What did you know about Ukraine before February 2022?

I confess that I knew little, except that the capital is Kyiv, and that a pastor called Gennadiy, a friend of our church in Palma, Majorca, had been visiting the conflict zone occupied by Russia in 2014, preaching to villagers and Ukrainian troops, and distributing food as he was able. A delightful young family from Ukraine had once come to Majorca on holiday, and we just loved them as they worshipped with us. We read about the little churches of EMF’s two missionary families in Ukraine, and later, once Andrew became EMF director, we ‘met’ them online, and told their stories on social media. That summed up most of my tiny engagement with this Eastern European country… 

…Until February 24, 2022, when the quiet lives of all the people mentioned above were turned upside down. Two years after that little family’s relaxing holiday in Majorca, the mother was desperately fleeing Ukraine with four children and her parents. Gennadiy Prosyanko, the brave pastor in eastern Ukraine, was, like so many others, finding that displaced people were arriving in scores and asking for help. Our (then) two missionary families, one in Kyiv, the other in the city of Ternopil, spoke of churches overwhelmed by new demands on them, of Russian troops nearing the capital, of citizens trying to find shelter from attacks, and of intense suffering that was almost too much to bear. Suddenly, Ukraine was almost all we could think about. 
 
The whole situation was distressing, chaotic, and often dangerous. Above all, it was uncertain. Our hearts and our heads told us we had to try to stand with our EMF people there, who were doing their best to look after their families, their churches, and a growing flood of traumatised, displaced people who had not enough to eat, nowhere to sleep, and barely any belongings.  Meanwhile, our workers in Romania, eastern Poland, and Moldova were opening homes and premises to dozens and dozens of terrified people. The needs were huge, and meeting them was urgent. 

 
That was when we did what EMF rarely does. Just a few days after the war began, we launched an appeal for emergency funds, hoping to raise an ambitious £50,000. Little did we know we would go on to receive well over £2,000,000.The Lord has amazed us, and we are humbled. 
 
Our knowledge about Ukraine suddenly increased exponentially, as we began to administer those funds as best we could. We now knew how to find Uman and Pereschepyne on a map. We discovered who could move washing machines and paracetamol to Ternopil, from which country, by what means, and at what price. None of all this would have been possible if it hadn’t been for the incredible efforts of the gifted Martin Tatham (who was then on EMF HQ staff), or the extra sacrificial work offered by the rest of the team and a hastily formed committee of trustees.  

Meanwhile, our amazingly generous supporters had to be kept informed. We set up monthly prayer meetings, wrote regular email updates, and formed a WhatsApp news group; I found myself involved in all of those, as well as in two unforgettable visits to Ukraine. We listened to a tearful mother recount how her family fled from air attacks near Kyiv, passing burnt-out cars that still contained the remains of those who had not managed to avoid the shelling. We saw the fast-moving river near Irpin beside which a brother from the Bible Church died while helping others escape the Russian advance. We have touched the minibuses (now suffering from over-use) bought by EMF which have taken aid to the frontline villages and evacuated scores of people in danger.  We have cried as we heard stories such as that of a Physics professor who had fled from Eastern Ukraine, and who had desperately sought food and shelter in an evangelical church in Ternopil. It was there that he heard the message of hope in the Lord Jesus. ‘I thank God for the war. It’s how I came to know Jesus’, he said. We have visited the storerooms in which food parcels, blankets and Bibles have been dispatched, reaching thousands of displaced people. We have felt so proud of the (now three) EMF missionary families who have given Christian hope to so many, including to soldiers in frontline trenches. And thanks to the funds received, we have taken on another twenty-one trustworthy gospel workers, (our ‘EMF 4:14-ers'),whom we have been able to support on a temporary basis, freeing them up for evangelistic and pastoral work.  

It has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life to be involved in EMF’s special support for Ukraine. We (Andrew and I) don’t intend to forget that country, the people we love there, or how EMF supporters have given, and are giving, again and again in the quest to help faithful workers in that country as they reach out to hundreds through weekly aid distribution, camps, and all kinds of ministries of care and of gospel proclamation. Their work continues. 

Most of all, we stand in awe of a God who is in sovereign control of all things, and who is saving many people, even in the midst of the bleak days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

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