Spotlight on Ukraine: A Go-Bag by the Door

A Go-Bag by the Door

Cheryl Warner

Since 2018, Charley and I have lived in Irpin, Ukraine, home of the Ukrainian Baptist Union headquarters. We work with the Baptist Union to help churches develop plans to care for the missionaries they are sending to other countries. We also teach Ukrainian missions students a course on the spiritual life of the crosscultural missionary. Being part of Irpin Bible Church has been a highlight of living in this rapidly growing suburb of Kyiv.

We live in a house across the street from the field office of Mission Eurasia, founded by Peter and Anita Deyneka. Anita was one of my professors at Wheaton College Graduate School and having Mission Eurasia as a neighbor is a sweet connection with my Wheaton world. The house is ideally suited for hosting overnight guests and groups, and we offer it as a place of rest and renewal for visiting missionaries and students, as well as a gathering place to study the Bible and pray. In November we hosted global workers supported by Irpin Bible Church during missions month—one woman working in Kazakhstan and a Muslim-background believer from Morocco who works among Muslims in Odesa. This believer’s wife is Ukrainian, and their four children brought a lot of life into our home. In December a couple who did youth ministry in Tajikistan and a former student who worked in Uganda came to debrief their difficult experiences and pray about future ministry.

We are one of three host families for a small group from our church that meets on Tuesday evenings. Every Wednesday women meet in our home to study the Book of Acts and pray for each other. One is a brand-new believer who is eager to learn and has never missed a week. Our group now meets on Zoom, but we are missing lingering after the study with a cup of tea by the fireplace.

When we left our home in Irpin on December 13 to spend Christmas with our daughters, we had no idea that in a couple months we would not be able to live in that house ourselves. Charley returned to Ukraine January 17, and my return was delayed and rescheduled for February 1. But by January 23 tensions between Russia and Ukraine had escalated sharply, and the U.S. State Department issued a level four travel advisory, urging U.S. citizens to leave the country. Upon the advice of our mission leadership, Charley left on January 27 on a flight covered by our evacuation insurance, and I didn’t go back. We are currently staying with Charley’s father in Venice, Florida. We long with all our hearts to return to our home in Ukraine, but we have no idea when that will be possible.

Our absence from Ukraine made the timing of our Ukrainian pastors visiting College Church February 18- 23 all the more meaningful to us. Charley worked with the missions office long ago to set up this visit with four pastors from Irpin Bible Church who were planning to attend a conference in the U.S. They came to College Church to learn about the pastoral residency program. How grateful we are to be part of two gospel-centered churches with similar passions for training leaders and sending missionaries. Introducing our two church families to each other was a landmark moment for us, especially at this juncture in Ukraine’s history as they are living under the threat of military attack.

CHURCHES PREPARE TO HELP DURING WARTIME

Church ministries in Ukraine have been continuing as usual, with some added preparations for what might come. Irpin Bible Church held a first-aid training and is prepared to use its facilities as a point for medical assistance. Prayer meetings were held at 8 p.m. each evening for a week. Igor Bandura is one of the pastors at our church and the vice president for international affairs for the Baptist Union. On January 26 he wrote,

As the leadership of Ukrainian Baptist Union, we are closely working with all our pastors on the action plan for every church and every regional association. Our churches predominantly in western Ukraine are preparing for the possibility to host internally displaced people from the territories that may be occupied. We are working on clear recommendations for both families who would leave the areas of the possible war and those who would have to stay. . . . Many churches are making cash reserves, collecting food and water, and making decisions on how to inform church members and stay in touch in case of internet collapse. Our pastors in many places are discussing and preparing their members and church facilities to serve neighbors in the most difficult situations.

The war is very realistic and highly probable but we experience also the daily hybrid attacks on our economy, infrastructure and suffer from energy and informational challenges. The war of a low intensity is already going on. . . .

We are grateful to our brothers and sisters for their prayers and intercession. Please, stand with us as we are standing for freedom, independence, peace and life!

Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, recently visited Ukraine and described in a video the dire situation in the Donbas region, controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

If past is prologue, if the occupation of these territories is a foreshadow of what may come to Ukraine, it should lead all of us to pray with greater fervor. In one of those occupied territories the Baptist churches were declared to be officially terrorist organizations, as was the Baptist Union of Ukraine. More than 40 Baptist churches were forced to shut down or to go into hiding. The Baptist hymnal was outlawed as “extremist material,” as was the Gospel of John. One of the pastors from those territories told us that the persecution they’re facing today is worse than anything they faced during the time of communist USSR. Yet in the midst of these challenges, along the disputed territories in what they call the gray zone, the Baptists have been serving. They’ve invested more than two million dollars into aid, relief and community development. Over the last five years the Baptists have started 25 new churches.

