Mark Agarkov: 0:00

It's very important to bring hope to people because 90% of people who came to us, they lost everything.

David Nakhla: 0:09

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. Let's jump into our next episode. My name is David Nogla and I serve as the Administrator of the Committee on Diagnostic Ministries as well as the Coordinator for OPC Disaster Response.

David Nakhla: 0:37

For today's episode, we're grateful to be joined by two brothers in Christ from Ukraine, both serving in the midst of ongoing and difficult circumstances, both proclaiming the hope of the gospel where it is desperately needed. With us today is Mark Agarkov, an elder in training and coordinator of mercy ministry at Kharkiv Presbyterian Church, and our own, Hiro Hakobord, OPC missionary to Ukraine. They both serve congregations of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ukraine. Mark and Hero, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. It's now been more than three years since the full-scale war in Ukraine began. Here in the United States the news cycle has largely moved on, but we know the suffering hasn't. Millions remain displaced, churches are under strain and yet the mercy of Christ continues to shine through his people. We wanted to take this opportunity to hear from both of you, to get a real human update on the life and ministry in Ukraine, so that we can pray more specifically and hear about how we can be helpful, even in small ways, Mark welcome.

Mark Agarkov: 1:43

Hello everyone, Thank you for having me.

David Nakhla: 1:45

And Hiro welcome.

Heero Hacquebord: 1:47

Thank you, it's great to be with you.

David Nakhla: 1:49

Mark, I'd like to begin with you. You and your wife and your twin baby boys live in Kharkov, a city just 18 miles from the Russian border. You've lived through countless attacks, at least one landing just half a mile from your home, and Kharkiv is also now home to an estimated half a million internally displaced people. Maybe you can share with us what everyday life looks like for you and your family. Are you able to buy groceries, fill your car with gas, go to work? We understand that air raid sirens are part of the daily rhythm. Is that still the case, and how does this ongoing conflict reshape your daily experience and what you do when one goes off?

Mark Agarkov: 2:30

Yes, kharkiv is really very close to the Russian border, and not only to the Russian border but actually to the front line. So only like around 20 miles from our church building is actually front line and battles. So yeah, it's pretty dangerous, not only from air alert, from shelling, from drone attacks, from missiles, but also bottles on the field. But, praise to God, we do have opportunity to have access to groceries to fuel everything is accessible to have access to groceries to fuel everything is accessible. But of course, it's much more expensive because it's much more to the front line. Air alert is like our usual days, so daily reality, I would say. So last week was pretty calm because it's only like 30 hours per week air alert.

Mark Agarkov: 3:24

But, as usual, it might be like half of the day and of course it's very difficult to live under this pressure.

Mark Agarkov: 3:36

So if you have to go to bomb shelter. You have to live in bomb shelter actually. So we have to distinguish when it's a real threat and we have to hide, or when it's like new normality and you have to keep living. And yeah, having two boys it's a big blessing and, of course, it's a big challenge. Of course, we are responsible for now, not only for our own lives, but also for our children. So we are very careful when we hear explosions or something like that. So we are trying to hide in the room without windows and follow the rules of two walls, so you have to be like two walls from the street in order to be safe from shelling. But, praise God, we are still safe.

Mark Agarkov: 4:21

We are still doing our ministry and our main focus for now is, like social ministry, mercy ministry. We keep helping needy people and our main focus is refugees. We call them internally displaced people. As you mentioned, it's really a lot of people who moved from Donetsk region, from Kharkiv region, from Luhansk region, to Kharkiv city as its second biggest city in Ukraine and, of course, kharkiv for them is much more safer than their villages, which is actually destroyed at all. So, yeah, and we keep providing food and hygiene and clothes to them. Also, we help disabled people and single mothers and so on. So, praise God, we have this opportunity to keep doing our ministry and many, many thanks to all who support us and keep supporting us.

David Nakhla: 5:22

And can you talk a little bit about life in the church, maybe even backing up to there was a church there before the war and then maybe bring us through to today how that has gone, and then even just people coming to church in the midst of? Do you have people coming because of the circumstances?

