Country Information

Belarus which was part of the former Soviet Union became an independent country in 1991.

Belarus is bordered by Russia to the east, Poland to the West, Ukraine to the South, and Lithuania & Latvia to the North.

Belarus is approximately the size of Kansas with a population of just under 10 million.

Minsk is the capital of Belarus with a population of over 2 million.

Churches

Belarus is officially Russian Orthodox with a strong Catholic influence in the western part of the country which had been part of Poland for many years. 

Less than half of 1 percent of the population of Belarus are evangelical believers. 

The capital of Belarus has a few “large” churches with Sunday attendance over 200. In towns and villages the overwhelming majority of churches have fewer than 15 adults attending.

The Minsk Bible College, founded in 1993, played a significant church planting role in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Since 2000 the initial openness and enthusiasm in response to the gospel has been steadily drying up. With this, church planting has greatly diminished.

Today there is little growth in the Belarusian church and virtually no church planting. The spiritual soil in Belarus is very hard.

Challenges

During the Soviet era, Belarus and Minsk in particular was used as a laboratory for the latest in Soviet ideology.  Atheism remains especially in the eastern half of Belarus.

Belarus has one of the highest rates of alcoholism in the world and has the world’s highest per capita consumption of alcohol.

The divorce rate in Belarus is second highest in the world.

These high rates of alcoholism and divorcee have produced a staggering brokenness in family life.

Most of the fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster landed in Belarus. Approximately 24% of Belarus was affected. This poisoning of the land remains a serious health problem.