Caring Hands
Anna from Kharkiv
“My mom and I are refugees from Kharkiv. I had an apartment there and lived with my dog Chaki. My mom lived in another area of the city. I am 57. I worked in a store, looked after my mom, and enjoyed my life. “On February 24, I woke up to the sounds of explosions and couldn’t believe that the war had started until I saw the tanks on our street. The first thought was about my mother. I quickly grabbed a couple things, my dog, and rushed to see her. Then life stopped. We had to spend 10 days in a cold basement, sometimes without electricity. Those were the scariest and hardest days of my life. I was really worried about my mom since she felt worse every day. During that time, my neighbor called me and told us something that was hard to process. Our apartment block had…
Anastasia and Little Kira
Anastasia Zyabko, her little daughter Kira (4 years old), and her mother Yelena became refugees in May 2022. That was when their village of Stariy Saltiv in the Kharkiv region was bombed. But before then, everything was quiet, and there were no signs of war in their area. But then the war started suddenly and was terrifying. The bombardment didn’t stop and people couldn’t leave their cellars for days. The village was cut off from all provisions, medical help, and even water. Anastasia shared that a missile hit one of the houses in the village, and a fire broke out. They quickly realized that the fire could reach the natural gas pipeline, which could cause a massive explosion. They knew that they had to put the fire out somehow, but there was already no water in the village. So people started bringing sand from the sand piles where children used…
From fearful Yazidi to child of God
“We are all going to hell!” Boris remembers his Yazidi grandmother in Armenia telling him this when he was a young man. These words frightened Boris, who turned to a Yazidi spiritual leader for hope. But he told Boris that only a select few would make it to paradise and that even spiritual leaders like himself couldn’t escape hell. Hopelessness and poverty surrounded Boris and led him to become an alcoholic. Despair among the Yazidi people is not surprising, says Don Parsons, Mission Eurasia’s ministry director for unreached people groups. “The Yazidis are a religious subgroup of the Kurdish people,” he says. “Most of them are animistic pagans who worship the sun and pay homage to Satan.” But someone shared the Light of the gospel with Boris. At first, when he heard about Jesus, Boris thought that Jesus was just the Armenian god. But he cried out to God and…
A Story of Hope in Eastern Ukraine
Like any mother, Angelina wanted the best for her children. When war broke out in eastern Ukraine, she and her husband had three children and a fourth on the way. While her husband was off fighting for their country, Angelina’s hometown of Andreyevka was targeted in several bombing attacks, so she made the difficult decision to move to Russia, where she had many relatives, so her children would be safe. Not long after the move, Angelina gave birth to a baby girl. She went back to work as soon as she could, and thankfully, she was able to afford all of the food and clothing that her children needed. But sadly, things changed very quickly. After Angelina’s neighbors found out that she was from Ukraine, they started treating her and her children with great disrespect and hostility. At first, Angelina tried to be patient, but eventually her neighbors’ behavior became…
A Miracle for Inessa
The Inessa that our School Without Walls students visit today is unrecognizable as the same child that they first met two years ago. Today she is full of smiles and loves to have fun, whereas two years ago at a refugee camp in Verovka, Ukraine, she looked completely different. She was scared of everything, her hair was messy, and she would mumble under her breath about bombings and the toys she had to leave behind. Inessa and her family are originally from Yelenovka, a village located in the war zone in eastern Ukraine. Her parents were very involved in their local church, but sadly, after the conflict erupted and bombing attacks became more frequent, they were forced to flee the village, along with the rest of the congregation. They didn’t make it far, however, as the bombing attacks intensified, so Inessa’s family, and 26 other adults and children, were forced…
Lena’s Testimony: Undying Faith in the Midst of War
There are over one million internally displaced people and refugees in eastern Ukraine today, each with their own story. There is so much pain and tragedy there, but stories like Lena’s show that God is still working out His redemptive eternal plan of hope and healing, even in the midst of circumstances that seem hopeless by human standards. Lena lives with her husband and son in a village near the front lines of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. When the war broke out, the family found themselves right in the middle of the violence. They were unable to sleep for many horrible nights due to the shelling, and Lena’s husband, Valeriy, witnessed several people die and had many missiles explode right above his head. When Valeriy began having psychological problems because of trauma and loss of sleep, the family knew it was time to leave their village. Recently, Valeriy also…