Mark Agarkov: 5:40

Yes, before the war we had a church and we had around 100 church members. Okay, and of course, when invasion have started, a lot of people flew out of the city to the Western Ukraine and abroad, and our strategy was to evacuate all women and children abroad, because nobody knows what is going to be. So it was around 20 people who stay in the city, so it was like all church there, but then some people come back and it was around 30 people. When we restarted our worship service, it was around 100 days of the war and before that we were in evacuation in Ivano-Frankivsk, in the western part of Ukraine, and held worship service there. But we reopened the church and for now we have around 60 people who are regularly visiting worship service, and it's a great miracle for us because many of them are totally new people, so it's not believers from other churches, it's people who were nominal Orthodox or non-believers at all, and during the war they asked difficult questions about their life, because when you are living close to the war, to the front line, you are usually asking questions about the future, about meaning of life, about meaning of suffering. So I'd like to share with you one story One senior lady her name is Olena.

Mark Agarkov: 7:16

She's from Volchansk city and you know that Volchansk City doesn't exist anymore.

Mark Agarkov: 7:22

It was whipped out of the face of the earth and she was under shelling and it was very difficult and she began praying and she had New Testament and she read New Testament five times Usual person, non-believer, but she had like a New Testament and five times before she had the opportunity to leave the city and move to the Harkiv city.

Mark Agarkov: 7:51

And she met us in our social center when we distributing humanitarian aid and provide her gospel and tell her we are church, we are Christian, we are helping. And she came to our church and she understand yes, it's the hand of God, I'm still alive and I know that it's a miracle. So she became a Christian and she is right now a member of our church and symbol how God is changing hearts of people during the war and how suffering helping people to search, to seek, to seek God and to ask questions. And it's a really big miracle to see how many people right now in our church who did not know God but thanks to war, if we can say that they joined the church and found hope in Jesus Christ.

David Nakhla: 8:46

Praise God. What a great story. Thank you for sharing that about Olena Hiro. You live and minister in Lviv, on the western side of Ukraine, closer to the Polish border. In the past you've described it as safer than much of Ukraine, although tragedy has struck there as well. There was the bombings there last September that took the lives of seven members. We saw that in your newsletter. Can you give us an update of the state of things in Lviv, how your family is holding up under this long, uncertain strain and the state of the congregation in Lviv?

Heero Hacquebord: 9:16

Yeah, sure To compare Lviv to Kharkiv. The two cities are on the two extremes of the country and we really have two extremes almost of the experiences that people have in Ukraine. So our experience in Lviv right now is very different from Kharkiv. Now, if you just walk through the city you might almost think that there's no war going on because there are very few signs of it in the city. So we have some arrayed sirens once in a while, but for the most part, you know we're going to have days, sometimes even weeks, where we don't have those sirens and we have not had any attacks in our city since this past September when several people were killed, as you mentioned. So you know we have everything we need. Life goes on, schools are open, you know kids just go to the basement, one of the air raid sirens goes off, but for us there is no significant daily strain I mean for our family, I should say being here in Lviv except for just the psychological strain of the war going on. I think we all suffer from secondhand trauma knowing about what our brothers and sisters and other people in Ukraine are experiencing.

Heero Hacquebord: 10:23

As far as the church is concerned, obviously people in the church experience the war in some ways more than we do, because men are able to get called up to go fight. So there's a lot of uncertainty in families, especially young families. We have two families in the church have been affected recently. Two guys who are actually new seminary students were called up into the military just the last few months One man who's newly wed, who's been ministering in our student ministry as an intern, and the second man was called up just a few weeks ago. He's originally from the Harakiv Church and a given member here. His wife is pregnant with their first baby and so he's been called up. He was leading our teenage ministry.

Heero Hacquebord: 11:03

So those things are affecting people's mindset. Obviously there's just a lot of uncertainty. It's hard for people to plan their lives and their future, but I would say the church on the whole is doing really well. It was probably the only church I don't know, maybe it's the only church in the Ukraine where we could say that, that the church is very stable. We continue to accept new members, although I know other churches are growing as well, as Mark was saying in Harkiv, which is wonderful. But we've really benefited in some ways from people moving west and so the church has a great dynamism and I feel like in many ways it's just running on all cylinders, so that has been very encouraging.

