In some ways it can be hard to get you mind around what has happened and what is happening in Eastern Ukraine. The war and the resulting humanitarian crisis is affecting millions of people. We are thankful that in a small way our team of missionaries we have been able help.
Today I want to turn your attention today to an article published by our mission ABWE. It describes the situation in Eastern Ukraine well and gives you a good picture of how believers are responding and how our mission team is working together with Churches to bring physical and spiritual help to those in need.
Below is a preview but I encourage you read the full article here.
Gunfire & bombs sound in the distance. Broken wires hang from poles & crumbling buildings feebly stand. The city is weary— just like its residents.
“The atmosphere here is permeated with anguish and depression. It is like visiting a cemetery,” said a pastor of a partner church in the conflict zone of Eastern Ukraine.
Just months earlier, the city of Donetsk was bubbling with life. People had good paying jobs and work was plentiful in the coal mines and factories. Children laughed and played in the parks under trees dripping with apricot blossoms. Today, that life has all but been extinguished in Donetsk, and throughout Eastern Ukraine, as the conflict between pro-Russian forces and Ukraine has turned innocent citizens into victims of war….
Maureen Ray
March 7, 2015Honestly Caleb – when I see the sheer devastation and suffering and deprivation of your people in Ukraine it just makes me feel very angry that all this could and should have been avoided. There is no justification for this to have occurred. The East could have been East and the West west and they should have agreed that if people wanted to recognise themselves as feeling more Russian then they should have been given the right to do so. I cannot be anything other than a Scot. I grew up there and though my parents were both born in different parts of England I cannot be divided into three identities. I am free to declare myself to be who I am and today, in the Lord, my home is in Australia and my heart is with my husband but my home is also in Scotland. No one can force that out of me. The film of the ongoing war is a heart-wrenching tragedy, the Syrian conflict is a heart-wrenching tragedy, the Ebola epidemic is appalling and the spectacle of two Australian citizens in their 20’s and sentenced to be shot in Indonesia for drug smuggling demands my prayers which beg for the Lord’s intervention for these two men. All around our world today their are a multiplicity of disasters, uprising, anarchy and horror which speaks of the time of the end. Prophecy dictates that we are in the last days of the Church Age and yet we know and must trust that God is Sovereign. We pray for Christina, you and the children. I wish – but don’t pray – that you would all go back to Gig Harbour. I have had a look on Google Earth and visited the glorious scenery there just the best place for the kids to grow up. May the Lord keep you safe at this time, may many be brought to know Jesus as their Saviour, may the Lord provide for His own. He promises that none of His children will beg. I have proven that to be the case. When Malcolm fell ill I was the sole breadwinner and the Lord had it that I did not have a secure position and instead He sent me on a trip around all the legal offices in Canberra for He knew that in so doing everywhere I went those I worked with would hear the Gospel. Sometimes Wednesday would arrive and there would be no money in the Bank to pay for the Mortgage, bills or food and I would be on my knees praying for His help and provision. Then!! BUT Then!!! I received a phone call and there would be another job and even to the extent that the prospective employer offered me pay 14 days in advance and so this went on for seventeen years in this placement or that. His hand was upon me in a most special and extraordinary way. Jehovah Jireh my Provider the Lord is sufficient for me for me the Lord is sufficient for me. I paid all my bills rates, electricity, food, clothing and even saved enough to take Malcolm on a trip around OZ. Praise His mighty Name the Name above all Names that every knee and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. As you have proclaimed in your little book trust Him in every circumstance – trust really is the key. Precious Saviour.