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Evgenii Olegovich L'vov had some concerns on his mind the other day as he sat conversing with us on a Zoom call. He had been teaching at a seminary in the west of the country (he normally teaches New Testament, Systematic Theology, Bible Study, and Teaching Methods in his home city, at the Zaporizhzhia Bible Seminary, but had made the ten-hour journey to another college in the company of his son, given his lectures over several days, and driven back). They had had a traffic accident, and although they were not injured, there were repairs to pay for. In his typical non-melodramatic way, Evgenii told us 'we will have to look to the Lord'. That is in fact what he does all the time, since he, his family, his fellow-members of the Baburka Baptist church, and the many hundreds of internally-displaced people live each day in the shadow of a nuclear power station controlled by Russian troops.

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The previous weeks had been slightly calmer in Zaporizhzhia than they had been some months ago. Water and energy supplies had improved, and the milder-than-expected winter had meant that the need to provide warmth, food, and shelter was not quite as desperate as Evgenii and his fellow-deacons had feared it would be. Nevertheless, they had asked the Bibles and Blankets fund to provide them with 1,000 more blankets, as every week people were requesting this help. They were running out of Bibles too, for although the church never obliges the people it helps to take any literature, the appetite for spiritual food is still great amongst those in the city (and there are thousands of them) who have no work, and whose meagre income from government assistance is devoted mainly to the accommodation they find, basic though those lodgings may be. The influx of refugees may not be as intense as it was some months ago (Russian troops do not allow a large volume of people to make their way to the city at the moment). But there are still up to 200 newcomers each day, and they are very needy people. In every sense.

One of the church's major concerns is that it must never lose its focus and become simply an aid-distribution centre. Hundreds pass through the church every week to receive food and hygiene products (the latter are really expensive for displaced people to buy in the shops), and of late the blankets offered have been so very welcome to these people who brought little with them as they fled to safety from cities under attack. But the fellowship wants to keep the evangelistic goals at the forefront of all that it does. On 18th March, for example, they will hold a special event, to which they have invited regular beneficiaries of aid. The gospel will be presented clearly, and we hope that by then the church will have received more Bibles! The team at Baburka evangelises on each parcel-distribution day (4 days a week), and they never stop praying for those who join the queues at the doors of the building. Like most Ukrainian evangelical churches in this war-time, Sunday congregations have grown and grown, and there have indeed been a good number of conversions, baptisms and Bible studies. The L'vov family (Evgenii, Marina, Ruslan and Angelina) are peacefully trusting in the Lord. Ruslan and Angelina have themselves become believers in recent times, and Ruslan has been baptised.

Nevertheless, just a day or so after speaking to Evgenii, the nuclear power plant (the 10th largest in the world) came under fire once more.

It can only be a sense of mission that keeps our brother from trying to get his loved ones out while they can. He asks us to pray that our Heavenly Father may help him and others to overcome the hatred that could easily consume them. Even among believers, he confesses, there is much depression. Evgenii, however, is staying in Zaporizhzhia for now, and 'looking to the Lord' for all he needs over one year on from the beginning of the war that has changed his life, and that of every single Ukrainian. ‍‍