First, we want to thank you for praying and giving. 100% of your donations are going to pastors we have partnered with over the years. We are not taking anything for overhead. This money is being used to purchase food, water, basic medicines, diapers, blankets, portable heaters, and fuel to transport the food and refugees.
Note: The photos and videos are from people we are working with. Names & faces have been excluded for protection.
Why are pastors staying in their home cities?
Like the captain of a ship, most pastors feel an obligation to remain as long as possible to care for their sheep and extend help to their community. Several of them said they will stay come what may. When the people who remain see their pastor is still there, it gives them great encouragement and a sense of security. Some of the pastors evacuated their families and returned to keep the work going and try to keep church property from being vandalized. Most lead daily prayer meetings and try to hold Sunday Services. These pastors have rolled up their sleeves and not only preach and pray. They do things like buy food, medicines, basic supplies and water for the needy. They receive and house refugees in their churches, they cook for them and help them to get on their way to a safer city. They coordinate drivers (and sometimes drive themselves) to deliver aid to cities where there are people without food and water and bring evacuees out. They have found people without food for more than five days. They take them to train stations and arrange whatever transportation is possible to get them out to the safer cities in the west. Their congregants are fleeing, especially the younger families. All of the churches now have sheep dispersed within Ukraine as well as other nations. So they not only care for the ones nearest them and they try to connect with the others whatever way possible.
Last week I was asked to speak to a church in Kherson. Over 1000 of their people left before the Russian occupation. (They are now in Western Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Hungary and even Korea). The pastor and his wife along with their oldest daughter, who is also a minister in the church, stayed behind. They continue to minister to the extended church online. The pastor is encouraging and coordinating with the pastors of their daughter churches, who have also stayed behind some of which are under Russian occupation. During my online meeting with the members now all over the world, I encouraged them to be evangelists wherever they are. While I was speaking to them, an urgent request for prayer came from the pastor of a daughter church – their city was under heavy attack and about half was already destroyed.
Why are pastors being targeted by the Russian Army?
Even before this war began several pastors noted unfamiliar cars parked near their homes. Several checked on the license plates but found they did not belong to the vehicles. Someone was gathering information on them. Those who do volunteer work and help protect their cities are often the first to be apprehended by the Russians.
During the war of 2014 key pastors were targeted. Where Russian backed Separatists took over parts of Ukraine they arrested pastors and took over their church buildings. In Sloviansk, Donetsk, they put a tank in the yard of a church and were firing from there to the Ukrainian positions. Statements like “Death to the Protestants” were written on tanks. In the same city they came to another key church, where we held our Bible School, to capture the pastor. He was was not there so they kidnapped his 2 sons and 2 deacons (one had a family of 8). After some time they let them go but shot them dead as they drove away. They buried them in mass grave downtown. After Ukraine recaptured the city they re-buried these brothers.
During that war, one of the pastors we are helping rescued thousands of people fleeing from Donetsk Region. Pastors risked their lives carrying humanitarian help eastward and bringing people out to safety. A number of pastors secretly crawled into enemy territory to pull people out to safety. The Ukrainian forces were a rag-tag army in those days. Some did not have uniforms and were short on supplies, including food and blankets. Some of the pastors prepared meals and took blankets to them.
Some of these pastors are on kill lists. Even though the government advised them to leave, they stay as long as they can to do the Lord’s work.
How can we pray for Ukrainian pastors who stayed behind?
Please pray that God will give pastors supernatural strength; they go with little sleep. Pray that God protects them, their families, and their teams. Pray that their hearts be filled with peace despite what surrounds them. Pray for provision of the necessary aid. With the finances we send them they must search everywhere to find food and basic medicines. Sometimes it must be purchased from other cities. Pray for the protection of their families, some of whom went to Western Ukraine and some of whom crossed over the border. Most people are not currently working due to the war, so besides the refugees, they need to help congregants who have run out of food. Please also pray for wisdom.
We stay in contact with them usually twice a day checking to see that they are alive and well. The stories they tell us are heartbreaking and miraculous. On multiple occasions a pastor has said his farewells to us, not knowing if he would survive another night of bombing near Kharkiv. On one such occasion his morning check in was, “We are alive. God has given us another day and we will use this day to reach as many as possible.” A few days ago a rocket fell near them but miraculously blasted in the other direction. All the windows and doors, including their frames, where blown out. A church leader was supposed to be at the spot where the bomb exploded. A two minute delay sparred his life.
It is easy to imagine sleepless nights considering the sounds of artillery punctuating the darkness. Last Saturday we received a message from a pastor in Mykolaiv (Nikolaev) at 2:30 AM (Ukraine time) asking for prayer as the barrage of shells became so severe his home was heaving. Receiving this type of message is a frequent occurrence for us. This pastor and his wife were in the US as the war was about to start and could have stayed away but decided they needed to be there for their congregation. They have been buying food with funds we send and distributing them to people in their city. Many women and children have been rescued and sent westward by them.
For some pastors it was too dangerous to stay behind. They stay in touch with those in their churches who have not left and try to send them help. Pray for all of them, as well as for the volunteers who are helping throughout the region.
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