From 2005 to 2007, our church sent a mission team to Ukraine to help build and restore an orphanage through our partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Tragically, the orphanage our church worked on was bombed by Russian forces last week.
Executive Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Paul Baxley, gave us the following report:
“Today, our Cooperative Baptist Fellowship family grieves the news that the property of Village of Hope in Kyiv, Ukraine, was bombed by the Russian military. For nearly 20 years, our Fellowship family has joined with Gennady and Mina Podgaisky and partners in Ukraine to establish and grow this beautiful ministry. We are heartbroken to know of this devastating damage in a senseless act of violence.
We are relieved to know that no one was in the property at the time of the attack and that most of those served by Village of Hope are now out of Kyiv. But we know fleeing home to seek safety is also a devastating consequence of this war. So, we pray for families on the run, and we pray for wisdom for leaders around the world who are seeking ways to bring this war to an end.”
In 2005, and in the years that followed, a strong contingent of our church traveled to Ukraine and engaged in various projects to help our Baptist friends serve local families. From painting to light construction, our mission trip team helped to build an infrastructure where hope could be offered to others in Christ’s Name. Those mission trip teams included: Gary Frye, Oleta Haskett, Doris Higdon, Jennie Hunter, Larry Grantham, Gene Middleton, the Seago Family, Hank Speich, Betty & EP Stilwell, Judy and Dennis Wilkey, and others.
It is surreal and bewildering to learn that your efforts have become rubble in a landscape of terror.
What happens when the work of our hands is destroyed?
Sadly, God knows something about that.
Just as we are struck by shock and anger to learn that our creativity and good intentions have been destroyed, God also mourns how we uproot the hope that He provides us. The story of God’s relationship with us is one of building, comforting, rebuilding, encouraging, and picking up the pieces one moment after the next. God’s unrelenting care and steadfast love for us is an ever-present reality.
One would think that God’s persistent love would change the world. I believe that we are transformed, but internal and external battles destroy villages of hope and cause senseless heartache for those seeking to find safe harbor in God’s embrace.
What can we do?
We can pray for our brothers and sisters in eastern Europe. We can pray for mercy for those who are suffering. We can pray for our missionaries serving the 2 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled their homeland in recent weeks.
We can pray and work for peace in Europe and around the world. We can pray for the powers and principalities to repent of their evils and to retreat and help rebuild.
As people of faith who are called to love our neighbors, we should strive to be friends in a global context. We can also make plans to go and serve on the mission field again soon.
Wherever we go, we are called to build villages of hope. And when those villages of hope are destroyed, like God, we must roll up our sleeves and begin the redemptive work of building hope once more.
Click here to view a video showing the damage to the community where the Village of Hope was located.
Would you consider a financial contribution to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Ukraine Relief Fund? Give today at www.cbf.net/ukraine. The fund provides relief to those served by CBF field personnel Gennady and Mina Podgaisky and other CBF field personnel and ministry partners across Europe as Ukrainians flee the invasion of their country into other nations.