The world is watching intently at news reports of events unfolding as Russian armies attack the Ukrainian people. In those reports little is heard about the large Ukrainian Christian population and how they’re ministering to others within their borders.
According to Dr. Michael Duduit, dean of the College of Christian Studies and Clamp Divinity School, Ukraine has more Baptist churches (more than 2,000) than any other country in the world, apart from the United States, as well as three Baptist universities and two seminaries. Many Southern Baptist churches have relationships with Ukrainian Baptist churches.
David Barfield, an adjunct faculty member in the College of Christian Studies, traveled to Ukraine during the fall of 2021 teaching and preaching in several churches. While interacting with Ukrainian Christians in communities west of the capital city of Kiev, he was impressed by the solidness of their faith and willingness to share Christ with others.
“We’re pretty well in touch,” said Barfield, who pastors Capstone Church in Anderson. He and a local businessman who traveled there received texts from their Ukrainian brothers and sisters in Christ. “Some of them are very scared and some of them are very mad. The pastors, they seem to be taking a stand—‘we’re here to shepherd our people; we’re going to love on them the best we can.’”
Barfield noted that Ukrainian churches are continuing to serve their communities—organizing food drives, blood drives and doing whatever they can to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
An individual on the Anderson University staff who lived in Russia as a missionary believes that with economic sanctions the Russian people will face challenges as well but adds that protesting the government is risky.
An Anderson University student who wished to remain anonymous is praying for his relatives who left behind their home and business as they sought refuge in neighboring Poland.
“Seeing my family having to leave their homes behind was terrifying and heartbreaking. They spent a lot of time building their lives in Ukraine, and the fact that all of that was taken away from them is revolting. They left friends, colleagues, most of them currently fighting for their freedom. While they were fleeing, we had little news of their situation, and we often feared the worst. They worked a lot to get out of poverty, and were thrown back to it. They saw hope and great help from neighbors, but also had to witness death and injury as people were pressing against the borders. In a time of crisis like this, although some choose to unite, they also witnessed a lot of blatant discrimination and selfishness. On the other side of the conflict, I have a friend who protested against the war a week ago, and I have not had any news from him since. The only thing left from this act of terror is a bitter taste of injustice and powerlessness,” he said.
An employee in the AU Culinary Center who emigrated from Ukraine 23 years ago carries pleasant memories of growing up there.
“People are very open-hearted and very friendly. You never make an appointment with friends to come to a house; you can just come anytime, just knock. Anytime they’d help you if you have any problems. They feel your pain,” she said.
She’s troubled by the reports of warfare within her home country.
“It’s very difficult to see this news, to see what’s happening—it’s terrible. We pray very hard.”
There’s a long history of the Ukrainian people’s struggles with the Kremlin, points out Roger Flynn, chair of the department of history and social science in the Anderson University College of Arts and Sciences.
“With what Ukrainians have suffered through over the past 100 years, the Holodomor where nearly 7 million Ukrainians starved to death due to a famine caused by Stalin’s policies, to Nazi invasion, occupation, and murder of over a million Ukrainian Jews, and now to Putin’s and Russia’s invasion in 2022, I truly feel that we, the US and the international community, must do all that we can to help,” Flynn said. “Situations like this turn my thoughts to Philippians 2:3-4, ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’
Many of us are worried about inflation and the high price of gasoline, but Ukrainians are huddled in bomb shelters praying that God will protect them and that they will see tomorrow’s sunrise. How can we not answer their cry for help?”