CNN’s cameras caught the Ukrainian Baptist group in prayer before Freedom Square and the buildings around it were shelled.
Updated March 9, 2022
Many are watching the news coming out of Ukraine in horror and wondering how they can help those living in a war zone and others who’ve become refugees. Joy*, an International Mission Board missionary to Ukraine, has shared a list of prayer requests explaining how you and your church can pray for the Ukrainian people and missionaries ministering to them.
Joy and other missionaries serving in Ukraine and Russia were evacuated to a nearby countries last month. However, she remains in close contact with friends still in Ukraine as well as fellow missionaries, and with others who have found safety in surrounding countries.
She asked Illinois Baptists to pray for the cities that have been “bombed heavily” and the many Ukrainian believers that remain “ministering to those in need through their churches.” Joy specifically requested prayers “for their safety as shelling continues each day.”
There are nearly 2,300 Ukrainian Baptist churches with roughly 300,000 gathering on Sunday mornings to worship before the invasion. There are three Baptist Theological Seminaries in the country located in Odessa, Kviv, and Lviv, plus several Baptist Bible institutes that provide training.
While in Ukraine Joy met a group of believers who prayed daily in Freedom Square. It was organized by a group of pastors and elders who wanted to do something when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. That something was “prayer.”
“Originally, they decided to meet daily until Easter,” Joy said. “Then until the special presidential election in May, then until the war ended.” The group met and prayed for 2,920 consecutive days in the square until it was shelled March 1.
Joy shared IMB missionaries are “connecting with Ukrainian partners in country” to find ways they can “be used to get humanitarian aid to them now and in the future.” She is working with a team of missionaries in a nearby country to minister to newly arrived refugees from Ukraine. She asked Illinois Baptists to specifically pray for “wisdom for all of us and ears to hear as the Lord directs our path.”
She asks also for prayers “for wisdom as our team personnel meet believers and leaders in our new place of service. Ask the Lord to clearly lead us to the groups/churches/partners the will enable us to accomplish His purposes.”
“Pray for safety and favor with the officials as we travel,” she requested.
Some are still making the dangerous 600-mile journey from eastern Ukraine to the nation’s western border. She requests not only prayers for their safety, but also “for those who minister to them along the way.” Joy noted all men between the ages of 18 to 60 are required to remain in Ukraine, so many wives and mothers are leaving behind their husbands and sons. “Pray for the women and children crossing the border into a new land without them,” she asked.
Joy with her dog and friends
When she was evacuated Joy had to leave her dog behind. The friends she left her dog with traveled across the country with him while debating whether to remain in the western Ukraine or to cross the border. Joy had asked for prayer that her dog could get across the border even if her friends “decided to stay in Ukraine.”
She happily shared her friends made it across the border – with her dog – and the were all reunited March 8. Together, Joy said they all “rejoiced at how the Lord had blessed them all along their journey…..even as long and hard as it was.”
Send Relief, a cooperative ministry between the IMB and North American Mission Board, is working with local Baptist partners and churches in Ukraine, Poland, and other border nations to provide emergency aid for displaced people. Learn more about Send Relief.