Church in the Trenches: 6 months of Wartime Ministry in Ukraine

 

It's just over 6 months since Russia invaded Ukraine - this is part of an article which reflects on what it has been like to minister in Ukraine during that time . It is written by Jamie Dean and was originally published on the Gospel Coalition website - see the end for more details

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Church in the Trenches: 6 Months of Wartime Ministry in Ukraine 

The most difficult moment of Sergey Nakul’s life unfolded in a packed Kyiv train station not long after Russia invaded Ukraine. The pastor was sending his wife, his two sons, and a group of members from his local church to safety outside of the nation under attack.

A few weeks earlier, Nakul’s wife insisted on staying with her husband and the church they love, but as Russian assaults grew fiercer and a takeover of Kyiv seemed possible, Nakul gently prevailed: “My beloved, it’s time for you to go.”

He stood on the crowded train platform, holding his wife’s hand and wondering when he would see her, his sons, and his church members again. “It was the most terrible moment for me as the father and pastor responsible for these people,” he says. When news later arrived that the group had reached safety in a bordering country, Nakul felt relief. “Praise the Lord,” he remembers thinking. Now he could serve without fear.

If I am a shepherd in Jesus’s image, how could I leave my people?

 Ukrainian regulations required the 45-year-old pastor to stay, along with most men ages 18 to 60. But Nakul felt compelled to remain regardless of the wartime law. Why? “I’m a pastor, that’s the simple answer,” he said in a recent call from his home in Kyiv. He considered how Jesus is a shepherd who would never leave his sheep: “And then if I am a shepherd in Jesus’s image, how could I leave my people?”

Six months later, Nakul is still serving the church in Ukraine and hoping his loved ones can join him soon. Serving without his family is just one of the ways Nakul and others have adjusted to Christian ministry during half a year of unexpected war. The bombings, the displacement of 12 million people, and the uncertainty about the future require ministry leaders to adapt to a changing situation while holding out the hope of the unchanging gospel.

Nakul says the gospel has kept him anchored. “I’ve experienced the amazing faithfulness of the Lord,” he says. “And this very precious.”

Unexpected Messengers

For Nakul, the faithfulness of the Lord began long before he knew about Jesus. As a child living under Soviet control in Ukraine, he had little exposure to the Bible—but he was curious. He spent time in the library reading atheistic books because they contained portions of Scripture the authors tried to refute. It was the only way Nakul could find what he calls “pieces of the gospel.” When he looks back, he sees his inexplicable interest as “just pure grace in [his] life.”

After Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, the Soviet collapse left former Soviet states in an economic spiral. Times were bleak and often desperate, but one afternoon in 1994, Nakul met two young men on the street who asked him a simple question: “Would you like to talk about Jesus?”

The two men, who attended an evangelical church, explained the basics of the Christian faith. They also gave Nakul a copy of the New Testament. “You can’t even imagine what it meant at that time to get a New Testament for free,” Nakul says.

When he read it, the message he found inside “was like fresh air.” “It was like a light,” he recalls. “It was like a door opened to heaven.” A few months later, Nakul embraced saving faith in Christ and dedicated his life to ministry.

Ministry in Wartime

Nakul’s ministry has included nine years as pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Kyiv. When the Russian invasion began on February 24, Nakul turned the church’s basement into a bomb shelter, where they continued to hold worship services, even when the number of attendees briefly dropped to four.

The pastor adjusted to the fluctuating numbers, as some members evacuated the country and others were called to military service in Ukraine. Nakul reported to a military training base himself, but officials sent him home to serve his congregation. A friend who’s the pastor of a nearby Baptist church recently reported to serve as a soldier.

Meanwhile, Nakul documented the war’s destruction in his role as a senior broadcaster for the Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC), an international Christian radio network. In the early days of the invasion, he recorded videos of destroyed buildings in his neighbourhood and reported on the harrowing conditions for Kyiv residents remaining in the city.

Your prayers are helping me to not be so afraid. They are giving my heart peace.

 
Other broadcasters at FEBC held online prayer meetings and directed listeners to the ministry’s counselling centre for spiritual help. During a June prayer meeting, a listener wrote in to say the building next door to her had just been hit by a rocket. “I can hear people screaming,” she wrote. The broadcaster prayed for the frightened listener and heard back a few minutes later: “Your prayers are helping me to not be so afraid. They are giving my heart peace.”

Help for the Wounded

While peace is in especially short supply in some parts of Ukraine, citizens in most places are dealing with the trauma of living in a country torn apart by war. The tensions have created a need for spiritual care that Nakul and other pastors find as urgent as physical needs….

Hope for the Future

Back in Kyiv, pastor Sergey Nakul continues to adapt, and he continues to see the value of remaining a steady presence with his congregation in Kyiv as well as his work at the FEBC radio network. He hopes his family will be able to rejoin him soon, but says he was boosted by a recent visit from his wife—the first time he had seen her since her evacuation. “It was like we had a honeymoon,” he says. “It was six days that were completely refreshing.”

Until the couple is united again, the pastor says he continues to be refreshed by God’s grace that has followed him since his earliest days. “I tell people I don’t know what will happen next,” he says. “But the only assurance you could have as a child of God is trusting in the precious promises of God embodied in Christ.” Nakul says the message he emphasized at the beginning of the war is the one he still proclaims now: “God is with us.”

(This is part of an article by Jamie Dean, International Editor for the Gospel Coalition and recently published on the TGC website. If you would  like to read the whole article you can view it here )