Posted on 03/15/2018 3:09:43 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
Say ‘Ukraine’ today and, if you’re lucky, you’ll get someone who knows there’s still a conflict in that country. Sergey Rakhuba with Mission Eurasia says while the bloody conflict between Ukraine and Russia is ongoing, the Ukrainian Church is moving.
(Last September) around 500,000 evangelical believers gathered in the central square of Kiev, Ukraine to celebrate the Protestant Reformation’s 500th anniversary and to thank God for His faithfulness in their country.
Rakhuba was in contact with colleagues attending the event, and he says, “They reported over 500,000 across denominational lines from all the churches in Kiev and surrounding areas. Many traveled from all four provinces there just to be a part of that celebration, to thank God for the freedom to worship, to thank God for the freedom to preach the Gospel in their country, and to celebrate God’s faithfulness.”
He shares, “It was so exciting to see on the screen of my computer where I was watching young people with so much joy. They glorify God in the midst of their capital. This was the same place where they were protesting just a few years ago fighting for their freedom. But also this is the place where many years ago, communists would force people to demonstrate and propagate socialism, atheism, communism, and other ‘isms’ in their country.”
The celebration was due to a signed order by Ukraine’s president to celebrate the Protestant Reformation’s 500th anniversary. It may have been a move to associate Ukraine more with Western Europe, even as Ukraine works to distance itself from Russia amidst ongoing fighting and protests. But the turnout yesterday showed how powerfully the Holy Spirit is moving in their nation.
In a space used for mass demonstration, the Church used it on Sunday for mass celebration.
“Ukraine is still in the midst of war. Eastern Ukraine and territories are still occupied by Russian or pro-Russian separatists. Crimea was annexed by Russia. So yes, Ukraine is struggling politically, economically, but Ukraine is striving today spiritually, pleading to God to bless that nation.”
However, one of the most puzzling things is that this gathering of half a million people in downtown Ukraine…well, it barely made a blip in the news anywhere.
For comparison, about 500,000 people turned out for the widely-covered Women’s March in Washington, DC in January this year.
Rakhuba speculates, “Very few like to recognize that the Evangelical or Protestant movement is taking such a powerful step forward. So the Evangelical Church is growing in that nation, and somehow we see that this all spread through social media, but official networks barely report anything.”
Even as a mass gathering of believers in Ukraine went widely unnoticed by the general public, Mission Eurasia celebrates with the Ukrainian Church and calls on believers worldwide to stand with them in prayer and support — to let them know that they are not alone as the Body of Christ.
Rakhuba says empowering the Church in Ukraine and the surrounding countries to advance the Gospel is their mission. “That’s what Mission Eurasia is doing, working with the next generation, those who take the baton, those who get into the generational gap and take the Gospel to their communities.”
One of their unique initiatives is School Without Walls which equips young leaders in Eurasia with biblical training, leadership skills, and practical ministry experience.
Rakhuba says Ukrainians are even taking the missions mindset beyond their own communities, and that Ukraine is becoming a hub for sending out the Gospel to neighboring countries and beyond!
“I just talked to a group of young people, they just came to this celebration from their mission trip to Mongolia in China — young Ukrainians who felt like the Holy Spirit was leading them to take the Gospel to…Mongolia where they reached thousands of young people through summer camps!”
“Pray for Mission Eurasia when we bring these strategic missiological initiatives into those nations equipping the next generation, preparing them to lead, and equipping them to serve.”
And finally, he asks, “Pray for peace between Russia and Ukraine. While Ukraine is celebrating God’s faithfulness, Russia is still after lots of Evangelical groups today trying to monopolize or politicize the spiritual field and limit lots of Evangelicals from their activity, trying to push them behind their church walls.”
“Even as a mass gathering of believers in Ukraine went widely unnoticed by the general public...”
Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
In Florida one day I ran into a Ukrainian acquaintance. He wore a T-shirt marked "Sevastopol Yacht Club". I pointed to the shirt, and although in Cyrillic letters, pronounced "Sevastopol". He was astonished and pleased to meet an American "who knew".
Now, of course, the Russians have annexed the Crimea—which includes Sevastopol. :(
Imagine that here.
There’s a strategic intercession project going on. Intercessors to pray for Ukraine 30 minutes per week are being sought. If interested Freepmail me.
“Eastern Ukraine is still occupied by russia and and pro russian separatists...”
The west is unbelievably ignorant... Kievan Rus is Russian and is the birthplace of Russian culture.
Ukraine is a made up territory...the meaning of the word Ukraine is borderlands.
Western Ukraine was Polish catholic and was bounced between Polish and Lithuanian rule.
Sure, since communism... many western Ukrainians moved to Kiev. That doesn’t make Kiev less russian in nature.
Ukrainians - including those more inclined to Russia and an Eastern Orthodox orbit - understand the disctinction between “Russian” and “Putinist.”
They reject the Stalinist-revival.
The Putin State descends from Bolshevism, NOT the Kievan Rus. So at this point one can argue Ukrainians are doing more to preserve the integrity of "Real Russia" than Putin, who has merely resurrected Stalinism, re-ignited the worst of tsarist tendencies, and breathed life into Soviet demons - some dressed in Orthodox garb no doubt -- but the spiritually discerning can make out the difference between the real and fake Christians.
Here is a most poignant and enlightening read explaining the situation:
We need to understand that this de-coupling of contemporary Russia from its Bolshevik ideology will not happen as long as our current regime remains a direct inheritor of the illegal, criminal power that from the October revolution to this very day has maintained its control over the population. It is interesting that Vladimir Putin’s main argument justifying the seizure of the Crimean territory, and Russia’s participation in the conflict in the Ukraine in general, is that there was a regime change in the Ukraine that put an illegal political group into power, when the same can be said about Russia, where the current regime is a direct descendant of the Bolshevik terror group that obtained its power illegally.
There was never an official renunciation of the actions of the communist regime and its emblems; no declaration that this regime’s rule was illegal; no criminal indictment, and no ban on its emblems and symbols. This is exactly why we have conflicts with the Baltic nations, Poland, and other countries from the former “Communist bloc.” And it is also why our neighboring countries (Ukraine, the Baltics, and others) have such antagonism towards modern Russia and the Russian language, since Russian is directly associated with a regime that occupied not only Russia, but also a number of Eastern European countries after World War II. It stands to reason that such an attitude towards the Russian language should be ameliorated, as Germany did in its time, spending enormous amounts of money and efforts to separate “everything German” from “everything fascist.”
But the fact is Russia never did that work because our current regime is still a descendant of Stalin’s – a regime that openly entered into a dialogue with Hitler’s government, supported the actions of the fascists in other countries, and even participated in military campaigns, invading, for example, Poland in 1939, and it turns out that that regime to this day, in essence, remains in power. If in the late 1990s and early 2000s the regime somehow hid and suppressed this allegiance, then today it is once again openly shown.
I am a citizen of Russia, I consider Russia my motherland and my home. A home where, many years ago, armed people broke in and began to loot, murder, rape, destroy churches, eliminate the faith of a people in the beginnings of spiritual freedom, and now these criminals, in essence, still remain in power.
- Ivan Vyrypaev
I understand the distinction, and am not a Putin fan... I have relatives in former Soviet states like Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Russian and the Ukraine. Those in Latvia and Lithuania have no longer felt welcome as russians, somewhat understandable, but they’ve married into the local population. This same sentiment exists in the Ukraine, desiring to expel both cultural and native Russians, which you might as well say are Orthodox christians. If you want to talk about not moving on from the soviet period... just look at Belarus, it’s still an authoritarian Soviet bloc run country.
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