David Nakhla 0:00

Welcome to the Reformed Deacon, a casual conversation with topics specifically designed to help local Reformed Deacons. There are nearly a thousand deacons in the OPC alone. So let's take this opportunity to learn from and encourage one another. We're so glad you could join us.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Hi, my name is Chris Cash. I'm the pastor of the Trinity Reform OPC in Lanham, Maryland, and I also serve as the chairman of the Refugee Ministry Subcommittee of the OPC's Committee on the African Ministry. Significantly February 24th marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the Ukraine War. We appreciate the support of this very important work.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

First of all, just God is in control. God will take care of us. Our strength is and our hope is not in horses and armies. It's hard to speak for all of Ukraine because there really is a big difference between people in the east of Ukraine and people in the west. In the east of Ukraine, communism had a much bigger influence, so atheism is much stronger there. And if people are religious, they're not as rooted to the Orthodox Church or other churches as they may be in Western Ukraine. In Western Ukraine, that church tradition is a very important part of people's lives, and people really did not become atheists to a great extent here. But over here, things are also changing in the sense that influences from the West are coming in, more relativism, some new age ideas. So especially if you talk to students, there are all sorts of ideas. But generally speaking, in Ukraine, I think there's a strong sense that God exists, you know, and you can somehow communicate with him through prayer, through the priests, through icons, or you know, some kind of mysterious way you can get your prayers heard by him. So there is a sense of trust in God. With the war breaking out now, a lot of people are saying, I believe in the military of Ukraine. People are saying that's really where my hope is. Now, people mean that also in a way to support the military, but I think a lot of people are just looking at that as the answer to this war. The military will fight us out of this war. Other than that, people look for meaning and significance in their family, children. Children are a very important part of people's identity here for moms and grandparents, especially. People idolize their kids very often. But similar to you know what we do in the West as well, look at your job for significance, look at money, status in your community, also very important in this part of the world, what other people think of you, that gives you significance. You know, that determines to a large extent who you are, what the people in your town or village or city think about you. So people from Donbass or Kherson, areas that have been occupied by Russia have moved out. Some of them have moved to a city like Mukolaev. So you have refugees living or displaced people living in Mukalaev. Now, Mukalaev is coming under almost nightly bombardment, but for those people that's safer than where they were. People from Mukolaev in turn move to places like Odessa. To them, Odessa is safe. People from Odessa who don't feel safe there come to Lviv. Lviv is a safe place. And then there are many people from Lviv who have gone to Western Europe. So it really is relative for people because being safe is a relative concept. But in Lviv in general, we do feel very safe. Yes, we've had five or six missile strikes in the city back in the spring, but we haven't had anything for about four months now. And we know there's always a possibility. I mean, we do have sirens going off at various points during the week. But for the most part, it is very quiet and it's almost surreal to live in the city that is quiet, that is peaceful when we know that there's a war going on in the country. People in Lviv are absolutely connected to what's going on. First of all, just through volunteering, time, money, helping in all sorts of places. People here are socially very active and they have really kicked into high gear with this war, helping in any way possible. But there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men from Lviv or the Lviv area who have already died in the war. So it has affected many families and friends, communities. There's no way people are not affected by that. And then we have had about 200,000 people from the more dangerous parts of Ukraine moving to Lviv, and they're living here in the city, and people in Lviv are helping to take care of them, as our church is doing as well with the shelter that we run. Everybody is very much affected by the war, is very much a part of what was going on. And even though we are safe, I mean, it is on our minds every day, almost the whole time. We've been waiting for these recent successes that have happened. We have anticipated them and it's been wonderful to see them. It's been a surprise to have them in the Kharkiv Oblast in the northeast because we didn't know about that. That was kept secret from everybody. We only knew about the counterattacks in the south, in the Kherson area outside of Mukolaev. Those are still ongoing, but as far as we understand, it's just a matter of time before Ukraine will return the city of Kherson to its control. But in the eastern area by Kharkiv, that's been hugely encouraging. Most people I speak to in Lviv say we're going to win this war. People are sure that we are going to win one way or another. But this just makes it more tangible. People see we really can't