David Nakhla: 11:43

That's great, praise God. On this podcast and in our newsletters and publications we've spoken much about the Crates for Ukraine. Many of our listeners may have even participated in those efforts to purchase and send specific requested items to Ukraine and I know, mark, that your church has been blessed to receive help through Crate's efforts. But I also know that, through your leadership and that of your brothers and others, that the congregation in Kharkiv has had a vibrant and ongoing diagonal ministry to not only church members but also to many of the elderly, disabled, infirmed, many of the elderly, disabled, infirmed, and mothers and children surviving in your region, and this is good work. It has been a great personal sacrifice and risk to yourself and others serving in this ministry, as I've been privileged to receive your email updates, initially daily, faithfully sending those for months initially, and you've continued that even up until now. Your service in the Lord has been very encouraging and inspiring to me. So thank you and praise the Lord for that service, mark, in the past six months, with the blessing and encouragement of Hero and others, the OPC Communion on DAC Ministries have been privileged to come alongside of these efforts directly with some financial contributions.

David Nakhla: 13:00

Most listening will not know of the work you've been doing much closer to the front lines of the war, and so that was one of the big reasons why we really wanted to have you on the podcast. Would you mind maybe painting a picture in broad strokes of how this ministry came to be? You can even start a little bit with your own background, mark. You weren't necessarily a deacon in the church, but what is your background? What are your studies Kind of how you came and got involved with this ministry, number of people served, what's the current focus and maybe, if there's again, if there's any specific stories you'd like to tell, feel free to include those.

Mark Agarkov: 13:36

Yeah, thank you. I'd like to begin with a pre-story that it was not our main focus like social ministry. I don't know how it's common for Presbyterian churches in the US, but in Kharkiv it wasn't our main focus like social ministry. Our focus was student ministry, like theological classes and so on. But when war had started, we understand that the need is huge and we have to change our priorities and to change our focus. So first of all, we wanted to help our church members, and when we cover all the needs of our church members, we understand that God provide us resources to keep helping. And actually it's also a wonderful story as we had our little savings at the church in order to buy a building like a worship hall, and it was our dream for 25 years and our dream was to buy this building like part of the building, but it was so unaffordable for us, very expensive, and so we decided to spend all our donations in the beginning of war in order to help people with evacuation, with medicine and with opening hub. We open in Ivano-Frankivsk shelter for people who are moving to the West as Lviv church. We give opportunity for people to stay for several weeks and we provide medicine, provide clothes, everything they need help for fuel and so on and after that God sent a lot of resources and we understand that we want to found a charitable foundation and in the first year of the war we found a charitable foundation, heritage of the reformation, which help you not only like church members, but also people who are in great need, because we saw how many people moved in the hierarchy of how many refugees are here and how huge is need and we decided to provide food and we're still able to keep doing that thanks to all donors and we appreciate it. We appreciate prayers and especially financial support, and we have this opportunity to keep doing that right now. So I'm very thankful to OPC Diaconal Committee and all donors who donate to OPC. Thank you so much. So just imagine for us as a little church, we had opportunity to help over 150,000 people, so it's a huge number for us. It's like we even do not dream about that, but yeah, that's a miracle. So we still keep providing around 300 families per month. It's around like 900,000 people per month which receive food, clothes and some specific needs like medicine and so on.

Mark Agarkov: 16:48

So our main goal, of course, is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to bring hope to these people. But we understand that our main goal is not only cover their physical needs but also to cover their spiritual needs. So I'm very often mentioned that it's very important to bring hope to people, because 90 percent of people who came to us, to our charitable foundation, they lost everything. They lost their homes, their savings, their property, their property. So just imagine it's not young people, it's senior people. They built their life, have their savings, built their homes and they lost everything and for them it's like the end of their life, because if material is the sense of life, lost this sense of life.

Mark Agarkov: 17:42

So we try to say war it's awful and it's a big pity that you lost everything, but jesus have hope for you and we're trying to share it with people, and mainly people who visit our church right now. I would say that 60 of them came from our charitable foundation and mercy ministry. Also, we're trying to help churches in Karlovka and in Zaporizhia. It's like small communities. We have some partnership with them and helping with humanitarian aid and so on. So my focus before the war wasn't social ministry and diagonal ministry. Actually, I'm doing a PhD in sociology so I'm a little bit academic and have my small business. So we are doing like Christian publishing house translating books, publishing books. But we understand that times are changing and we have to change our focus and we see what God is doing, so we're just following Him and praise God for everything we have.

