In the fall of 2005, the MJBI opened a school in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mike Becker, pioneer of Messianic congregations in Russia and MJBI board member, is working closely with the planting of this new work. Key graduates and staff of the MJBI in Odessa, Ukraine, lead this work alongside the existing Messianic leadership in Russia. Previously, the MJBI's main Russia base was in Moscow, but it has now moved to St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is significant because this is the location of where an awakening of Jewish faith in Yeshua began through the Hear O Israel Festival Outreaches in the1990s. More information will be forthcoming about this new MJBI work.