Media Associates International has named Ezdra Publishing of Ukraine as the 2025 recipient of the Robert B. Reekie Global Publisher Award, recognizing the Christian publisher’s sustained ministry and innovation amid war-related hardships.
The annual award honors excellence in Christian publishing in regions facing exceptional challenges and commemorates MAI co-founder Robert B. Reekie, whose work focused on equipping publishers to produce accessible, high-quality Christian literature worldwide.
MAI President Heather Pubols announced the award in a letter to Ezdra Publishing CEO Andriy Kravchenko, praising the organization’s commitment to children’s literature, Sunday school resources and the production of a Children’s Bible through translation, editing and design.
“Your continued service amid challenging circumstances in Ukraine exemplifies the very spirit of resilience, excellence, and hope that this award seeks to honor,” Pubols wrote, adding that MAI prays the recognition will serve as encouragement as the ministry continues during the ongoing conflict in the country.
Ezdra Publishing traces its roots to the early 1990s, when Kravchenko, newly converted to Christianity, began exploring how publishing could serve the Ukrainian church. His first project was a nationally distributed Christian newspaper for children, produced while he was leading a Sunday school.
In 1995, just two years after becoming a Christian, Kravchenko oversaw the publication of a 100-page hymnal, A Collection of Songs for Youth, created to address the lack of Ukrainian-language worship music for evangelical churches. The first 1,000 copies sold within a month, and the hymnal remains in print today.
The publishing house, named after the biblical figure Ezra, was founded with the aim of supporting spiritual renewal in Ukraine following decades of enforced atheism. While Ezdra initially lacked the capacity to print Bibles, it focused on hymnals, later expanding to Bible dictionaries, concordances, handbooks and a 20-volume Exploring the Bible series for adults and children.
One of the company’s most notable successes came with the publication of Taming the Tiger, a translated account of world kung-fu champion Tony Anthony’s Christian conversion. Ezdra Publishing invited Anthony to tour Ukraine following the book’s release, drawing large crowds and further establishing the impact of Christian publishing on evangelism.
By 1999, Ezdra had published its first hardcover hymnal and has since distributed more than 300,000 hymnals in Ukrainian and Russian. The company later expanded into fiction and children’s books, including works by local Ukrainian authors.
Kravchenko’s involvement with MAI began in 2010, when he connected with MAI-Europe and later attended MAI’s global LittWorld conference. Exposure to print-on-demand technology led Ezdra to establish its own POD facility in Ukraine, which now produces books for local Christian publishers and self-published authors.
During the ongoing war with Russia, the POD operation has enabled Ezdra to continue production despite frequent power outages. The organization installed a solar power system with battery backup after facing blackout schedules that left electricity unavailable for much of the day.
“Ukraine’s churches are working hard to help people in their need,” Kravchenko said, noting that the demand for Christian literature has remained strong as churches respond to humanitarian and spiritual needs.
While acknowledging the difficulty of planning for the future amid war, Kravchenko said Ezdra Publishing remains committed to supporting churches with resources for ministry and evangelism.