take territory back from the second largest army in the world. And this gives people hope for what we can do this winter, next spring, and uh time after that as long as this war needs to go on. Here in Lviv, our winters would be comparable to Chicago, you know, upper Midwest. So we do get significant colds, we do get temperatures below zero and lots of snow, and that's true for most of Ukraine. So winter is a very significant factor here during the war. It's significant for our soldiers. We hope they are well taken care of and prepared for this. Certainly, this is part of their training. But for our cities, it's a concern, especially for cities like uh Mukulai from the south, where the infrastructure has been significantly damaged by bombing so far for Kharkiv, which has been significantly damaged. Um I don't know to what extent the cities are ready for the winter there, but we expect that Russia will hit the infrastructure in Ukraine over the upcoming months before winter, so that there will be limited heat, gas, limited access to electricity. We don't know exactly what's going to happen. Could be that nothing like that will happen, or it could be that Russia will attack in significant ways. So we're trying to get ready for whatever might come. And want to stand by people here and whatever the circumstances might be. We feel fairly confident that there will be electricity during the winter because Ukraine does have its own nuclear power stations, and though one of those has been is being occupied by Russia, there are three others that are very powerful that are still working. And so we have bought electric oil heaters, mostly for our church here in the V for church members, so that if there's no gas heating in the city, no central heating, we can use those electric heaters to keep our homes warm. And if the situation becomes more severe, then at least heating up our church building, and people can move, people who are affected, don't have heated home, can move to our church building and they can be safe there. And uh yeah, we're trying to help other cities, other communities with that as well, and cities across the country also doing what they can to prepare for whatever might come this winter. Amen. We went to Psalm 33. God is in control, God will take care of us, our strength is and our hope is not in horses and armies. Most Sunday services now. I start the service by saying, you know, God is holding us in our hands, He's holding Ukraine in his hands, and it's just an encouragement to keep coming back to that thought every time. I've preached on worrying from Matthew 6. You know, it's so easy for us. You don't know what's going to happen, to start worrying. We've had some other interesting topics as well, such as loving your enemies. What does it mean to love your enemy when people are coming into your country, raping, murdering, stealing? How do you love those people? And how does that fit in with a commandment not to murder? And so we've had to tackle some of these very difficult issues in a way that we haven't done in the West for a long time. It's even hard to find people who have written about this because these just have not been problems in the United States. So, can we fight an enemy attacking us? How do we love them while still shooting at them? You know, what does it mean to be Christians in a war context? Some very difficult, challenging questions. Everybody has fear and anxiety because of the war. I mean, you do not know what's going to happen. Russia can do many different things that could make life in Ukraine much harder than it has been already. So, yeah, there's some fear, there's some anxiety there in people's hearts. What we have is we have an answer to that fear and anxiety. We believe in a God who really does hold history, holds Putin and Ukraine, the whole world in his hands, and nothing happens that is outside of his plan, especially as reformed Christians, that is a foundational belief for us. God has a plan not only for the country but for each one of us individually. And the plan is good. We are his children and he loves us, and he will provide for us according to his good plan. His plan might not be for us to be comfortable, but his plan is good, to take care of us as he knows best, according to his purposes for us. And that's hugely encouraging. For people who do not have that hope, people's homes are being destroyed. To them, that is their life. That's their future. The home is gone. What do they have left? They lose a son or a husband in the war. What is left? If that's the center of your life, your life is in shambles, you know, when things and people die around you. Different pastors are dealing with people who are coming in, that's displaced people who have questions like this. We've been fortunate to have blessed, we have to have people coming in who are not believers coming into our congregation, being provided shelter. We know of at least one individual, uh, one lady, and one family. It seems like they have come to faith or are coming to faith by being part of our community and seeing that there's hope outside of themselves, outside of the military, and outside of Ukraine. We have had hundreds of people coming through Lviv who have been touched by our church in particular. And not all of those contacts have been long conversations, but what they have been, I hope, is people seeing God's love demonstrated through his church. And it might just be a touch, it might just be a day, a meal, something very quick, but you know, the Lord uses all sorts of interactions, all sorts of seas along the