Alex Leonovich:
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Ph. 4:13

Alex Leonovich, a native of Russia, has been in Missionary-Pastoral-Evangelistic work since 1945. At the forefront of missionary broadcasting into the former Soviet Union by way of HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, he continues to carry on extensive outreach to the Slavic speaking world both home and abroad as the Executive Director of Slavic Missionary Service International.

● Alex Leonovich was born in Belarus in 1922, and came to the United States with his parents and young brother Nick in 1929. After graduation from the Nyack Missionary College in Nyack, NY, he served as a missionary working in Canada, South America and Continental Europe. He was burdened to reach the people from his motherland. While in South America, he directed the Russian Gospel Broadcasts from HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. From there he went into the jungles of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, laboring among the thousands of Slavic settlers in those countries. While in Europe, he was engaged in field evangelism work among the Russian speaking displaced persons.

For four and a half years before taking on the leadership of Slavic Missionary Service in 1958, he served as a pastor of two American Russian/Ukrainian churches simultaneously. He was marked as a "fiery youth missionary preacher in both Russian and English" by his peers. After taking on the responsibility of SMS he continued to pastor the Emmanuel Baptist church in Manville, NJ until he resigned in 1970 to devote more time Slavic Missionary Service.

Mr. Leonovich is playing a key role in the spiritual direction of the “new” Russia. Shortly after the walls of the “iron curtain” collapsed, in a letter to Alex, a Russian government official wrote: "I cannot help but express my delight for your commitment to Christian ideals. You should know how all of us Russians need your support during the difficult days our country is experiencing."