PLI is all about training and developing multiplying missionary leaders all over the world! We serve six regions: Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, USA/Canada, and Western Europe.
We believe God is raising up pastors and leaders for His church across the world. God has promised to do this and is answering the prayers of His people. These pastors and leaders yearn to effectively lead God’s people, to bring people together to work in unity to make disciples and start evangelistic communities for the sake of fulfilling God’s mission. And they need leadership Learning Communities and fellow, experienced Christian leaders who are willing to come alongside them and their spouses. They need to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered in their missional leadership development.
This is why we provide the training we do. We believe that through PLI’s training and an equipped and transformed pastor or key leader, baptized believers can be released into and empowered for their participation in the Mission of God, together!
For the next few weeks, let’s take a closer look at PLI’s work in Eurasia.
“After 14 years you’re still coming back and helping us lead God’s people into His mission. You made a commitment to us, and you meant it. Thank you.” (Latvian pastor)
During our recent Global PLI Update webinar, we highlighted PLI’s global training regions – one of them being Eurasia. We use this name because the region bridges countries in both Europe and Asia. More specifically, it encompasses Eastern European countries and Russian-speaking countries.
Helping to lead this region for PLI is Rev. Artis Eglitis (pictured at right), who is based in Latvia. PLI began training in Latvia in 2010–our first Eastern European country, where Russian is also spoken. We’ve had training there ever since, offering annual trainings for four different groups (Years 1 through 4).
In 2016 we began training in Kyrgyzstan. That year, Bishop Emeritus Arri Kugappi of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia, attended a training that included leaders from Kazakhstan. Afterward, he extended an invitation for PLI to bring our training to Russia.
We accepted, and in 2017, began training in Russia.
Meanwhile, we trained trainers in Latvia who now do all of the annual training in Latvia. Those trainers are also Russian-speaking, and are involved in the training that is taking place in Russia each year along with training in Latvia. In addition to Rev. Eglitis, four other couples from Latvia serve as trainers for our programs both in Latvia and Russia, and two couples from Russia have also been trained as trainers.
Recently, the trained trainers in Latvia began training all the Bishops and Deans of the Latvian Lutheran Church. Today, leaders across four countries – Latvia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan – are working together through PLI’s leadership training, and leaders from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan join with the training that takes place each year in Russia.
In our next blog post, we’ll look at PLI’s impact in Eurasia.
Contributors: Rika Beckley, Rev. Dr. Scott Rische, Sherrah Behrens
*maps made with mapchart.net
