The fighting in eastern Ukraine has shattered the lives
of many and resulted in thousands of refugees.
(Photo and caption courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association).
Ukraine (SGA) — [EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an update from Slavic Gospel Association about its work in Ukraine.]
Pastor Leonid is one of the many faithful missionary pastors Slavic Gospel Association sponsors across Ukraine. Leonid’s region of ministry is in the embattled East, so for security purposes we are not disclosing his specific location. He recently sent us the following report, and some photographs that show the heartbreaking devastation of this conflict.
“We are very much grateful to the Lord for our friends who support us in our ministry. Our church—like many other churches in eastern Ukraine—is going through difficult times. We need your ongoing prayers! Last month, our House of Prayer was taken over by armed groups for the second time. They falsely accuse us of espionage, cooperation with Western secret services, and demanded from us our House of Prayer.
“By the mercy of the Lord, after two weeks passed, the armed men returned our building to us. But the church is not a building! It is the people of God. We praise the Lord that in our church, we have 70 adults, 12 children, and 6 new believers who are getting ready to be baptized. Our task is to preach the Gospel.
(Photo courtesy of SGA)
“With your help, we are also preparing lunches for the hungry people who come to our church for help. There are many such people here. Every week, we feed around 200 people. Please continue to intercede in prayer for our ministry, and pray for peace!”
We are thankful to the Lord for Leonid, and our brothers and sisters who are lifting up the name of Jesus and proclaiming His peace in these difficult days. And we are ever thankful to you–our partners in ministry–for your faithfulness in being their supply.
If you would like to help through SGA’s Crisis Evangelism Fund, please click through to our Crisis Evangelism Fund page.
Dear MNN;
I have always appreciated your excellent work. I was deeply concerned today when I did a web search for news on Ukraine and found this article on the open web. I am sure you have put more thought than me into the balance of security and perhaps influence; but we know Russia has a very robust cyber war initiative; and there is also an ad in the upper right corner of this page for prayer for Mus- lims. In our era you could so easily become a target. Of course the Lord is sovereign. I just don’t know if you want this article appearing on the open web? God bless and I’ll be praying for your excellent ministry!
Dear Mark,
Thank you for sharing your concerns about security. In this case, all we did was share the press release Slavic Gospel Association posted on their Facebook page. We thought it was important enough to ask others to join them in prayer. SGA would not post information that would cause security problems for their team. By the time it makes it to the internet, it has already been approved by all concerned in-house.