Ukraine (MNN) — The city of Zaporizhzhia has been under frequent missile attacks by Russian forces for years. In the past week alone, strikes in this eastern city have killed at least 17 people and injured more than 80, among them children.
Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association says, “This horrific experience has become normal for the people in eastern Ukraine, and so it changes the mindset that they have.”
Residential building in Zaporizhzhia after Russian bombing on 1 October 2024. One person was killed and 35 injured (Photo, caption courtesy of Zoda.gov.ua via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
Citizens of Zaporizhzhia, in the partly occupied territory by the same name, have landed on a new way to protect their children.
“The recent announcement that they were building an elementary school underground in the city of Zaporizhzhia — the very important city of Zaporizhzhia — was stunning to us in America. Why would you build an elementary school under underground? In fact, an elementary school that will have a roof that is hardened to withstand both conventional weapon and nuclear attack?” Mock says.
You would if your city was experiencing constant shelling and there was a nearby nuclear power plant currently under Russian control. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant came under attack back in March of 2022.
“It is this transition that is happening from ‘The war could be over soon. We just need to come up with the right strategy,’ to ‘This may be our new normal,’” says Mock.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is nearing its 1,000th day. (Track the war’s history here.) In all of this, SGA has partnered with local believers in Ukraine who are pressing forward the kingdom of God, by God’s grace. Would you pray with them for the peace of God that surpasses understanding?
“It would be too easy for me to say, ‘Pray for peace.’ Of course we want to do that, but John 14:27 reminds us that the peace that God gives us is not necessarily the peace of solving all the earthly problems,” Mock says. “Otherwise, Christ’s presence and promise of coming back again would seemingly not change anything.”
Learn more about SGA here. Be encouraged that God is building His church even in war zones.
“Let us pray that peace prevails in the hearts of the churches there, and so greatly that they proclaim that peace to anyone without fear,” Mock says.
“Pray that the faithful believers will be consumed with Christ and be a bold witness in whatever situation they find themselves.”
Header photo: Residential building in Zaporizhzhia after Russian bombing in the morning of 29 September 2024. According to the preliminary data, 13 bombs FAB-500 were dropped. 16 people were injured in the city. Several private houses, an apartment building, train and a railway station were partially destroyed. Photo and caption courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