way to bring people to faith. And so we trust that he will use what our church has been able to do in many people's lives. Along with that, too, as we're able to use some of the aid that has come in from churches, people in the United States through this uh project, Crates for Ukraine, for example, is that we can send aid to other parts of Ukraine where we have churches or where we hope there will be churches in the future. And we send the help out with scripture verses and also with uh our church's address, the address of the publishing house that we have started here in Western Ukraine. So people have access to resources, and we hope that God is using that aid as well as a sign of his love to soften people's hearts, and hopefully that's fertile ground for future church planting in other parts of the country. Yeah, there have been a lot of changes for our family since the war started. We had people coming through our home even before the 24th of February when the first missiles were shot and the first Russian soldiers flooded into the country. And then after that, we had people living in our home. We had about six or seven people living in our home for a month and a half. It's tapered down. Now we have only Anya's parents living with us since they're from the south of Ukraine, which we're very thankful to have them with us. It's been encouraging to see the Lord in many ways softening their hearts as well, or deepening faith that is there as they have become more part of our church and as they have had many opportunities to hear the gospel. So that's just one small, very encouraging aspect of this war in the last few months for our family. Anya did wonder at the beginning whether she and Christian should leave the country and maybe join my sister and her family in Munich because we were not sure how Christian would react to the war. He's a sensitive child, and you know, living in a war zone is not easy for kids. The Lord has been amazingly gracious, especially for Christian, that he has just been able to keep going with his life. People who run various activities that he's a part of started those activities within about a month after the war started, when many businesses were not open in the city, such as his karate and music school and other activities. So he's been able to just plug right back in, continue with his life, and the Lord has really sustained him. He's stayed calm, and that's made it possible for Anya to stay here, which of course is a huge support for me as well. It's actually been hard for our daughter, Juliette, who's not in the country. She studies in New York City, especially at the beginning of the war. It's very hard for her to be there when our family's back here. She really wanted to be back here. But she was able to come visit us for the summer, and she was able to volunteer and help out in the war effort. So that was great for her as well to connect with what our church is doing and what's going on in Ukraine. Since the war started, our church has completely changed. Of course, some people have left the country and have stayed outside the country. Many have come back, but we've had an influx of people from other churches, and in many ways, that has been a breath of fresh air. It's also been a challenge because these people have, oftentimes they're speaking Russian, they have a different church culture, a different city culture. But it really has enriched our church because these people do bring different perspectives, new approaches, new gifts. So I feel like our church, even though it's harder to include everybody, has become a richer place because of these people from different parts of the country who have come in. And I've seen that repeated across the country, not only in churches, but in different ways people have changed, or the way God has brought people to new places in their lives, or have just brought them to a new perspective on their life because of the war. The Lord really is using this war to build his church, to work in individuals' hearts. We have a man who's been in the city of Mukalaev, who's been an elder in the church there. He's been going back and forth for years whether he should finish seminary or keep working in his regular job, which is a very well-paying job. Well, since the war started, he has said, you know, I really want to become a pastor full-time and care for this church in Mukalaev. The Lord is using this war to build this church, not just with the people who are in the church already, who were in the church before the war, but in bringing bringing in new people and showing people that what they are hoping and trusting in is deficient. That's not real hope. That can't drive out fear. He's giving people new hope in Jesus Christ. So heading back to the church building again now, meeting with a couple of guys in a small group just to uh talk with them. You know what we do on Sundays is central, but meeting with people during the week and talking about how their faith relates to their daily life is uh crucial for helping people grow. So that gives you a quick overview of the ministry here in Lviv. It's been an honor to have served here over the years and now especially to serve here during this war. And it's an honor to have you participate in this work through your prayers and through your financial giving, in particular in a most recent large gift from the OBC to our ministry here in serving people during the war. Thank you so much for being part of what Jesus Christ is doing here in Ukraine.

David Nakhla 18:10

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