Spotlight on Ukraine: Resilient Faith

Resilient Faith

Chad and Leanna Wiebe

Ukrainians well remember 2014. It was the year of Maidan, the turnover of government in Kyiv and the startup of war in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Church buildings were looted, Bible school campuses overrun and turned into military barracks. Families were forced to abandon their homes, leaving behind everything they owned. Believers well remember how by God’s grace they responded to the waves of refugees coming from the east. In churches, mattresses were spread on sanctuary floors and church offices to make room for those needing places to rest. Soup kitchens were created, and trucks of food and clothes sent to churches in the east. Words do not express the pain that Ukrainians still feel today. It was not an easy time, but it was a time of unique opportunities to show and share of the love of Christ.

It was also a time when more and more churches were talking about the call of missions—a call to take the gospel to places and peoples with no witness or access to God’s Word. A coalition of churches gathered in Kiev for a missions conference to discuss “Missio Dei”—The Mission of God. The word “unreached” began taking root in the missions vocabulary of certain Bible studies, churches and Bible schools. Some churches, while helping refugees, continued sending teams to work with the unreached in Russia and Central Asia. We watched as believers, battling with feelings otherwise, stood to commission teams to go where they felt they might not be well received. Feelings of fear and hurt were overcome by long earnest prayers for the salvation of others. Some would pray, “Not glory to Ukraine, Lord, but glory to Christ!” accompanied by whispers of “Amen.” This is the power of God doing what many might not expect.

Also, Crimean Tatars (CTs) in Southern Ukraine due to the annexation of the peninsula on the Black Sea began migrating north. For decades, ethnic barriers, the lack of Scriptures in their own language and lack of vision among churches in Ukraine for missions, little progress was made in reaching these people with the gospel. But the conflict caused many CTs to begin moving north and into Europe. As a result, they met believers and churches ready to receive them. Some CTs said, “We’ve never been in a Christian church before. We are impressed.” Warm introductions were made to the way of salvation through Christ. These are things you will not read about in newspapers or hear in media outlets. Weekly prayer meetings in city squares were also organized across Ukraine.

For years we have been running a Bible study course on missions based on Perspectives of the World Christian Movement, called Kairos, training short-term team leaders and conducting missions conferences to help believers throughout Ukraine grapple with the call to take the message of Christ to all nations. Slowly this call is being embraced. But it has not been without some push back. One pastor, after a seminar on cross-cultural ministry, said “Why send our people to Africa? We live in ‘Africa’, right here, with unbelievers all around us!” Some months later another pastor looked at me and asked, “How long has your mission been working in Ukraine?” I said, “25 years.”

“Twenty-five years?!” he said, “and only now you are helping us better understand the biblical teaching and task of reaching the nations. Why didn’t you start sooner?” His church association is now training and sending missionaries.

There is no question that God is at work in our world moving his people during times of uncertainty to pray, give and go. And Ukrainians are showing us that when the going gets tough, stay calm, keep believing and trust God to do great things for his name.

It’s now 2022. And, despite the challenges and complexities of COVID over the past two years along with the festering, eight-year crisis of war in the east, Ukrainians continue to send their own to places and peoples around them. For years Ukraine has been considered the Bible Belt of the former Soviet Union. By God’s grace it is also becoming a missions hub for reaching the nations around her. This year, not one, but two large missions conferences will be held in Ukraine. These conferences are designed to underscore the critical need to plant churches among the more than 160 distinct unreached ethnic groups, representing over 90 million people, in Eurasia and Central Asia. The Lord is raising up short-term teams to begin the process of engaging these people groups with the gospel. And, by God’s grace, dozens of Ukrainians have already moved into full-time missions. These are servants of the cross, sent and supported by their local churches for the purpose of reaching other peoples and nations for Christ.

THE JOSHUA PROJECT indicates that there are 370 unreached people groups (UPGs)across the 15 countries of the former Soviet Union, totaling over 93 million people. If this list is reduced to include only those distinct groups that spread over several countries of Eurasia, then it can be said that there are 160 distinct unreached people groups across the countries of the former Soviet Union. They are “unreached” because less than 2% of their populations are is evangelical Christian. Also, no known active church planting work is underway among these peoples. Now, more than ever, is the time for both growing churches in Eurasia and calling believers from around the globe to press forward together with intentionality and focus to reach these UPGs for Christ. (Psalm67:1-3; Matt. 28:18-20; Rev. 7:9-10)