David Nakhla: 18:48

And can you maybe share who are those who are working with you? You were part of a small band getting this started. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Mark Agarkov: 18:56

Yeah, in the beginning of war, it was just our church members who said we want to help, we want to volunteer, we want to serve. So people who had this opportunity to help, they just gave their full time for this ministry. And as it was very dangerous to stay in Kharkiv, we had our warehouse with food and everything in Ivano-Frankivsk. So we moved like around 1,000 kilometers from Ivano-Frankivsk to Kharkiv every week to provide like around four or five ton of food. So we had six drivers who were doing this regularly, but then we moved our warehouse in Kharkiv. We had around 10 people in the beginning of war and even our pastor is like sorting humanitarian food, distributing humanitarian aid.

Mark Agarkov: 19:47

Yeah so, but right now we have small team it's around three staff who is full-time and around six volunteers part-time when we have distribution, and also we are involving people who received help from us and we're asking do you want to help, Do you want to volunteer? And they said, yes, we receive help, we want to help others. So we invite them to our warehouse once a month when we have preparing food bags around like 300 food bags and people who just received last week the help from their coming and helping to sorting this food, sorting food bags for another group of refugees. So it's also how we try to involve these refugees in our ministry.

David Nakhla: 20:37

That's beautiful. I remember the similar testimony with regards to the work that was going on in Lviv. Community members just wanted to participate and help. Speaking of which here, maybe you can give us a quick update on the crates for Ukraine and do you know if the MTW team anticipates another round of this anytime soon or the future of crates?

Heero Hacquebord: 20:57

Yeah, that's a good question. The thinking at this point is not to announce another wave but just keep going with the way we're doing things now, which is just a much more streamlined approach of people being able to either click and ship, mostly through Amazon, with the list we give, and then we pack it ourselves in Dallas our team members there or people just donate money and then they take care of all the packing, ordering, packing and shipping in Dallas. That seems just like an easier way to keep this going. So for crates 4.0, the fourth iteration of this, just some numbers we have We've received about 204 crates we do a little more by now 5.8 tons of aid and it's about $650,000 we've gotten so far, which is smaller than what we've gotten in the previous ones, but that is still very significant and the aid is making a big difference. So we remain very, very thankful for everybody in the United States participating in that and the aid is saving lives.

David Nakhla: 21:57

And if we came and did a tour in the warehouse, is there still product there or most of it's been deployed?

Heero Hacquebord: 22:04

It has been pretty empty. We just got another shipment last week, but most of it has been sent. So it has been, as in the past, a lot of medical care, also some winter items. And then there's also been a new donor in the United States, an acquaintance of our NGW team leader, doug Shepard, who has manufactured pancake mix that he distributes in the United States. An acquaintance of our NGW team leader, doug Shepard, who has manufactured pancake mix that he distributes in the United States. But he's also sent that to us here free of charge, a lot of it, and so we've been able to distribute that along with the medical aid, and so I mean thousands of families have already received that. And it's very easy to add water and you cook it in a pan or in the oven.

Heero Hacquebord: 22:44

It actually tastes really good and that's been a really neat way for us to be able to send food to people as well, as they're in different situations and oftentimes not able to cook in any normal way.

David Nakhla: 22:53

Oh cool. So after three years we can only imagine how weary Simpsons has become and that burnout can be real for the churches, volunteers and aid workers. Yet we know that your strength comes from the Lord. Can you share a story or two, some tangible ways you've seen this aid make a difference for, especially the most?

Heero Hacquebord: 23:13

vulnerable. Yeah, as far as the numbers are concerned, one number that has really hit me is that over the course of three months, basically the three winter months, our aid was documented to have saved about 1,100 lives. Well, just in three months, that's pretty amazing. I've spoken to Ruslan, who runs our aid center and all the shipping, and he recently made contact with some medics in the city of Pokrovsk, which you might have heard about, it's been in the news. It's in the Donetsk region in the east and it's a city that has been on the very front lines. Russians have been trying to take it for months now.

Heero Hacquebord: 23:49

So there's a group of medics in a city and they're mostly guys from the city. They're, I don't know for whatever reason. They're poorly supplied, and so Ruslan, our aid manager, made contact with them through another medic whom he has known for a while, and was able to supply these guys with some of our crates, some of our first aid supplies. They were very surprised by the quality of it, very thankful. And then the commander recently let Ruslan know that because of the verse on the box, a quote from Isaiah, the guys there started reading the book of Isaiah together, which made me think maybe we should put a quote from the gospel of John on there. People can start by reading the gospel of John, but that was very encouraging to hear that, in addition to the age-saving lives, the gospel is still going out through it as well.