On February 19 a pastor we know personally in the gray zone sent this message to the missionary care team we work with:

Thank you for your prayers. Our city is calm so far. But in the morning, as a result of shelling, a water treatment plant was damaged, so we have no water in neighboring cities either. Pray for missionaries K and M in Avdiivka, where they have been shooting since five in the morning, that God will protect their family and give them the opportunity to leave the affected area at the right time. Thank you all! There is a powerful attack to provoke the Ukrainian army to respond. The military had a particularly hard time yesterday when there was a direct hit in a kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska. Pray that God will give our military strength to withstand these provocations.

While news reports are alarming, wise pastors remind us where our hope lies. Sergiy Sologub, small group pastor at Irpin Bible Church, shared an encouraging video on the church Telegram channel on February 16:

Brothers and sisters, good morning. Many of us are glad that we woke up this morning, that there wasn’t any invasion. God gives mercy. My wife and I were pondering yesterday what has encouraged us and comforted us. We remembered the past. God has blessed us all. He has given us children. He has blessed us with a place to live, blessed us with a good church. In the past he has never forsaken us. Remember how God has upheld you, each of you, how he has really cared for all your needs, for your family. Therefore, since he has never forsaken us in the past, he will not leave us in the present or the future. He is faithful. That comforted us, encouraged us, so I decided to share these words with you today. May God bless you this day. Go with God.

REMAINING TRUE TO THE FAITH

The amazing women in my Bible study grew up in the Soviet Union and understand what it means to trust God during times of hardship and persecution. Under stress, but not panicking, they are applying the Scriptures to this situation. After our review of Acts 1-12 on February 9, they prayed that Ukrainian believers would be “one in heart and mind” and ready to help people in need, as the early church did (Acts 4:32). On February 16, studying Paul’s first missionary journey, we saw that when a plot to stone Paul in Iconium was discovered, he left that town, and that was the right thing to do. Later God allowed Paul to be stoned and left for dead, but Paul and Barnabas continued preaching the gospel and returned to the new churches they had started, “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ they said” (Acts 14:22). I see these Ukrainian women facing hardships with acceptance, placing their hope in God. With a go-bag by the door, they are still looking for other people they can encourage and help in time of need.

Mikola Romaniuk, senior pastor of Irpin Bible Church, was with us at College Church on February 20 and asked us to pray for peace in Ukraine and peace in Russia. Hear his heartfelt prayer, posted on February 18:

PRAYER ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT WAR

Lord God, Creator of the world, who gives everything being and meaning. You have given our people a land where you mercifully preserve us in the face of our disunity, hostility to common sense, and short-sightedness.

Have mercy on us and forgive us, Ukrainians, for our domestic atheism and situational-holiday piety. Forgive us for destroying our families with infidelity, our bodies with addictions, and our communities with indifference.

Lord God, in the face of an incomparably stronger, more aggressive and extremely hostile neighbor, offer Your protection and strength—if it is Your will, then protect our country from any war.

And if not, give strength and skills to our military to withstand. And keep us in the company of enemies, as You once saved Daniel in the face of all enemies. Change, Almighty Father, this bad situation for our good.

Lord Jesus, provide remarkable wisdom, prudence and foresight in crisis management to our President and officials. And give them an uncharacteristic desire for unity, unanimity and cooperation for the good of the people.

GREAT GOD, THE ONLY ONE, PRESERVE OUR COUNTRY

Posting the Truth

Scrolling through social media posts we see some disturbing opinions that mirror the propaganda that is disseminated. In sharp contrast to the lies that are published, a Russian pastor simply quoted Deuteronomy 27:17:

“Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

Peter Mitskevich, chairman of the Russian Baptist Union and president of Moscow Theological Seminary, wrote on February 19:

“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!!!!! for they shall be called sons of God.” Matt. 5:9—the words of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Sermon on the Mount.

May the Lord have mercy on us from WAR, from bloodshed. HOW CAN PEACE BE CREATED?

Two fraternal peoples, RUSSIANS and UKRAINIANS, have lived together for centuries. But as sin and pride once divided man from God, now repentance is needed to have peace with God. . . . We need to SEEK FIRST OF ALL GOD’S PEACE in our HEARTS! And then we can forgive, we can accept, protect. I JOIN THE PRAYER for KINGS and COMMANDERS to lead us to live a quiet, serene life, so that God’s Word spreads (1 Timothy 2:4). Lord, forgive and have mercy, and grant mercy so that there is no war of brother against brother.