UPDATES FROM UKRAINE

Creating Opportunities To Respond In Love

BY CRYSTAL GIBBONS | PHOTOS BY GENADIY NAUMOV

As medical volunteers from Global Care Force visited churches and villages across Ukraine over the fall and winter of 2022, they prayed that God would help them find at least one person in each location that would be the right fit for an inaugural trauma-care training.

Global Care Force, an organization founded by Dr. Gary Morsch that sends medical volunteers to crisis areas around the world, was partnering with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries to provide basic trauma training for people who are committed to helping those around them and training others in this valuable practice. The first group of 12 trainees gathered just across the border from Ukraine in Przemysl, Poland, in late January, eager to help the most vulnerable people in their communities or those coping with trauma within their own families. After a year of war, the attendees themselves were also dealing with sustained trauma. Through the training, Pastor Volodymyr Masyuk found that he was dealing with the same things as those he pastors.

"Some time ago, I started feeling not myself, I was thinking that something was wrong with me,” Masyuk shared. “I tend to think trauma is somewhere else, not in my life. But I am starting to see the complex trauma that I have experienced. This week was like an emotional MRI. The time here has given me some tools to start to deal with my trauma."

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 70 percent of the world's population has experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. Trauma affects our emotional response, our mental health, and even our physical health. A series of traumatic events over a period of time, known as complex trauma, holds our brains hostage in the flight, flight, or freeze response mode without allowing our bodies to return to a relaxed state. In Ukraine, an entire nation has experienced complex trauma on many levels and will take decades—if not generations—to heal.

Yurii Hymon will take the training back to Lviv, Ukraine. “Some are going back to Ukraine, some are staying in Poland, but any place that God will send us, we are ready to listen and to help those we encounter," Hymon said. “We want to be a safe space for everyone around us."

Valentina Berezniak joined the training from Kazatin, Ukraine. "I want to have more tools to help those around me understand that trauma can be healed,” she explained. “Having a place where you can show your pain can give you a feeling of hope. It will make our healing as a society better, because healing is contagious.”

At times, small acts of love can seem pointless in the face of war. But, although this nationwide trauma is vast and can be overwhelming, those who are trained will become like little pebbles thrown into the sea. Though they are small, the ripples will eventually touch every corner of Ukraine.

InUkraine

and all over the world, people are responding to great needs. Those who have stayed in the country are showing love as needs arise. From trauma training to distributions of food and essentials, the church has mobilized to care for those who need it most.

Love can be many things. In a country experiencing war, active love might become listening to someone else's story, or it might be helping distribute boxes of food to help bridge a gap.

Sometimes, love is a food distribution. In war-torn cities across Ukraine, people have lost jobs, pensions, and savings as records become a casualty. At churches, they find necessities and fellowship.

Sometimes, love is a safe spot for children. Kids clubs have long been spaces where children can go for support, tutoring, relationship-building, and more. Now, those clubs are more important than ever.

And sometimes, love is being in communion. Churches in Ukraine have continued to meet to worship, gathering together in the name of Christ and learning of needs, celebrations, and prayers.