David Nakhla: 24:35

Can you remind us of the verse from Isaiah Sure David?

Heero Hacquebord: 24:39

It's Isaiah 41, verse 10, which says Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

David Nakhla: 24:51

Wonderful, thank you. We know that money can meet many physical needs, but it can't undo trauma. There's so much emotional and mental toll this war has taken on children, parents and even pastors. How do you see the impact of your churches in Ukraine as they care for souls burdened by grief, fear and prolonged uncertainty?

Heero Hacquebord: 25:14

In talking with other pastors. All of our churches obviously are involved with this in different ways. Probably the church has been the hardest hit is our church in the city of kherson, where the russians are literally across the river from them and where there are first person view drones flying over the city pretty much around the clock kamikaze drones, one-way drones just hunting for victims people on cars, vans, public transportation, even people on bicycle or on foot, um, and our church building there is in the red zone, which means the most dangerous zone of the city. But on sundays guys from that church who have a van, they drive around the city, collect people and drive into the church building for the service some older people as well, but people from the very neighborhood around the church building have been attending services as well, even though it is dangerous for them to go outside, so that church continues to serve that community and has been growing in these circumstances.

Heero Hacquebord: 26:17

Many people left the pastor and his family, small kids also left at the beginning of the war or before the war started, the full-scale war. But they still have about 40 people in attendance on Sundays and they are looking out to open their basement for a day center for kids because the schools in Kherson do not function. It's just too dangerous and too complicated, I guess. But they want to open the basement of the church to give kids a place where they can go during the day and give them safety, give them food and give them some kind of interaction and activities. So that's been very difficult to hear about but very encouraging at the same time.

Heero Hacquebord: 26:53

And then all of our churches have been you know, taking care of internally displaced people, feeding them.

Heero Hacquebord: 26:58

Many of our churches have increased attendance because of those people attending. In our cities of Cherkasy and Karlivka, which Mark already mentioned, closer to them in the east of the country, those two cities have been able to buy church buildings recently. Wonderful, that's going forward. And then in a city in the south, close to Odessa, Bilgrid Nistrovsky, they are working on getting a psychological education for refugees, trying to get refugees educated and in a position where they can help others as well who are dealing with the trauma of the war. So many different efforts in our churches as they're in very different circumstances, a variety of circumstances.

Mark Agarkov: 27:41

I would share with you one story of Elena. She is also one of the refugees who came to our church and before she visited us she felt panic attack very often because she is from the Dnetsk region and also her home was occupied and right now unfortunately under the occupation occupied and right now unfortunately under the occupation, and she was afraid to go outside to the street because she felt that it might be very dangerous, even in Kharkiv. But also she received help from our mercy ministry and we invited her to the church and she said that for her it was very relaxing and calming after the church service. It's what. I was very surprised to hear this, but she said I will come again because I feel safe here. So for me it was like very good news and she actually very often visit in our church and we actually hire her as a babysitter to our children, so she's part of our family right now.

Mark Agarkov: 28:47

And I agree with Hiro that we could say trauma in every age category and I would say everyone is traumatized, but many of us do not recognize it. Many of us do not recognize it and maybe after war we will feel it, but right now we are focused on how we can help people who are not second-hand traumatized but first-hand. And in our church we started a small trauma healing group for mothers, because mothers are especially overwhelmed with anxiety and they are afraid about the future. They're afraid for their husbands, who can call up to the army, they're afraid about the future for their children. So we decided to start this group.

Mark Agarkov: 29:35

It's non-believers, ladies, but they have three and more children. So we started something like Christianity Basics Group, when one lady from our church sharing actually gospel, but from different sides, about God, about creation and so on, and we're trying to also help them with their feelings and with their physical needs. So some of the women visit in our church but some of them just non-believers and just visit in this group and for them it's like therapy. And one lady who invited another lady there to the non-believing but she said this group it's like a psychologist or how do you call them, so you can visit and you feel yourself better.

Mark Agarkov: 30:23

So, but I think that after war we will see many, many problems with mental health, and right now we can see many panic attacks all around, and as a church we have to be prepared for such wave of problem with mental health in near future.

