My Heart Breaks for Ukraine

As I sit down to write this post, I am saddened by the events that are happening in Ukraine.  Over the past few days, I have shared posts from different people who live in Ukraine and have shared their experiences of the terrible things that have been going on.  I have not shared personally though, and I felt I needed to explain a little bit about why this is personal to me.

These events are not just happening to a country that wants freedom and independence.  These events are happening to my friends and to people I love deeply.  My wife and I have been travelling to Ukraine for almost 30 years.  The first 15 years we were doing day camps with children, children who are now young adults fighting to keep the independence that is all they know.  They were born after the fall of the Soviet Union and have never been under Russian control.  Today they are mothers and fathers raising their own families.  They are workers in IT or pastors in churches.  Their lives were filled with opportunity and freedom.

The last 5 years our visits to Ukraine have involved ministry and helping pastors and churches lead changes that will help their churches to reach the next generation for Jesus.  Changes are hard.  The older generation came out of communism and remember the oppression of the church by the soviet leaders.  They remember how people came to the church after their freedom because the church offered hope from an oppressed past.  Today these churches are trying to reach a generation that does not remember times under Russian oppression.  Hope looked different to them – until this week.

We have had the privilege of working with hundreds of pastors and church leaders over the past five years.  We have been able to listen, encourage, support, and challenge them in their efforts to lead their churches and offer hope to those in their communities.  Today these churches and pastors are offering a refuge of hope and support to people who are under attack.

These pastors and leaders are not just people we came to help.  These men and women are people we have grown to love.  We know them and their families.  We have listened to their dreams and challenges.  We have laughed together, cried together, and prayed together.  Today some of these families have been forced to leave their homes to find safety.  Others have been forced to go into the subways to find a place to avoid the bombings.  Others have had to hunker down in their homes and listen to the sound of missiles, aircraft, artillery, and gun fire around them.  I feel helpless but know I can pray.  Pray for their safety!  Pray for peace to return to their land once again!  I want to see the governments of the world stand up to this bully and hold Russia and Putin accountable for the death and destruction his army is causing.

This morning, this passage of scripture was in my devotions, and I found it so timely:

From the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision. How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted. The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.”
Habakkuk 1:1-5 NLT

I found hope in the response from God.  God is doing something that we would not believe.  My prayer today is that in this time of uncertainty and destruction that God is going to do something amazing.  Maybe it will be in this time of attack and destruction that people will find that their only true hope is in salvation in Jesus.  Governments can’t save you!  Money can’t save you!  Only Jesus can save you and provide the hope and future we all want!