For Pastor Appreciation Month, this article is in honor of Ukrainian pastors, all of whom have been faced with an insanely difficult year.
I know many Ukrainian pastors who decided to flee Ukraine this year. Many of them fled to neighboring countries (Hungary, Poland, Germany, et. al.). They did what is best for their families, to keep their wives and young children safe from harm’s way.
I know many Ukrainian pastors who have chosen to stay put and keep on keeping on.
I also know many Ukrainian pastors who have fled their homes, but have chosen (sometimes out of legal obligation…) to stay within the borders of Ukraine.
ALL OF THEM have wrestled with questions no pastor should have to wrestle with.
It is easy to pass judgment one way or another, but until you are in their shoes…
until the spotlight is directly on you and your family…
What would you do?
What should you do?
What does God want you to do???
I want to tell you the story of one man whom I have been privileged to meet on a few occasions this year.
He was a pastor in Donetsk. Until 2014, when Russia invaded that region of Ukraine and annexed Crimea. (By the way, “annexation” looks strangely like what my ancestors did to ‘The New World,’ despite it being properly inhabited already.)
In 2014, he and his wife fled their home in Donetsk. They moved to a lovely seaside town, safely removed from the hotspots. Perhaps you’ve heard of it: Mariupol.
It’s the same city that the Russian military has all but wiped off the map in 2022.
This time (Spring 2022), the pastor (whom I’ll call ‘Sasha’) and his wife fled farther from their homes, seeking shelter with family in western Ukraine (near the border with Poland).
When they fled westward, they invited any of their congregants to join them, promising to care for their basic needs and help find them a place to stay until it became safe to return ‘home.’ Some chose to take them up on this offer and they joined their caravan heading westward. Some chose to stay behind, knowing that it would not be easy to do so. But how could they leave their home? How could they leave their property and possessions? And if they did leave, what would that even look like? Where would they go??
In June of this year, I sat down with Pastor Sasha and listened for the better part of an hour as he shared his experiences from the previous several months. See, even though he and his wife fled to safety in western Ukraine, he has continued to go back to the East every month. Why, you ask?? Let’s hear it from him directly:
“We are from Donetsk. We left Donetsk in 2014 when the war started. We were ministering there in the church. I was the pastor there, there were two of us. So our ministry at that time, when we left, we started ministering at the front line. We planted two churches there. So that’s how we started the church there. There were people who just started attending the church there.
And now, we are responsible for that. We care for them. We cannot get right to Donetsk, because we can even not pass or give something to them. It’s not allowed. And these territories, it’s still the territory of Ukraine.
Even it’s dangerous there, but we go there. Just to see people and hug people, to pray with them. They appreciate that, the care we bring. And of course, some food, some pills or medicine, some treatment. And those that are willing we evacuate from there. This is the trip we had recently, the last one.”
As he spoke of the danger he routinely faces traveling into war-torn neighborhoods, I found myself wondering “what would I do???”
What would I do if I were an Ukrainian pastor? How would I respond to all this devastation?
Would my family stay in our home? Or would we flee to safety? And if we stayed, what would my life look like? What would my ministry look like?
I remember fondly my time serving as a pastor in Indiana. The joys of pastoral ministry involve leading one’s staff (usually mostly volunteer-based), leading the regular worship services, teaching/preaching, and visiting one’s congregants (especially the sick and elderly).
I remember one dear old widow whom I would regularly visit. Those visits were so nice. She was such a sweet faithful lady. My visits would begin with getting a can of Pepsi from her fridge, before I would walk into her living room where she would be sitting.
Even if I didn’t want a Pepsi, I learned to take one. Or else inevitably a moment later I would see her struggle to get up and go to the fridge to get one for me.
Those visits would be relaxing as we shared stories and just enjoyed fellowship, before we prayed and I went on to my next appointment.
IN STARK CONTRAST TO THAT, I listened to Pastor Sasha’s recent visits to such a lady from his congregation. Before we take a look at that conversation, I should preface things by saying that, at this point in our conversation he pulled out a large plastic Pepsi cup and dumped its contents onto the table between us. Suddenly the space between us is consumed by a lot of shards of metal.
Daniel: Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh…
Pastor Sasha: …This is specific bomb material because before when the bomb was exploded, it was not sharp. But now they make it out of some metal which is very sharp so it will just cut wherever it goes.
Daniel: Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh….That’s insane…Where did you get this???
Pastor Sasha: Just when i went there, i was visiting an old lady, a grandma, I opened the gate and right near the gate was this part and also that one, and I was picking it up, and she was like ‘oh I’ve got lots of them, my son…’
Daniel: …Oh my gosh, oh my gosh…
Pastor Sasha: This one is from near the church territory. In Donetsk area. Front line.
Daniel: Unbelievable. Can I take a picture of it?
How do you pastor people whose lives are literally in jeopardy every day?
How do you pastor people whose thoughts are consumed by such fundamental questions as:
Should I stay in my home, or flee to some other geographic location?
Will I die today?
Will someone I know and love die today?
I found myself selfishly wondering if I will one day wrestle with PTSD just from listening to Pastor Sasha’s experiences…
In this conversation, he shared stories from his own experience. And he shared stories from the experiences of his colleagues and of his congregants. He spoke of young men being called up into military service, who have since died. He spoke of older men volunteering for military service, who have since died. He spoke of men whom it is unclear what happened to them. He spoke of handicapped people from his congregation who are unable to move freely on their own. He has evacuated many of them from their homes and taken them to safety. But then the next struggle begins: Where is a safe, available, and also handicapped-accessible place for them to stay for an undetermined amount of time???
How do you shepherd people in a time of war??
How do you provide for their spiritual well-being while yours is undoubtedly also being massively challenged, to put it lightly?
How do you provide for their physical well-being while you yourself are living in temporary housing, provided by a friend, a family or a church connection?
These are all questions I have never been forced to even consider.
Pastoral ministry requires a wide range of skills and a wide knowledge base. While one does not have to be an expert in many fields, it certainly helps to know a little about a variety of things. It is basically necessary to also have a lot of connections: people whom you can turn to for advice, information, assistance with things out of your ‘wheelhouse.’ See, no one person can do it all. We need others. This is true on a ministerial level. This is also true on a lay-level.
Pastor Sasha: “But one positive thing out of this war… the war united even Christians and nonbelievers. When this war started, all the people were volunteering, ah…it doesn’t matter the denomination now, everybody is just mixed together, helping together, serving and ministering in different locations, so this is also shuffled us, which is good. Before, all the denominations were so separate, they never, like very rarely they do something together and they, yeah when everything was good everybody was just by themselves. And now it doesn’t matter who you are.”
Sasha’s Wife: “It was so obvious, you just go on the way, like because of the traffic jams were terrible, and so we just stopped in different churches. And it doesn’t matter which church, you just stop. They have mattresses, they accept you, they feed you. And then you go next, and then you go next, and lots of people, rotations. Because we were on the way for three, little bit more than three days, because the roads were stopped…”
This is the story of just one Pastor. There are many similar stories. As Pastor Appreciation Month draws to a close, I invite you to join me in praying not only for your local pastors. But also pray for all the pastors in Ukraine. And Russia! And pray for all those who had been serving in one of those countries, but are currently located elsewhere.
In addition to prayer, I would invite you to consider giving to the Church of God Disaster Relief fund. This fund has helped provide resources to care for the ongoing needs of those whose lives have been greatly affected by the war in Ukraine. Please click on THIS LINK and write ‘Ukraine’ in the comments.
https://www.jesusisthesubject.org/disaster-relief-and-restoration/