Thousands of public school teachers attended the early Convocations across the former Soviet Union, eagerly receiving the gospel’s truth and embracing the person of Christ. They wanted more. There was a field “white to harvest.”

No one had fully anticipated this type of response.

“When we started the Convocations in May, we had no idea if we would even be able to have a second set of conferences anywhere in the Soviet Union,” says Blair Cook, Co-founder & Director Emeritus of the International School Project (ISP). “Depending upon how the Soviet leaders responded to those test conferences, we hoped for an invitation to do more conferences.”

But by November, it became quite clear that we had an incredible open door for the Gospel. It also had already become evident that a significant amount of follow-up was needed.

“This may be the largest ripe harvest in modern history, just lying on the ground. We must do something. We must go back home and send hundreds – no thousands – back to pick the ripe fruit before it rots,” said Bruce Wilkinson, Chairman of the CoMission Executive Committee.

“Everywhere, people are flooding to Christ, but when we leave, there’s no one to help them grow. We are abandoning them.” said a North American team member who had just participated in an early Convocation to the former Soviet Union, in November 1991.

Thus began a series of meetings and prayerful discussion that eventually led to one of the largest collaborative projects in missions history: the birth of the CoMission. Eighty ministry groups came together in order to cultivate the spiritual harvest.

Walking a Tightrope

It was not an easy task. The CoMission leaders walked a difficult “tightrope.” The original invitation to teach former Soviet school teachers was issued by a government entity which meant that the teams had to exercise caution about promoting church or denominational affiliations. Something – some type of follow up – was needed in the few years between initial evangelistic convocations and the ultimate church plants that were to come.

[See page 22 of the book The CoMission]
[See page 21 of the book The CoMission]

“It had always been the intention of the CoMission to eventually see churches planted in the former USSR, but how the timing would develop was unknown,” explained John Kyle, an influential missionary who served as a key leader for the CoMission. (p 252).

The Strategy

Teams of six to twelve people committed one or two years to live overseas in the former Soviet Union in order to reconnect with the teachers who had attended initial Convocations. The teams led teacher training courses and video Bible classes as part of their ministry strategy. The CoMission leaders decided upon a finite five-year project to bridge the gap between the initial convocations and long-term church plants and local ministry with the teachers.

But there were a lot of cities, and a lot of teachers to reach through follow-up initiatives. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit was at work!

“Please send another team to answer our questions about Jesus,” the teachers in Kurgan begged. They waited patiently for several years. But meanwhile, they did not waste time!

The teachers met with each other, sometimes weekly to study the Bible and enjoy fellowship with one another. By the time a CoMission team did arrive, the North Americans found that the teachers were already quite grounded and prepared for significant ministry growth. They had adapted the ISP curriculum and used it in ways no one anticipated.

One of the teachers exclaimed, “Every teacher who has had training has the ability to reach out to other teachers who have not had such help. That is our responsibility now.”

“It was amazing to see how God had been working in these teachers’ lives, both before and after our team hit the cities for the four-day Convocations. What the teachers had done on their own was amazing,” says Blair.

Were all the teachers reached?

By the end of 1996, ISP had done 136 Convocations in 116 cities. CoMission teams went to 53 of those “Convocation cities.”. But by that time, the CoMission was coming to an end. Yet, the other 63 cities needed follow-up.

Learn what happened next.

* Many of the comments in this email come from the book The CoMission: The amazing story of eighty ministry groups working together to take the message of Christ’s love to the Russian people. Get your copy here.