Ukrainian Christian women whose homes have been bombed by Russians are actively caring for other refugees in Poland and sharing the gospel with them, according to eyewitness, Ian Kilpatrick, a musician and volunteer who recently delivered supplies to the border of Ukraine.
Kilpatrick’s team delivered bulletproof vests to their contact at the border and transported as many medical supplies to Ukraine’s border as their baggage weight limit would allow. After the team delivered the supplies, Kilpatrick watched as Ukrainian Christian women in Poland took charge. They organized a group to share the gospel at the train station. They passed out leaflets, and they packed boxes in a makeshift warehouse.
One woman was on the phone “24/7” arranging rides for people out of Ukraine and finding places for refugees to stay in other countries.
After seeing the effects of horrible human suffering and war, Kilpatrick noticed a difference in the Christians.
“They were walking to a different drum beat,” he says. “The fervor with which they shared the gospel with every Ukrainian they could. The passion with which they organized everything. We were tired by the end of those two weeks.”
As Kilpatrick helped with music at a church in Poland, a Ukrainian pastor’s wife addressed the other Ukrainian women in the room. As she spoke to the women, they all began weeping.
“I’m thinking, ‘Man, whatever she’s saying is hitting home,'” Kilpatrick says.
One of Kilpatrick’s Ukrainian contacts told him afterward what the pastor’s wife had said. “This is our time,” she said. “Our men are gone. They’re all fighting. This is our time in which the burden of caring for your family has been cast on you.”
After she led with the burden of responsibility, she shared the Good News of Jesus with them, and that was why they were weeping.
A lot of Ukrainian Christians who talked with Kilpatrick referred to the 90’s as the “revival years.” And those Christians are asking God for another revival like that. Some Ukrainian missionaries are even praying that God uses the Ukrainian Christians, who are being scattered, to bring revival to other parts of Europe. Kilpatrick explains, “They actually said, ‘We believe God’s hand might be in this because there’s a fire in the Ukrainian church from those revivals.'”
When those missionaries meet a Ukrainian Christian, they don’t ask, “Have you heard of Jesus?” The conversation is, “You’ve got to reach the people around you. God has sent you here on assignment. You’re not a refugee. You’re a missionary.”
Kilpatrick was deeply affected by the women he saw ministering and serving in the midst of their own hardships. He wonders if it might be training for his own heart.
“Hardship and difficulty in war are going to be a part of life more than sort of the peace-bubble that I’ve grown up in,” says Kilpatrick. He then asks a question of himself and the church as a whole, “How do you minister? How do you set your heart beforehand so you’re not rattled and shaken like most of the crowds were, and you’re actually able to be proactive in those times?”
What Kilpatrick seems to really be asking is, “Do I mean business when I share the gospel?” And that’s a question we should all consider carefully.
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