Edition # 1250 | 03/14/2022
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“I come to you, Lord, for protection. Don't let me be ashamed. Do as you have promised and rescue me.”
– Psalm 31:1

Ukraine: Reports from the frontlines


We currently receive so many reports from Ukraine that we struggle to keep up. In this edition a summary of the most relevant reports from the frontlines.

How Christians in Ukraine and around the world reach out

 
  • The number of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine has now surpassed 2.5 million, making it the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. Care for the refugees is being given across Eastern Europe, while Western European nations also provide a safe haven. Roughly half of the refugees are children. Many families have split at Ukraine's borders as men between the ages of 18 and 60 must stay for military conscription. The United Nations predicts more than 6 million refugees will flee Ukraine for neighbouring nations as the Russian onslaught claims more and more civilian lives.
  • Aid agencies say humanitarian help is most urgently needed in Mariupol, where 400,000 people have been trapped for more than a week with no food, water or power. Kharkiv, Ukraine's second most populous city, also received devastating blows. The churches in Ukraine are trying to help all the people, giving them food and safe places to stay.
  • Irpin is the Evangelical hub of Ukraine with 25 ministries operating from there, including YWAM, Youth for Christ, IFES and Samaritan’s Purse. Several ministries evacuated to western Ukraine when the Russians started attacking the city. “We had to leave everything behind. Some of us did not even have time to take the necessary clothes with us,” said Igor Bandura, vice president of Ukraine’s Baptist Union. “We don’t know what fate has befallen our homes. We don’t know if there will be a place to come back to.” Vasyl Ostryi, a pastor at Irpin Bible Church, has decided to stay. “When this is over, the citizens of Kyiv will remember how Christians have responded in their time of need. We will shelter the weak, serve the suffering, and mend the broken. And as we do, we offer the unshakable hope of Christ and his gospel.”
  • The Kyiv suburb of Bucha with the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary is completely under Russian control. But president of the seminary Ivan Rusyn refuses to evacuate. “This war has completely redefined my understanding of mission and holistic ministry,” he said. “You cannot show compassion from a distance.” He and his seven remaining colleagues coordinate relief from the offices of the Ukrainian Bible Society, where he sleeps at night on the floor. The seminary is now only 1,000 feet from the frontlines.
  • Staff at New Life Radio in Odessa, on the Black Sea coast, watched missiles fly past their homes. They are taking actions to hide equipment and preserve broadcasting, in case the station is raided in the near future.
  • “My heart has broken into a million pieces,” says Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia. “There is a catastrophic shortage of medicine, but an even greater need for pastoral care. The refugees mention their husbands, their fathers, and their sons – and when they hug you, they don’t let go.” Mission Eurasia oversees the provision of food, shelter, medicine, and pastoral care in three refugee hubs in Eastern Europe. Within Ukraine the ministry mobilised 1,000 volunteers to assist those evacuating from and staying in the various war zones.
  • About 110,000 refugees have crossed Ukraine’s southwestern border into Moldova, one of the poorest nations in Europe. Government official and Christian Eugen Cozonac says: “I have a sense that I’m in the right place at the right time, in God’s providence.” The small Evangelical churches in Moldova do what they can to serve the refugees. They’re showing up around the clock at border checkpoints, with vans full of supplies and offering free rides to shelter. They turned their church buildings into refugee hostels. Many Christian families also took refugees in their own houses.
  • Many international Christian ministries provide help. The Malteser International is working day and night in Ukraine and at the borders of neighbouring countries.
  • Gideon’s International in Norway distributed 155,000 editions of the New Testament to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova. The ministry is gearing up for an even greater demand for Bibles.
  • Trans World Radio boosted its radio reach in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine by adding a second transmitter. “No one needs words of hope more than people in a war zone, especially when the internet gets shut down in certain areas,” says communication director Frank Stephenson.
  • International analysts warn that the war in Ukraine will also affect the Middle East and Africa, where many nations depend on Ukrainian grain for their daily food-supply. Lebanon for instance imports around 60% of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia. The price of wheat is expected to explode and observers predict a famine of global proportions, leading to social upheaval and further international instability.

How church leaders responded
 
  • Over 400 leaders of Evangelical churches in Russia used the words of Jesus in Matthew 26:52 to call on Putin to stop the war. “Put your sword back in its place. For whoever reaches for the sword will perish by the sword. Today is the moment when each of us should call a spade a spade. We need to bring repentance for what we have done before God and the people of Ukraine. We need to give up lies and hatred. We call on the authorities of our country to stop this senseless bloodshed!”
  • Vitaly Vlasenko, the leader of the Russian Evangelical Alliance has announced his “bitterness and regret” over decisions taken by his government. “I apologize to all those who have suffered,” he writes in an open letter, urging Christians to pray and seek reconciliation.
  • Pope Francis is outraged at the “unacceptable armed aggression.” He issued his strongest statement yet: “Put an end to the bombings and the attacks! Let there be real and decisive focus on the negotiations, and let the humanitarian corridors be effective and safe. In the name of God, I ask you: stop this massacre!”
  • More than 280 priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church have called for reconciliation and an immediate end to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, opposing Patriarch Kirill of Moscow who supports Putin's invasion in Ukraine. A Russian court fined an Orthodox priest 35,000 rubles ($261) for discrediting the army during his Sunday sermon. His congregation helped pay the fine.
  • Andrey Zubov, one of Russia’s leading historians and political scientists, and a devout Orthodox believer, signed a letter calling for Russia to back down, along with some hundred high-profile figures. Since then thousands have been arrested for protesting the unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. For over twenty years, Zubov has been warning of impending catastrophe.
  • Vlady Raichinov, vice president of the Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance, commented: “The Bible is abundant with stories of faith-based defiance against cruel autocrats. Church history has also had its fair share of voices speaking up against injustice. As a ‘conscience of society,’ the church often speaks in a low-key, underground, word-of-mouth manner. It subverts social values one person at a time, slowly and patiently spreading its salt and light, until it manages to drill so many holes in the tyrant’s moral foundation that eventually his license runs dry and his dominance tumbles. But at other times, the Spirit leads Christians to raise a sharp, uncompromising voice against crimes that have escalated too far. And then the church, fueled by God’s Spirit, becomes a trigger and a flag-bearer of major, society-wide tectonic shifts. Its salt and light then influence the masses to perceive the injustice and motivate them to finally do something about it.”
  • Jeff Fountain of the Schuman Centre for European Studies spoke with political activist Hanna Hopla from Kyiv about the latest developments. She calls for a stronger engagement from democratic nations.

Source: Many verified sources, compiled by Joel News
PROJECT LOVE UKRAINE

Project Love Ukraine is Joel Ministries' vehicle to support workers and ministries that provide help to war victims in and refugees from Ukraine.
Of course you can also donate to a ministry in your own nation that has a project for Ukraine.

https://donorbox.org/love-ukraine

If you wish to support our journalistic work in reporting on the situation of the Church in Ukraine, you can use the general Joel News donation form.
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