When the Sent are Sent Away GERMANY - UKRAINE | Nikki White
Kateryna Oliferovski was completing a church internship in Dortmund, Germany, when the war in her Ukrainian homeland began. She is still there. “It was supposed to be a short mission trip,” Kateryna explained. “I felt that God was sending me to Germany, to serve the church and help bring the light of the Gospel. Then suddenly, I could not leave.” She called her parents when the invasion was imminent, wanting to fly home right away. Instead, she was told to stay where she was, which was not easy for her to accept. When all flights were cancelled, it was like a door closing in her face. Before long, there would be thousands feeling this same sense of loss, being sent away to other countries for their own safety. 14 | witness
Her parents, Maxym and Anya, said they were going to remain in their city of Zaporizhzhia for as long as they could, together with other staff from the New Hope Center, a ministry to families in crisis that was, they knew, about to encompass a crisis beyond comprehension. “I didn’t want them to stay,” Kateryna said. “Then I remembered that when I was small, my mom and dad never forced me to do anything. They let me make my own decisions. This is their decision. But it is hard.” This is not the first time that Kateryna has spent a significant time away from home. At age twenty, she sensed God sending her to Canada for one year of service with Mennonite Central Committee. During that year, her parents were also in Canada, but in a different province, going