David Nakhla: 30:43

It's interesting what came to my mind as you were speaking specifically about that, especially about the lady who had a sense of the ministry of the word and the impact that had on her. Our pastor just last night preached on Psalm 56. When I am afraid, I will trust in you, In God, whose word I praise. In God, I trust I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? And one of the things he talked about was that even just worship and praising God and just as Paul and Silas were doing in prison after being beaten, how that ministry and praising God is part of the dealing with the fear and anxiety. So that's really wonderful to hear.

Mark Agarkov: 31:24

Yeah, and I want to add that several months ago we had a conference in our church for our church members Lamentation in the Bible and I think it's a very important topic how to do it rightly, how to came to Christ in your lamentation, because we all feel grief or sadness and it's important to understand how to come to God and to tell Him everything you feel.

Mark Agarkov: 31:51

But come to Him, not to close your feeling, not to go from Him. And it was a very wonderful conference. It was a pastor from PCA, jonathan Kuchamba, who came to Ukraine, to Kharkiv. We appreciated so much his bravery with his wonderful wife, kat. They came to us and held this wonderful conference and I feel that it was like fresh air for our church to talk about difficult topics, because lamentation is difficult and for many people in post-Soviet Union it's very hard to express your feelings and especially hard to express anxiety, overwhelming sadness, grief they don't know how to behave and even church members. So it's very important when we look at lamentation, we see this book in the Bible and that gives us as a tool to understand how we can use Lamentation to come closer to Him.

David Nakhla: 32:57

Thank you about the relationship between the churches and how the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ukraine began and to just even tie together Kherson, kharkiv, lviv and others.

Heero Hacquebord: 33:12

Sure, yeah. So the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ukraine is what the denomination is called, EPCU. At this point we have 12 congregations. It started with missionaries coming under an umbrella organization called Co-Mission. In the early 90s, just as the Soviet Union fell apart, there was a movement to coming to schools and to work with educators, teach a Christian world and life view. It was an amazing opportunity. Many organizations joined together that's why it was called Co-Mission and Mission to the World was one of those and organizations were assigned different parts of the Soviet Union. Basically they cut it all up and most organizations came in and just did that part in the schools.

Heero Hacquebord: 33:57

But MTW came with a vision for church planting right away. We were assigned the south of Ukraine, which is why our churches began there in the south. So we have six churches in the south of Ukraine. So if we go from west to east, we have from the south Izmayil, bilgeret, nistrovsky, and then we have two in Odessa, one of which we have this historic church building of a Swiss Reformed Church from the 19th century we were able to get from the government and repair. Then there's a church in Mykolayiv, or Mykolayiv as it's called in Russian, where I served for about four years. And then, east of that, in our east, is the city of Kherson, the one I spoke about, that's right across from the Russian forces, on the other side of the Dnipro River, and then moving up in the north, we were able to get eventually to work with a church in Kiev as well. That became part of our denomination, and at one point we had three churches in Kiev.

Heero Hacquebord: 34:52

Now, because of the war, there's only one left, one main one. The other one exists more in small groups, bible study groups the city of Cherkasy, close to there as well, and then in the city of Cherkasy, close to there as well, and then in the east, of course, kharkiv major church out there, and then another church in the city of Katlivka that we've mentioned, a smaller church, and in the city of Zaporizhia, which is in the southeast Ukraine, a major city. There there's a small group meeting, and then we have our church in Lviv. We are the only church in western Ukraine, so we're spread out across the country. It's a big country about the size of Texas, and there's a lot of work still to be done here. There's a few major cities that do not have any Presbyterian churches at all.

David Nakhla: 35:32

And how many ordained ministers in the EPCU?

Heero Hacquebord: 35:36

I think it would be about 12, 13. So yeah, low teams.

David Nakhla: 35:41

Yep and your role has been to serve as a church planter in Lviv the pastor that's correct.

Heero Hacquebord: 35:48

Yeah, yes, so we now have a Ukrainian pastor as well. He has been an intern and that is Mark's brother Vasil, who is doing a great job, and he would like to plant another church in the future in Western Ukraine. So our church planting plans here have been on hold because of the war, but we would like to keep going with that again, perhaps in our city or in another city in western Ukraine.

David Nakhla: 36:09

I'll just say it was my privilege to visit Odessa during the war a few years ago now I can't believe it's been a few years, but I think it was two years ago and to be speaking with the pastor and others down there who are now the pastors, but reflecting on how they came to the Lord now the pastors, but reflecting on how they came to the Lord and it was actually through you, hero, your witness and John Ides, who we were traveling with their direct witness to these brothers like way in the early days, and now these men are pastors of churches and leaders in the church, and just see the fruit that the Lord has bore over several decades and then to really see it.

