Today is International Volunteer Day, and this year’s theme is “If everyone did.” As russia’s invasion grinds on and the darkness threatens more and more to swallow a war-torn country, we pray today and give thanks to the Lord for nearly 400 volunteers in our fourteen refugee hubs across Ukraine and Moldova, supported by Overseas Council-United World Mission together with Scholar Leaders, Keys Connections, Open Eyes, OC Europe, the Tyndale House Foundation and other partners. They bring aid, community, comfort, hope and the light of the Good News.
Some of them once led congregations and some taught in seminaries, and others simply wanted to help, and they have turned local church buildings and seminary campuses into refugee hubs and islands of hope where displaced people find shelter, food, medical care and trauma counselling. Volunteers also carry aid to those who cannot leave their homes near the front line, or who refuse to, driving through bombardment and chaos with food, water, blankets and whatever else is needed.
They serve Ukraine’s defenders as well, providing non-lethal support to territorial defence units and to soldiers, which means medical supplies, clothing, sleeping bags, power banks, food and communication equipment, all of it holding up morale and readiness at the front. Our volunteers remind us, and remind the defenders, that the Lord cares for us through people who share what they have, and protects us through people who give their lives for us. Life for life.
Some of the most vital work they do is with the soul-weary, since a listening ear and an understanding heart and a few hopeful words are themselves a kind of food. While air-raid sirens sound and buildings come down, they tell stories of faith and redemption to people for whom everything appears lost under this touchable darkness, and they pray and weep alongside those who are broken through. They keep troubling the Stranger with their appeals, their questions, their requests and their gratitude, on the road out of the city of peace.
One of our volunteers helped evacuate expectant mothers from a hospital days before russian bombs destroyed it. He led those frightened women out through constant shelling, whispering prayers and hymns to calm them, and because he held steady, new life came into the world while the bombs were falling. For many of you it is a story. For those mothers and their unborn children it was the whole of life, pulled out of the hell of this war. Life for life.
There will be darker days ahead for Ukraine, since nobody can say how or when this war ends, and nobody serving here under conscription age can say who among them will survive it. Yet the light and hope carried by our volunteers cannot be put out. Today we pray for their continued strength and protection, and we ask you to join us in praying for volunteers here and in other countries living not through conflicts but through wars of every kind.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the volunteers who show Your love and compassion to people suffering from this war.
We ask You to bless them, protect them and strengthen them by Your Spirit.
We pray that You would provide what they need: food, water, shelter, clothing, medicine and equipment.
We pray that You would give them the wisdom, the courage and the strength to face what they meet every day.
We pray that You would heal their physical and emotional wounds and comfort hearts that have seen and lived through so much of this touchable darkness for almost two years now.
We pray that You would fill them with joy and peace and hope, and renew their vision and their passion for Your Kingdom, rather than for making anything else great again.
We pray that You would use them as instruments of Your grace and truth, and make them faithful witnesses to the Stranger among the people they serve.
We pray that You would bring this war to an end and restore peace and justice in Ukraine.
We pray that You would save and restore many souls, or at least some, and build Your Community of Hope in this land.
We pray all of this in the name of the Stranger who joined us on the road out of the city of peace.
Peace be with you, People of the Bridge, and thank you for supporting our volunteers and for praying with us.
Taras Dyatlik, Ukraine
5 December 2023, the 650th day of the ongoing full-scale russian war against Ukraine
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