Faithful Witness in the Face of Calamity
The Russian siege against Ukraine grinds on and after nearly a month of repeated bombings wreak havoc across the eastern and southeastern parts of the country. Brave Ukrainian forces continue to defend Kyiv, Ukraine’s capitol, as millions of people flee into neighboring countries. Bob and I spent three life-changing years in Russia in the early 1990s. We lived in Moscow when the Soviet flag was lowered, and the Russian flag was raised over Red Square. During that time we met and befriended many Russians and Ukrainians, and we are stunned and heart-broken by the implications of Putin’s advance against Ukraine. It is difficult to witness such atrocities today, but these actions remind us that there is indeed evil in the world. In this post I seek to highlight a faithful gospel witness in the face of calamity evidenced in the people of faith in Ukraine and bordering countries, and to highlight three simple ways we too can participate alongside our brothers and sisters all over the world.
Over the past several weeks, I have watched and prayed as wives and mothers, sisters and daughters bid goodbye to their husbands, sons, and fathers who stay back to fight a war they are unprepared to fight. Multi-generational families are crossing into Poland, Hungary, and Moldova and fanning out across Europe and to destinations around the world. Scores of grandmas, aunties, moms, and daughters holding bundled-up newborns, comforting toddlers, hanging on tightly to clawing cats and nervous dogs, huddle together as they head to unfamiliar places and face an uncertain future.
Faithful witnesses stand out amid the devastation. The Ukrainian people display living, breathing faith and courage alongside palpable fear and despair. They are resilient and brave risking their lives to supply necessities like food, water, and medicine to those in need or ferrying the elderly to the border, some twelve to fourteen hours away from besieged cities. These Ukrainian believers, many of whom we will never know, provide for us an example of gospel witness in the face of unspeakable circumstances.
I know of numerous people in Hungary who are providing food and shelter to refugees as they pass through their cities. An American friend who once lived in Kyiv and speaks Ukrainian, now resides in Hungary. Over the past few weeks, Ukrainians have ended up parked on the street in her neighborhood—some just outside her door! She has been available in tangible and sometimes ordinary ways. One day she and her friends replaced a car battery, she provided cookies and to-go cups of hot tea, and a listening ear to a grieving refugee. She even traveled to the border to fetch a stranger’s family member and helped her make it to the next destination.
Other friends are offering tangible ways to help Russians who are in Russia with dwindling funds or job-loss. Russian pastors at great risk have united to denounce Putin’s actions. After witnessing the fall of communism in the early 1990s, it is difficult to watch Russia close again although there is a vibrant Church in Russia and resilient followers of Jesus there too. In both countries I am confident that believers are expressing the gospel in both word and deed.
This crisis provides for us real-life examples of the synergy between the Great Commandment and the Great Commission and serve to alert us to ways that we can actively participate in this crisis.
First, pray honest, courageous, and bold prayers on behalf of the people affected by this war: the refugees, the government leaders around the world, soldiers, the people who have remained in the country, the people in the border countries who are responding to the mounting humanitarian crisis. The true story of the whole world includes real-life examples of mass migration because of unjust and ungodly tyranny, grave loss in the face of unrelenting battles. The psalms give voice to the anger and helplessness we see lived out before us and remind us of our Hope and God’s steadfast lovingkindness.
Second, remain alert even though there are times when we want to distance ourselves from crises, when we might wonder, how in the world can we take on someone else’s troubles when I have so many of my own? I find that it helps to link arms with people who are suffering hardship. God often calls us, our family and friends, to actively pray, to respond by opening our homes, to give money or share resources with Ukrainians or other refugees in our communities.
Third, take time to listen and process overwhelming situations like this with others. Horrific conflicts like this help us grow in our faith as we interact with God about the evil in the world, as we persevere in prayer, and press into the gospel giving voice to God’s love and peace provided through Jesus Christ.
I am humbled by the faith and perseverance of the Ukrainians and Russians I know and love and my faith is bolstered by the stories of God’s faithful witnesses around the world, and I hope yours is too.
