The Healing Path Movement, church-to-church partnership between Baptist churches in Texas and Ukraine, has experienced an increase in church involvement and planning, with 41 committed partnerships and four projects underway. A few other churches are in the process of joining.
“Most of those churches have actually already started their communication with their partner church in Ukraine,” Hannah Polk, director of the executive office at First Baptist Church Kaufman, reported during a meeting of the Healing Path Movement on March 26.
The partnership began in November 2025 and officially launched in January. Brent Gentzel, senior pastor of FBC Kaufman, provides leadership for the partnership.
“Things are going well. … Churches have already started their prayer partnerships. … Prayer teams are meeting on a weekly, or every-other-week, or once-a-month basis,” Gentzel reported.
Projects in progress
Four of several on-the-ground initiatives are taking shape: sports camps utilizing partnerships with Texas-based athletic organizations, English camps using online curriculum, accessibility ramps, and church planting.
Healing Path will partner with Texans on Mission to put together basic plans for accessibility ramps in homes, churches, or other community spaces.
“Europe is notoriously poor about handicap access,” Gentzel explained. “We think there’s a lot of communities where our coming in to provide ramp access will be a great gospel ministry.”
Healing Path leaders are partnering with Baptist ministers to strategize on church planting opportunities and church training in Ukraine.
“We want to continue to plant churches during the war [between Russia and Ukraine]. And when the war is over, we think it’s important that we plant and re-plant churches that have been destroyed. It’s important to us that this be a priority for the partnership,” Gentzel said.
Financial strategy update
Participating churches with the Baptist General Convention of Texas are expected to give $10,000 annually and $500 per month for three years. The total expected annual funding per partner church is $16,000.
The $10,000 annual gift is used to fund infrastructure costs of the movement, such as baseball camp training, curriculum development, and more. The monthly gifts are tied to the specific project a Texas and Ukrainian church agree to undertake together.
“Administrative costs for this whole thing are being handled out of gifts that have come from another source. We want all the money that is coming from the churches to go directly toward funding other ministry efforts,” Gentzel said.
Texas churches send their gifts to BGCT, which in turn wires these funds to the Ukrainian Baptist Union to disburse to designated partner church in Ukraine. Giving updates are provided on the 15th of each month.
Healing Path Movement is also receiving donations from interested individuals, whether their church is engaged in the partnership or not. Those contributions are also being received online through Texas Baptists.
Partnerships needed
Every oblast — a region similar to a U.S. state — in Ukraine is represented by a church partnership. A few Ukrainian churches are still waiting for partners.
Gentzel asked pastor participants to consider how the Healing Path Movement will expand within the next year, encouraging them to reach out to potential partner churches:
“We’re 41 churches. … We’d like to get to 50. But really beyond that, there are 2,000 Ukrainian Baptist churches, and many of those would like to have partners. We are interested in seeking to grow this.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Faith Pratt and originally published in the Texas Baptist Standard.