David Nakhla: 36:48

To me it's been just delightful to see how this church and a lot of your work, mark, really take hold of the ministry of mercy in such a timely manner, in a timely way realizing that shift, the need to pivot a little bit during this time and focus so significantly on the ministry of mercy, but to just see the vibrancy and the maturity really of the church from again. A couple decades ago started from ground zero, so praise God for that.

Heero Hacquebord: 37:15

Yeah, for sure it's good to get your perspective on it as well, because when you're in it sometimes you don't always see the changes yourself.

David Nakhla: 37:22

Yeah, well, you should be very encouraged. I was also going to mention to you, mark, that the May episode of the Reformed Deacon podcast is on ministering to those with mental health issues, and you might find that the content there from John and Lindsay Fickert to be very helpful to you, brothers, in your ministry, to many who are suffering all sorts of anxieties and depressions and fears. So we do continue to pray for peace and, most of all, for the lost to be drawn to Christ. But for those listening to this podcast, families gathering at dinner tables or churches remembering you in corporate prayer, what are three specific ways that they can be praying for you and the situation in Ukraine today? Right now, we can start with you, mark.

Mark Agarkov: 38:07

Yeah, thank you so much for your prayers. It's very important and very vital for us. I would say first need, of course, is peace. It's stable peace, it's justice and freedom, religious freedom that we have and pray that we keep this religious freedom and freedom as a country. And, of course, first prayer request is stable peace. Second, it's about our ministers, about our pastors, about our churches.

Mark Agarkov: 38:38

Courage and endurance for Ukrainian pastors and ministers and deacons, elders, everyone who is involved in ministry. We really feel that we lack of hands. We want to do more, but we do not have enough hands, enough time. We want to proclaim gospel as much as we can, but we see how limited we are in our resources, and I mean like human resources. So please pray for our pastors, for our elders, for their families and as they stay faithful under the pressure and keep serving for the flock. And third one please pray for spiritual revival for Ukraine. This is our dream. We believe that this war will turn people to Christ, so we pray about that. We pray that in these difficult circumstances they start to ask questions and to seek. So please pray for the revival and for many turn to Christ Jesus and we hope that after war, ukraine will see great revival in our churches for our nation.

David Nakhla: 39:46

Thank you, those are great.

Heero Hacquebord: 39:48

Well, I will go to more specific requests. Mark mentioned some great requests there for the country. As far as our church here in Lviv or our family is concerned, please pray for our English camp. We have it every year but it's been such a great outreach for our church, with college students going to the Carpathian Mountains for a week studying English. We have that at the beginning of July this year and in recent years we have seen especially students from other parts of Ukraine who have moved to Lviv being very open to the gospel. Lviv students grow up in the church. They're not always as open, but a lot of these students from other parts of the country we've seen some great change in their lives in the student ministry in our church as well. So that's very important outreach for us. Then, continue to pray for elders and deacons for our church. We do see candidates for the future and I know it's a concern for our Flaggiff Church as well, but, yeah, for the whole country. But yeah, we need good elders and deacons. And.

Heero Hacquebord: 40:47

I think the Lord is raising those up right now through the war, and then just for our family. We would appreciate prayers for Anya's parents, as Anya cares for them. We are very happy that they are in an apartment building next to ours because they moved up from the city of Mykolayiv, where they're from, because of the war and we can care for them here. But there's just more needs with their physical care and that will make our furlough in the united states the summer more difficult and and complex as well. So we should prayer for that process of caring for them I can add some specific yeah this.

Mark Agarkov: 41:23

pray for our social ministry. As it is more than three years of war, we see a decrease in donations. Of course, it's difficult for people to keep Ukraine in their mind and keep donating. So we still have this opportunity, but we do not know how long it will take. Maybe we're going to have another year of war and the need is huge now and it might be much bigger after war. So please pray about our social ministry and about the nation for that.

Mark Agarkov: 41:54

Second, please pray for safety, especially for our families, for our children, because it's very often the risk of close hitting and drone attacks. So please pray about this. And third one, please pray about our trip to USA. If God's, if Lord, opened the doors this summer, we Westpacers gonna have three weeks trip to USA, as we had the invitation to conference and we want to combine it with some presentations and meeting all around the East Coast. And please pray for our ability to travel, because at first we have to leave the country and, as far as you know, it's forbidden for men to leave the country. And second, about our trip and about the church. While our brothers would preach, while we're going to be in USA for several weeks, please pray for the church here in Kharkiv and safety of our families here and our trip to United States.

