GLOBAL VOICES
A Ukrainian Missionary Gives Thanks Cheryl Warner and Luba L. Churches send missionaries from all the world to all the world, and with Ukraine considered the Bible Belt of Eastern Europe with a history of mature evangelical churches, it is growing as a sending country. Ukrainians speak both Ukrainian and Russian, so they are uniquely situated to work in other countries that were also part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, where Russian is spoken along with a national language. That includes several Muslim-majority countries in Central Asia, such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Luba L. is a Ukrainian missionary to Central Asia who serves in a church working with children and youth, many of whom come from unbelieving families or have suffered neglect. Three years ago, she was a student in the class that Charley and I teach on the spiritual life of the cross-cultural missionary at Odessa Theological Seminary, and we have kept in close contact with her. Charley always tells these students there is no final exam for this class—the test will happen on the mission field. Luba went back to the field in January, expecting to return home in July, and got stranded there because of the pandemic. Her return flight was canceled with no rescheduled date in sight. Thanks to a special gift from a generous Ukrainian donor, she eventually booked a flight on the only airline that was flying but at the last minute wasn’t allowed to board because of some COVID-related glitches. She was told that her ticket couldn’t be used in the future—it was “burned.” Things went from bad to worse when her visa then expired, and she had to renew it in order to leave the country (no small feat). She has experienced many trials (not to mention that serving as a single woman in a Muslim-majority context in Central Asia isn’t easy to begin with!). Luba finally returned to Ukraine in late September, two months later than expected. The first airline did refund the price of her ticket and the second airline finally allowed her to rebook on another date. After all the uncertainty and high levels of stress she endured, I expected her to return to Ukraine bruised or near burnout, but instead she has been overflowing with thankfulness for God’s gifts, large and small. Some of the things on her thanksgiving list are things I definitely take for granted.
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Here is a translation from Russian of the text message Luba sent to her supporters on her arrival in Ukraine, used with her permission: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Now that I am already at home and beginning to analyze the past eight months in [Central Asian country], I can say with certainty that despite all the difficulties, God is good! Here are some of the things for which I am grateful to God:
• We became very good friends with some of the kids and
spent hundreds of hours together doing different things. I believe that God will grow the Word that has been sown. . .
• God gave me new friends! • This year I felt your prayer and emotional support in a special way! • We never had checks with the KGB, or other services. Believe me, this was a great grace of God and a relief for me, especially when we held a mini-day camp for the first time in our town. • All this time I did not have any serious health problems and never had to consult a doctor. A piece of my tooth broke, but it did not hurt, and I will be able to treat it here in Ukraine. • Thanks to you, I had all the finances I needed to live and serve there. I never went hungry, and I always had enough. (Of course, the loss of an expensive flight ticket was initially a big financial challenge, but as you know, God solved this issue too!) • There were never any scandals with unbelieving parents whose children visit the house of prayer and come to various activities! (The only time was when one grandmother came to complain about me to the pastor, for allegedly cutting her child's hair too short, but she ended up becoming friends with me.) • I never crossed paths with radical Muslim "believers." Recently, stone dents were found on the gate of the prayer house, but no one was hurt.
