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.




The Testimony of a Missionary

History is an interesting subject. At any given moment in history, one person experiences joy while another grieves. The Gospel first came to my little village not far from Kobrin, Belarus in 1924. I don't remember this event because I was only two years old. But the moment my mother heard the Gospel, she immediately repented and accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior. And when the fire of love for Christ first burns within the heart (as many of us have done similarly), she immediately wanted to witness. She desired to share the Gospel with her husband, who then was living and working in America in the Pennsylvania coal mines.

I never knew my father for the first five years of my life. Four months before I was born, he left for America to work in order to provide for our family in Belarus. My mother wrote a letter telling of the “new life” that she had in Christ. She didn't know that at that same time my father was invited to Passaic, New Jersey. He came to a friend’s house with whom he drank often, but he saw a tremendous change within the home. Instead of a bottle of vodka on the table, there was an open Bible. His friends asked him to join them for dinner, and to my father's surprise, before eating they prayed.

When my father returned home, he wrote to my mother. He wrote that when they prayed, they prayed as if God was in the room. He opened his eyes to see where God was, but my father couldn't see Him. My father's friends then invited him to a church service. After the service, he wrote to my mother, saying, "I have never seen such happy people in my life. They stood up and gave testimony to the faith they had in their heart." He said that he wanted what they had. Before that service was over, he had accepted Christ as his personal Savior.
 
My parents' letters crossed each other on the Atlantic Ocean. Each letter told the other of the “new life” that they had found in Christ! I'm bringing this to your attention to show the kind of home and atmosphere in which I was raised. My parents realized that it wasn't enough for them to know the Gospel. They must communicate it to those who were closest to them — to their family.

On October 14, 1929, our entire family came to America. In 1935, as a boy of thirteen, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior at a cottage meeting right in our home. It wasn't an evangelistic service, but I responded because my parents had sown the seed of the Gospel and I had seen it practiced in their lives. When I saw the believers praying together with sincerity, I realized that I needed what they had.

In 1941 I graduated high school with a scholarship to Butler University. I wanted to be an engineer. However, when I heard the call of the Gospel and saw before me the perishing world, I realized the Lord had other plans for my life. I fell on my knees saying, "Lord, not my will, but Thine be done." Instead of that university, I entered a Bible school. I had to work nights for four years to pay my way through school.

Then, the Lord opened the door for me to broadcast the Gospel in Russian from Quito, Ecuador. I'll never forget when my family went to the pier in New York City. There was no big farewell service, no choir sang, and no pastor blessed me with a benediction. Seeing me off were Mother, Father, and the one who today is my wife, Babs, who then was my fiancée. It wasn't a luxury ship on which I sailed to Quito; it was a freighter.

Just before I walked onto the ship, I'll never forget how my mother took her well-worn New Testament from her purse and said, "Dear son, I wish to leave several verses for you which I pray God will use as life verses in your life." She then read from 2 Timothy 2:1-3: Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou has heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

Those words meant a lot to me then, but they mean a whole lot more to me now. Almost fifty years later, if you asked me if I had made a mistake when I gave my life for service unto Christ, I would honestly say no! If I had life to live over again, I wouldn't do anything differently. We cannot give more to Christ than we receive back from Him.

Not one of us as Christians can live unto ourselves alone; if we live for God we are going to be living for others. God has made the ultimate sacrifice in giving His Son. In return, we ought to be willing to sacrifice for Him. When the world looks upon us, can they see God in us? Little do we realize how many people are watching. They listen to the words we speak. They look upon our actions. What kind of God do they see in our lives? What changes take place in their lives because they have met with us? People's lives will change if they see God in us. The Lord is calling us to consecration, that there might be such a deep love for Him, that it would be seen in our concern for the world in which we live.

Alex Leonovich
Evangelical Baptist Herald 1994 (condensed)