: "Message of God's Love"

Pray that God will fill the Slavic believers with a hunger for His Word: "Desire the sincere milk of the Word" (1 Peter 2:2), and a spirit of prayer: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Ask God to call many young men and women to serve Him sacrificially and sincerely in places of leadership. Pray that some will choose to serve in other Slavic countries as missionaries. Intercede for the Christian leadership in Eastern Europe that they will withstand the powers of darkness and remain stable in their spiritual roles.

Alex Leonovich, a native of Russia, ministered in missionary, pastoral and evangelistic work since 1945. He was at the forefront of evangelistic broadcasting into the former Soviet Union by way of HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. As the Executive Director of Slavic Missionary Service International, Alex had an extensive outreach to the Slavic speaking world both home and abroad.

Before accepting the leadership of Slavic Missionary Service in 1958, he served as pastor of two American Russian-Ukrainian churches simultaneously for almost five years. He was marked as a "fiery youth missionary preacher” in both the Russian and English languages by his peers. After taking on the responsibility of SMS, he continued to pastor the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Manville, NJ until he resigned in 1970 to devote more time to the mission’s endeavors.

SMS is grateful to God for the faithful and fervent leadership of Alex Leonovich from 1958 until March of 2013. SMS is happy to share some of Alex’s past articles to encourage all to support the mission, as we continue to work in Slavic countries and reach Slavic people throughout the world.

A Life with Meaning

A familiar colloquial expression, "Life begins at forty," is far from being true as far as I'm concerned. For me, real life began at thirteen, when at a cottage prayer meeting held at our home, I found Christ as my Savior. The years which followed had been the most thrilling and exciting years of my life. Over and over again, I found the Lord providing for my every need: physical, material, spiritual, emotional and social.

The years of service, which took me to the Doukhabores of northwest Canada; the rugged peaks of the Andes of Ecuador, where I had the privilege of daily broadcasting the Gospel in the Russian language from the microphones of HCJB, a pioneer missionary station; the jungles of South America where we found tens of thousands of Slavic people without Christ; the continent of Europe with its unprecedented prospects for evangelism; and the great opportunities to serve the Lord with the Russian-Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Union (RUEBU) on the home-base of operation, all attest to the fact that it pays to serve Christ and be obedient to His leading.

What a joy it has been for me also to be the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Manville, NJ, working with our people in both home and foreign responsibilities of Christian service!

For some, life might begin at forty; but for me, life with meaning and life with purpose began when I gave my heart to Jesus and committed my life to Him!

Alex Leonovich

(Evangelical Baptist Herald – July-August, 1968)

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"…A special thank you for the book that you sent me about Alex Leonovich. Indeed I do know him: as a small child I listened to him on the short wave radio. He was know to us as Aleksei Pavlovich. My family and neighbors used to get together at our house and listened to him preach every night for many years until we were able to immigrate to the USA. He and Earl Poysti were the main sources of spiritual food for us, because Bibles were scarce at the time of socialism reighning. The book you sent is very captivating to read and I can identify with a lot of things there. I had a hard time putting it down…"

Elena