EMF missionary Volodymyr Kostyshyn writes:

Night is a well-understood metaphor of calamity or distress. How long will the difficulty last, and what effect will it have on the lives of my loved ones or even my own life? These kinds of thoughts were bombarding my mind back at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. With the Crimea annexation by Russia in 2014 and a false flag operation in some areas in the eastern part of the country, the calamity was obvious. The rumours of a full-scale war hadn’t stopped since. Where are we, and when will the morning of our deliverance come? That question gave me no rest, ceaselessly motivating me to trust the Lord, present and future. And then 24 February 2022 came... Nothing that has frightened me before could be compared to the new reality. Was I prepared for the challenge? I do not think so, but I kept telling my soul: ‘God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.’ and ‘Morning is coming, but also the night’. For those who walk in the light of God's Word and its promises, morning will surely come, even if they meet the dark time as it is now, the time of the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. The dark will not overcome, although it tries.

The confirmation of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love came on the very same days of February 2022. It could be seen in the seriousness of the faces of men and women who volunteered for the army. Most of them weren’t trained to fight, but were highly motivated to protect others. I remember giving our neighbour, a father of three children, a lift to a recruiting centre. I had never had the opportunity to pray with him, but that day made the difference. I doubt I will ever forget that moment when the future was unknown, but there was real confidence in God who hears the prayer of a humbled and dependent-on-his-grace heart.

The way local churches responded to the challenge of refugees flooding in from the east was indeed astonishing. None of us had the chance to go through war crisis response training. By God's grace, together we were able to help hundreds of thousands who travelled through Ternopil and needed basics like food, drink, sleep or in some cases a longer stay. The way churches acted was, in many senses, an example to local authorities of how things should be done in the immediate future. It was an opportunity for the church of God to show its Christ-like character and virtues without parading or pomp. I do not know a place in the area that didn’t use its own facilities to help those who were in need and despair. Some became refugee shelters for the months ahead. The great gospel opportunity came in a way we never thought it could. People who had never been to a place of worship before personally met the reality of a Bible-believing community.

‘How can we at EMF pray for Ukraine?’ That was the question Martin Tatham asked me on the very first days of the invasion. Prayers and good deeds should be a proper response to the challenge. On 1 March, the EMF Ukraine Emergency Appeal was established. Support from EMF was intended to help churches that worked with refugees, displaced, and war-affected people, immediately. Tons of humanitarian aid, food, hygiene products, mattresses, blankets, power banks, generators, washing machines, and Bibles were delivered to the depot in Ternopil and distributed through churches to people. Being able to get aid to people so quickly saved time, and in some cases, even lives. Many stories could be told, and only God knows the exact number of people helped because of EMF involvement long before the Red Cross or the like came. I recall helping eleven pre-schoolers and a few older children toa safe place in the western part of the country. They were escaping from the area directly hit by the aggressors. It was hard, they were children travelling with two ladies they knew from their Sunday school, and they all had their passport data written on their forearms and backs. It was chilling, something very similar to what I read in history books about WW2, but now it was happening in front of my own eyes. I praise the Lord that these children got to a safe place that night, because we had a van and petrol provided by EMF to help them.

Last Sunday, after church, we got a soldier visitor. The first words I heard from him were ‘I am a sniper and killed people...’ What a greeting for a pastor! He undergoes treatment in a local hospital, and it is sometimes difficult for him to communicate. He asked whether I knew another pastor who was called to the army in 2023, but unfortunately, he lost contact. The next day, I was able to talk to that pastor myself. We met each other before the full-scale war, but the war brought communication into our relationship. And he was now a soldier who obviously himself would need a lot of pastoral care. But there is something in common between him and us. We all ask the same question: ‘Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?’ We all long for the morning to come.

But do we understand that this morning might also bring the night? Most Ukrainians will tell you that a ceasefire without justice towards the aggressor will end soon in disaster for our nation. That's what always happened in the past, even in the most recent time of the twentieth century. But the worst is that in our longing we become afraid 'of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul’ (Matthew 10:28). This is the greatest challenge for those who trust the Lord in the darkest time – to not be ruined by cynicism and the coldness of human hearts.

The pastor who contacted me told me about another soldier, whose name is Timothy. He has been in the war for many years now, often in the hardest places. It looks like, in the past, he wasn’t very open to the things of the One who holds our lives in his hands. But the dark times made him think differently about his life and soul. Even his prayers have changed, and now every time they meet, they pray together. Both are in the darkness of the night, risking their lives for the sake of others, trusting the Lord, longing for the morning to come.

Since 2022, the war has changed tremendously for the worse. It was hard at the beginning, it is much more so now, and it keeps changing fast. Because of that, it is so much more important in 2026 to remind ourselves that the God we trust in remains the same yesterday, today and forever, and he is faithful, and his love endures forever.