August 30, 1998, Adam Kravets led his first worship service for his new congregation at the Colonial Hills Baptist Church west of Bedford. The service marked the end of a long journey that had brought Adam out of his native Ukraine as a refugee and to a new life as an American pastor. Kravets grew up in the Ukraine while it was still part of the Communist Soviet Union and became part of a small underground Baptist church - a Christian activist. As the Soviet Union was breaking apart in the early 1990’s, plunging the region into political turmoil, Adam left his birthplace in 1991 to safety in the United States. “I had a calling to serve God and to communicate his counsel,” Kravets said. With that calling at the forefront, Adam enrolled at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., for six years of Bible school, earning both an undergraduate and graduate degree on his way to his ordination in August 1998. Looking toward his future, Adam and his wife, the former Tina Zembower of Centerville, learned that Colonial Baptist was searching for a new pastor. “I submitted my resume and was blessed to be chosen,” Adam said. “I love it,” he said. “There’s no grander experience than sharing the love of the one who made you. I feel that we are all channels of his love.” Adam’s work combines worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and missions - what he calls a balanced ministry that reaches beyond Bedford.

Adam said that while no human being is exactly the same, he sees many of the same personal problems and concerns in Bedford as he encountered in the Ukraine. However, culturally there’s a big difference. “Here, we take for granted the amount of stuff we all have,” he said. “The poorest person in Bedford County has more than many in other parts of the world.” The economics of being pastor of an American church has been one of Adam’s greatest challenges. “Raising money is difficult,” he said.

He advises young people who feel they have a calling to the ministry to “keep their lives clean and foster the right relationship with God.” If they have grown up in a church community, he suggests attending a non-secular college to experience the world and to earn a general degree in a related field before going onto seminary. “You need to develop all of your skills to the highest to serve God to the best of your ability,” he said. “There’s no greater challenge, no greater joy.”

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