In much of Eastern Europe today, even if young people can speak English, it’s mostly limited. They may know enough to get around or have a friendly conversation, but when it comes to theological terms, that vocabulary is just not there in English. But it is there in their native language or “heart language.” Eastern Europe has long faced a theological famine, with few Christian resources available in believers’ native languages.

When Ukrainian church planter Sasko Nazamutdimov came to faith in western Ukraine at 12 years old, the only church resources his church could share with him were in Russian, because nobody wanted to invest into publishing in Ukrainian. Now pastoring a church in Poland, Sasko recognizes the vast need for resources in Polish. In addition to other things the church is doing, they’ve opened a publishing house, which publishes a couple dozen books a year of sound Reformed Christian literature.

“We wanted to have something to give to people,” Sasko says. “And we started translating primarily from English into Polish.” They’ve seen this ministry affect even the wider national church in Poland. “We get responses from people from other denominations, Christians from other churches. It’s even affecting them, how it’s affecting their preaching and some of the things that their ministers are now saying. I think we filled a niche that was needed to be filled because the need was great.”