Every church has its own story to tell. The Sacramento Slavic church, officially organized on Sept. 25, 2004, is no exception.

The story begins with five pioneer families from the former Soviet Union—the Polygas, Kravets, Alekseenkos, Penkovs and the Dzyndras—who immigrated to America in 1991. Due to the similarities in language and culture, they joined the Sacramento Yugoslavian church where a translator assisted them with language differences.

The original group of five families did not remain alone for long. Through evangelistic programs, seminars, concerts and other meetings led by Lune Randjelovic, current pastor of both the Sacramento Yugoslavian and Slavic churches, the gospel reached many Russian-speakers in the community. The Slavic group had now become large enough to conduct Sabbath school classes in their own language.

“As our group grew, our Sabbath school classes began to expand,” said Sergey Khabyuk, head elder of the Slavic church. “To keep our classes dynamic and active, we organized a second class for adults, a youth class and a children’s class.”

A proportional growth in membership occurred with the continuous evangelistic series. As additional Russian-speaking families began to join the Yugoslavian church, the Slavic group contacted the Northern California Conference in 2002 to request the formation of a company. Two years later, the company officially organized into a church. There has been a highly charged response to the organization of the church.

“It has been 12 years since I first came to America. Since that moment, I have been waiting to find a church to call my own,” said Tanya Shtetanista, treasurer at the Slavic church. “When I saw the church so full at the organization service, I felt very emotional and high in spirits. This was a very big moment for me.”

Randjelovic agrees that the organization represented a monumental milestone. “This has been an amazing moment for our church family. God has been with us through this process and still has more work for us to do. We still have others to reach in the Sacramento area, as there are approximately 150,000 Russian-speaking people.”

To further minister to the Russian-speaking community, the Sacramento Slavic church sponsors an evangelistic television program, which airs at 8 p.m. Fridays on local cable channel 19.

Jim Pedersen, executive secretary of the Northern California Conference, believes God has placed a special burden upon the hearts of the Slavic church family to reach the Russian-speaking community in Sacramento. “I’m excited to see a group continue to grow and reach this milestone," says Pedersen. "They have a passion for Jesus and spreading the gospel to their community. I’ve been really happy and pleased to be a part of the process with them.”