BEING HUMAN

Exposing children to the trauma and horror of war leaves severe and long-lasting psychological wounds. Children’s brains are still developing, and they lack the emotional maturity to process such intense experiences. Witnessing violence, destruction, death leads to PTSD, anxiety, depression, and difficulty forming healthy relationships later in life. We are responsible for protecting children’s innocence and well-being…

But for so many evangelicals in Russia and the Collective West, to make “something” – something depersonalized – great again… to protect depersonalized so-called Christian traditional values… is worth more than the tears of children who suffer from the war and aggression…

Children are a sacred gift from God, entrusted to our care. In Matthew 18:6, Jesus warns that anyone who harms or causes a child to stumble would be better off having a millstone hung around their neck and drowned in the depths of the sea. He also instructed His disciples to let the children come to Him and not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Mark 10:14). Here is God’s heart for children – and our duty to nurture and safeguard them…

Exposing children to war goes against God’s desire for shalom – holistic peace, wholeness, and harmonious relationships… While we live in a fallen world, it falls to us to shield the vulnerable from harm as much as possible. All the prophets cry about it… Involving children in war robs them of the safety and stability needed to develop a healthy spirituality rooted in God’s love…

As adults, it is our moral and spiritual obligation to create and support an environment where children can experience the “abundant life” Jesus spoke of (John 10:10), not the toxic culture of war. By keeping them away from such destruction, we affirm their inestimable worth and model the ethics of God’s Kingdom – and give them the best chance to grow into spiritually and emotionally healthy people…

But what will become of this generation of Ukrainian children when even we, as adults, feel so utterly exhausted and devastated by the war and its consequences, surrounded constantly by death, by funerals and destruction?

Instead of experiencing the joys and wonders of childhood, they are being forcibly thrust into a harsh reality filled with fear and grief, with trauma, because someone decided to become great again… because someone decided to protect Christian values by attempting to annihilate the whole country and nation of Ukraine… because someone believes (even so many in the Collective West) that Russia, Putin and Russian World truly represent the Kingdom of God and its values… By killing Ukrainian children?… Why?…

Although we feel overwhelmed and helpless before such immense suffering, we draw strength from our faith and from our commitment to every child’s inherent dignity and worth – to the Mission that has not changed…

By fighting for their future and investing in their healing, we hope that the scars of this war do not define them – that their resilience and courage, their hope, will be the foundation upon which a brighter tomorrow is built… May Your Kingdom come, O Lord… Keep your children away from the war, and we wish you a silent night…
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Taras Dyatlik, Ukraine
(765 days of the ongoing full-scale Russian war against Ukraine to make the Russian World great again)