Praying for Ukraine

Ukraine has been all over the news during the last few weeks. We ask you to join us in prayer for this country as the recent political choices have stirred things up. We wanted to share with you what things are like here from our perspective so that you can have the opportunity to pray more specifically for the people and the future of Ukraine, as well as our ministry.

We are so thankful and blessed by you, as many of you have already contacted us, checking in to see if we're okay and/or effected by the current situation.

For those of you that are unaware of the current situation in Ukraine, there was a political decision made a couple weeks ago that suspended Ukraine from progressing toward a possible future in the European Union. As a result, Ukraine's leadership showed that their ties with Russia are stronger than many thought. Because of this choice to suspend the process with the EU, the country has become divided as protests and riots have broken out all over the country. The capital, Kiev, has been the center of this "revolution" as thousands of people have begun to occupy the center square.

It has been interesting for us to see all of this develop right before our eyes. Eastern and western Ukraine have very different opinions on the situation, and we have seen both sides of the spectrum, as we lived in the west (Ternopil) last year, and currently live in the east (Donetsk).

This past week, we traveled to Kiev, as we had an already scheduled trip there because of some friends that were visiting us from America. We had the opportunity to go to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) and experience some of the protesting. It was a very unique experience for us as we saw Ukrainian people come together and stand up for what they believed in. Many of the people participating in the protesting came all the way from western Ukraine to show their support.

Although there have been many reports of violence and vandalism from both the protesters and the riot police, we were there at a time when it was very peaceful. We saw that both the police and the people were respectful of each other and everything remained very calm.

As some of you know, where we live now (Donetsk) is a city that has very close ties to Russia. This city is disliked and even hated by many Ukrainians. With that being said, we have been trying to stay cautious and smart while traveling. While we were traveling back to Donetsk from Ukraine, we noticed that every stop our train made, a group of police came into every train car to check things and make sure everything was peaceful. This was both comforting to us to know that we are being protected, but also a realty check that we need to stay cautious.

Both in Kiev and Donetsk we have seen an increased amount of police patrolling the streets and we are aware that things are very tense in Ukraine at the moment. However, the Lord is encouraging us to faithfully continue with the ministry here and all of these events have not effected anything that we are personally doing concerning the ministry.

We want to ask you to join us in prayer for Ukraine. Even though this is not our native country, this is now our home and we love it very much. Our hearts have been stirred up and we are feeling very patriotic for Ukraine. Whatever the outcome of this situation is, we have one goal, and that is to point Ukrainians to the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

Please continue to pray for us as well as we are in the process of beginning our visa renewals. We have to travel back to Ternopil later this month to register for another year. We are praying that with everything that is going on in the government here, that it will not effect our visas and the renewal process.

Please also pray for unity between western and eastern Ukraine and please pray for the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, that he would come to know Jesus. Just think about how this country would change if Yanukovych's heart changed!

Blessings,
Byron and Emily