Last night we had a refugee family from Eastern Ukraine over to our place for dinner. We talked for a very long time about the war, about the church, and about what will happen in Ukraine!
In this episode of “Now Is the Time” I share with you some of the disturbing news coming out of Eastern Ukraine! I also give you nine specific ways that you can be praying for Ukraine and for us!
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Women ride past a burned out Ukrainian tank in the town of Ilovaysk Photo: MAURICIO LIMA | Agência O Globo
The family I visited with last night lived right in the middle of separatist controlled territory until just a few weeks ago. Before they left town it wasn’t uncommon to seen missiles rocketing across the sky outside their kitchen window and then hitting their mark only a mile or two away. Shortly after they left a shell landed across the street from their church, killing an elderly lady and peppering the front of their facility with shrapnel!
Now their entire church is scattered all across Ukraine. Some living with friends or family and some moving from place to place.
Unfortunately the news coming out of Eastern Ukraine is not good and prospects of returning home soon seem to be fading fast for around one million refugees!
Questions
This week received a great question from my friend on Twitter, John Rowe.
He asked if I could detail specific ways to pray for Ukraine and for our ministry here!
Do you have a question?
You can ask your question by leaving me a voice mail any time of the day or night right here! (747) 221-6478
You can also record a message through our website here.
Here’s how you can pray!
Below are nine specific prayer requests. If you want to hear the details behind these requests please listen to this podcast episode.
- Pray that the Ukrainian leaders would be given wisdom from God as they try to figure out how to secure their country.
- Pray for the safety of Ukrainian troops and that they would not lose hope.
- Pray for the many Russian soldiers and their families who are being “forced” to fight in Ukraine.
- Pray for the city of Mariupol as they prepare to defend their city from Russian troops only 12 miles away!
- Pray our team of missionaries as we work with churches to help refugees.
- Pray for a team from our church who is going out this weekend to minister to soldiers in Kherson area.
- Pray for Christina and I as we travel to Kyiv this weekend for papers needed in her permanent residency permit.
- Pray for the family I mentioned above as they seek work and long-term housing.
- Pray for me as I prepare a sermon series for our church on worry and anxiety.
You can help Ukrainians kill their worries!
I’ve been asked several times if I’ll be translating my book into Russian. Worry and anxiety are huge in Ukraine now for obvious reasons! I can think of nothing better than giving Ukrainians a tool to help them take their worry and give it to Jesus!
If you want to help make the book available in Russian there are two ways you can assist!
First you can purchase a copy for yourself or a friend. 100% of the profits from the books sales will go to ministry in Ukraine, including helping to pay for the translation costs.
Purchase the paperback here.
Pre-order the Kindle version here.
Second, if you already have a copy of the book you can simply donate here.
Engaging Missions Interview
Last month I was interview by Bryan Entzminger at Engaging Missions. Bryan asked me a lot of questions about my life as a missionary in Ukraine. I wanted to include a link to that interview here because it will give you good insight to why we are here in Ukraine and what we are doing!
Listen to my interview on Engaging Missions here.
You can easily download this podcast on your mobile device by subscribing on iTunes or Stitcher.
Question: Will you do me favor? Please share the prayer requests in this post with your friends, your pastor, your church, your small group? If you can do that please let me know!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:23 — 17.8MB) | Embed
DS
September 5, 2014Best wishes with travel and the permit to reside in Ukraine.
Caleb
September 6, 2014Thanks David! It went well, we’re back in Odessa now and accomplished everything we needed to do in Kyiv plus more! God is good!
Micah
September 6, 2014Thanks for this, Caleb. Will continue to remember you and the other brothers and sisters there in prayer, as will our church.
Caleb
September 6, 2014That’s great Micah! It’s always encouraging to hear that others are praying.