Bombs, Bibles, and Brotherhood: A Journey to Support Ukraine's Shepherds

Why Go to Ukraine in a Time of War?

 This is the question we kept getting in one form of another.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

More often it was just a tone of voice. That my wife, Lily, also sensed a call to come with me this year, only seemed to even heighten people’s anxiety for us. We also were wonderfully joined by Dave Schanuel, our US National Director.

So why go? For two reasons:

1. To come alongside Igor Fedorovych, the National Director of Global Discipleship Initiative (GDI) in Ukraine, and to equip an increasing core of disciplemakers using the GDI MicroGroup approach through relationship and teaching.
2. To provide encouragement in a time of war for Igor and his wife, Suzanna, and children, Yeva (15), Mark (13) and Leo (11) and any with whom we came in contact.

Fulfillment of Goals and Objectives:

We spent a short three weeks in Kyiv an Lviv, yet Igor lives all the time under the daily threat with many sleepless nights. Our faith is incarnational. Jesus entered our world and lived among us. Our sheer presence was a blessing to so many we met. If repetition of appreciation from Igor and others was a sign of the fulfillment of our goal of support, then it was accomplished. Repeatedly, we heard,

“Thanks for coming. You are very brave and courageous to come under these circumstances.”

Formal Disciplemaking Training Opportunities

We were also there at Igor’s invitation to provide leadership and training in multiple settings. Our first event was an overnight Pastor’s Retreat in Kyiv with 20 pastors and their spouses. These are the core practitioners of our MicroGroup approach in Igor’s network.

What a delight! These people stay on mission despite the distortions of war. We didn’t teach, we facilitated story telling about the lives they were seeing transformed in their churches. We also surfaced the challenges of staying focused disciplemaking when the future is so uncertain.

Pastors Bring Encouragement to War-Weary Leaders in Ukraine

Families are separated; young men are snatched off the streets and conscripted; of course, death, casualties of war, loved ones on the front lines. Estimates ae over 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, and countless multiples wounded. Making disciples is not a fast process. How do you endure under trying circumstances? And yet there were also many encouraging stories.

• Irina and Karina joined us at the “pastors” retreat because they were heading up a church planting team with the MicroGroup as the foundation of their new church. I met Irina last April when she came to the disciplemaking conference at Kyiv Theological Seminary (KTS) where I was the speaker. She had with her three generations of women who had multiplied MicroGroups. They joyfully shared how the baton had been passed from one generation to another.
• Then in the class that Dave and I taught for 4 days at KTS there was a married couple, Igor and Ivanna, both architects, from Rivne (3-hour drive from Kyiv). We discovered that they have been encouraged to come to our class because they, too, were a part of this same church-planting team.

Long days were taken up by teaching from 8:30am-6pm for 4 days at KTS, but they gave us a break for our weeklong teaching at Ukraine Baptist Theological Seminary (UBTS) because the day only went from 9am-6pm.

We experienced daily reminders of the war in these classes. At 9am each day, the phone of our translator, Andrei, at KTS would send out an unmistakable signal. With some accompanying music we stopped for a time of silence to remember the dead and wounded; and those currently carrying on the battle against great odds.

In Lviv at UBTS our class each day began at 9am with the loudspeaker beating out loud thuds like a hammer on spikes followed by a patriotic rendition of “Pray for Ukraine.” Those loud thuds reminded me of the nails driven into Jesus’ hands and feet. Ukraine is going through its own crucifixion of sorts—very moving indeed.

Hope on the Front Lines: Pastors Stand with Ukraine

At KTS we had a mixture of pastors and lay leaders which included young women, 14 and 16 years old. In Lviv there were 35 pastors taking this required class as the last one before graduation in June.

When you have the time to build the case on theological and biblical foundations for the practice of disciplemaking using the transparent environment of a MicroGroup along with a disciplemaking tool like Discipleship Essentials, it is hard not to be persuaded.

Here is our summary of transformation: When you put the truth of God’s Word (content) into the environment of self-revealing relationships (context), the results are transformation in Christ and multiplication of disciplemaking. That is why we call them a “hot house of the Holy Spirit.”

Strength for the Weary: Supporting Ukraine’s Spiritual Leaders

The most heartening part of the class came on the last day. We gave a large block of time for the pastors to spontaneously share how they were going implement what they had learned. When you finish 5 days of class with more energy than you began, you know something good has happened!

We had cut off the sharing; we ran out of time. For example, Bogdan was a member of our class and on the staff of Central Baptist Church in Lviv. In the evening of the last day of class, our team met with Taras, Senior Pastor as of 2 weeks, and Yaroslav, who had just stepped down as senior pastor.

We were joined by Bogdan and his wife, along with a few other key leaders. Bogdan could not hold back. He admonished everyone on the church staff to read Transforming Discipleship (available in Ukrainian). He did this in the presence of his superiors. He was ready to launch.        

Igor now has a whole cadre of people now available to him to build the leadership core, and what we sense is a disciplemaking movement already going on in Ukraine. What a joy to be a part of fanning the flames that were already burning bright in Ukraine.

One last Observation: Normality in the midst of Abnormality

I would assume that most of the people reading this post have never lived through war on their own soil. I certainly haven’t.
I still have a hard time understanding what we observed with our own eyes: People strive for normality during abnormality.

If you were in Kyiv on a quiet day (no drones and missiles), you would think you were any major cosmopolitan city. Traffic jams at 8am and 5pm. People going to work; children off to school; meeting friends at your favorite coffee shop; sidewalks full of people strolling peacefully without urgency.

At yet we know that the ever-present backdrop are the uncertainties of war:

• death and casualties of loved ones;
• daily interruptions with sirens signaling incoming missiles and drones;
• uncertainty as to whether children will be in school or at home on Zoom or must go to the shelters, and more.

Perhaps the only way to provide equilibrium and sanity is to carry on with the daily activities as if all is normal. Of course, our exposure was within the Christian community. We saw life through their eyes.

Faith Under Fire: Pastors in Ukraine’s War Zone

What did they show us? There was a complete lack of bitterness about their circumstances. You can have hope for a future, even when militarily all the cards seemed stacked against them.

Igor visualizes a growing Christian neighborhood where he has recently built a house so that they can plant an evangelical church to reach 600,000 unreached people. His pastor-partner is building next door. We must have met a dozen volunteer chaplains who take supplies (food, clothing, necessities) and the gospel and spiritual counsel to the front lines.

Against all reasonable human odds, there is tenacious hope that this land that they love will survive and the church of Jesus Christ will thrive.

Provide Hope

1. Pray for a buoyancy of spirit to keep hope alive.
2. Pray for an equitable solution to this war in midst of vile injustice.
3. Provide financial support to Igor as our National Director. We are their lifeline, and they are on life support.