Baptists in Ukraine Continue to Minister With Support From Send Relief

A church planter in Lviv, Ukraine gathered internally Ukrainians that were forcibly displaced from their homes and traveled to western Ukraine for refuge. The church planter, who is not being identified because of safety concerns, is partnering with the Ukrainian Baptist Union and Send Relief to provide food and other essentials to internally displaced persons (IDPs). (SendRelief photo)

CHISINAU, Moldova (BP) — On April 11, Send Relief leadership gathered in a hotel room in Chisinau, Moldova, for a virtual meeting with leaders of the Ukrainian Baptist Union. Separated by roughly 360 miles, leaders from the two organizations discussed how Ukrainian Baptists are responding to the war and areas Send Relief and the global church can help.

“We are very thankful to have this time with you today, and certainly want to talk about how we can be of help to you in the most beneficial way,” Bryant Wright, the president of Send Relief, told the leaders at the start of the call.

Igor Bandura, the vice president of the Ukrainian Baptist Union, told Wright and the other Send Relief leaders that they had been praying the escalations wouldn’t lead to war. Three weeks before the start of the war, Bandura and other leaders felt the Lord leading them to make contingency plans.

“We strongly felt that it was a message from God that we had to prepare ourselves,” Bandura said. “Still, right to the end, we hoped and prayed that God would help and protect Ukraine from the war.”

Bandura said before the war started, they spoke with every pastor in the eight regional associations in western Ukraine and asked them to prepare their churches, Sunday School buildings, camps, any Baptist-owned buildings and personal residences to house refugees.

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Source: Baptist Press