Ukraine (MNN) — Russian forces have found little success in the Donbas assault. Ukraine has announced the intention to liberate the entire Donbas region, as well as the Crimea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014. But the damage to Ukrainian cities has been severe, and many people still have no homes to return to.
In the Kharkiv region, a Ukrainian counter-attack has pushed Russian forces all the way back to the Russian border. The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, suffered heavy shelling for many weeks once the invasion started.
BFTW
While normally focused on South Asia and Africa, Bibles For The World has begun outreach to Ukraine. John Pudaite says, “We have historically done a fair amount of distribution in Europe, especially in Russia, even during the time it was behind the Iron Curtain. We also worked in other former Soviet Union countries that developed as the USSR broke up.”
“But this is kind of a return to this area after probably 20-25 years.”
Shortly after the invasion, one BFTW employee volunteered to help Ukrainian refugees and has kept the ministry informed about the situation.
In Kharkiv, BFTW partners report many people open to hearing about Jesus. Pudaite says, “They asked us to give 30 to 50 thousand Gospels of John in the Russian language because most of that Eastern zone actually speaks Russian as their first language. They said they could have those distributed within two to three weeks.”
Ask God to strengthen the Ukrainian Church. Pudaite says, “It’s just amazing how the body of Christ is responding to this, even within the country. We’ve seen, of course, the Ukrainians show their resiliency in trying to repel the attack of the Russians.”
In total, the first round of printing will send 200,000 Gospel of John copies into Ukraine from Poland. Pray these books will reveal Jesus to many Ukrainians.
The header photo shows a demining operation in Kharkiv after Russian troops were pushed back. (Photo courtesy of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kharkiv Oblast, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