David Nakhla: 43:00

Mark and Hiro, thank you for taking the time to share with us. We're grateful for your faithfulness and that of your churches and your willingness to be the hands and feet of Christ in a broken world and how. That's a wonderful witness to us. May the Lord continue to bless you and keep you. And to our listeners please don't let these stories fade into the background. Pray continually for the church in Ukraine. Remember that our God is not distant from suffering. He brings resurrection, hope, even in the midst of war. And for those of you who were particularly moved by what you heard and desire to financially contribute towards this ministry of mercy in Ukraine, know that the OPC's Ukraine Crisis Fund remains open for donations. Much of it will be used to support the work of the congregations of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ukraine, where both Mark and Hero serve. Details on contributing to this fund can be found at opcdmorg, hit the Donate tab or look below in the show notes. Finally, I'd like to add my thanks to our producer, trish Dugan, who contributed so much to the scripting and technical producing of this episode. This podcast would not be possible without her excellent efforts. So thank you, trish.

David Nakhla: 44:19

And before I let you guys go, I'd like to pray for you, sure, so let's lift these things up before the Lord, heavenly Father. Lord, we're so thankful that we serve the God of all creation and that you know each of our needs. You even know our sorrows, even as Psalm 56 talks about. You know our tossing and turnings. You have captured our tears in a bottle. And, lord, as we had this opportunity to hear from these beloved brothers and their ministry in the midst of war, we're so encouraged, and yet our hearts are heavy for them, for what they have suffered and continue to suffer, and much of that seeking to be faithful for the name of Christ. We thank you for their ministry, for their witness, the witness of these churches. We thank you for these reports of unbelievers coming to faith through the midst of these difficult circumstances, and so we pray, lord, that you would continue to be near them.

David Nakhla: 45:25

Lord, we pray, with Mark and Hero for stable peace and for freedom. We pray, lord, that the world leaders would work hard to bring about peace, and Lord, that you would do what sometimes seems impossible from our perspective. And so we pray, lord, that you change the hearts of men, of the king, towards a posture of peace and love and kindness towards one another. We pray for the pastors and the ministers involved in this important ministry. As Mark was saying, there's so much work to do and not enough time and energy to do it, and so we just pray, lord, that you would build them up, strengthen them for this good work. We do pray for that continued spiritual revival that you would use these awful circumstances for your good, as we've seen historically you do With Hero.

David Nakhla: 46:20

We pray for the English camp, lord. We're thankful that this wonderful ministry continues on and how it's even a little bit of a haven from what many are suffering on a regular basis. And we thank you for the openness to the gospel that's been reported. And we pray, lord, for good fruit from this English camp this year. Bless those who go to serve and cause it to be effective and fruitful. We do pray that you would raise up more elders and deacons in the churches, in all the churches, lord, men who are faithful, men who have a heart for you and for the sheep that they would serve. Well, pray especially for the Haka birds, with this travel coming up as they travel to the States. Be especially with Anya's parents, as they've been so involved in their care and pray that they would have wisdom even in those preparations.

David Nakhla: 47:12

We pray with Mark, lord, that this ministry of mercy would be able to continue, that the funds would continue to come in, lord, that you'd even use this episode of the podcast to bring in much-needed funds to carry on this important work that they're doing. We pray that you'd continue to provide safety for them. Watch over the Agarco family and others, lord. The attacks on civilians is so disturbing to hear, especially these drone attacks that are targeting civilians. We plead with you for continued safety. We thank you for the safety that's been had over these years and pray for that that would continue and bless Mark's upcoming trip to the US. We pray that you'd work out all the details enable him to be able to make that trip, that you would even use that as a means of encouragement to him and a means to continue the work. So we thank you, lord, that we can come to you, that you hear our prayers and we lift them up in the name of our Savior, jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen. Thank you, brothers, thank you very much.

David Nakhla: 48:10

Thank you. So much. Thanks for joining us. Go to our website, thereformedeaconorg. There you will find all our episodes, program notes and other helpful resources, and please make plans to join us again for another episode of the Reformed Deacon Podcast.