Pastor's Perspective

My good friend, Jennifer Everett, has been serving as a missionary in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. She began serving there two years ago and has come to love the country and the people. Jennifer is a remarkable human being. She is largely self-supported as a missionary. Though she lived a comfortable life in a small, Central Illinois town; she answered God's stirring in her soul. God was calling her to care for others as a missionary and to do this overseas. She is one of the bravest people I know, answering that call and going where called. She has loved every moment of her mission work. She proudly boasts that she has "two homes", one in Washington, Illinois and the other in Ukraine.

She left last week, just as Russian forces began to invade. I appreciate deeply her posts about Ukraine and specifically Uzhhorod. Because the city is in the far western part of the country, near the borders of Slovakia and Poland, it has become a refugee center for those fleeing the interior. Uzhhorod also is the site of a national university and home to immigrants from other nations. The people she has worked alongside are of great faith, but still they are anxious.

When one faces a monstrous evil, like that of Putin and his desire to destroy, how can you not be anxious. Jennifer stayed as long as she could in Ukraine, before evacuating at the end of February. Jennifer wrote on her Facebook page after returning the States. "I returned to the USA on Sunday. While I understand many will be relieved to read this, that is not where my heart is right now…..Please pray for Ukraine and her beautiful people."

Her sentiments remind me of the pain Jesus experienced when he passed through the villages of Galilee and saw the poverty, the endemic hunger, the misery of living under foreign (Roman) occupation. Matthew describes his reaction, he was "moved with compassion" (the Greek is akin to his "intestines were twisted"). Jesus knew he had (in his earthly ministry) little capacity to change life for so many (at least their economic and social lives). But still he was moved. He prayed that his passion would stir the hearts of others, and begin to turn the world back towards God. Until the world turned back towards God, there would always be evil.

We should be moved about the plight of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. I cringe when I see news footage of bombed out apartment complexes, of mothers walking miles with their children to arrive at border checkpoints, and of the destruction of such a beautiful country and people. Though there is not much I (we) can do to change the circumstances on the ground in Ukraine, we should be praying. Our prayers are the same as Christ's. We pray that the world would turn away from evil and back towards God. It may seem like a prayer that will be unanswered, but it is also the only permanent answer to the presence of real evil in the world. I am glad to be writing this from the relative safety of my desk, in a church building, in Vandalia, Illinois. But my heart right now is with the people of Ukraine. And my prayers are that those who commit acts of evil, would turn towards the Lord. Amen.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tom