Update on Ukraine and Belarus
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, for guys that follow the podcast, a couple weeks ago we talked about Ukraine and what's happening there. And specifically that we have partnership with a pastor in Ukraine, and then you emailed pastors informing us about more details: that the Arche Church in Hamburg actually planted a church in Ukraine and they are meaningfully connected to this pastor. And this pastor is laboring in war-torn Ukraine during a continuously changing situation. Can you give us some updates about what's going on there?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, because this information is just fresh this week and I would love anybody that's listening or reading this podcast to have an update. As you mentioned, we've had a long relationship with the Arche Church in Hamburg Germany, where there's a pastors college where Jeff Purswell has taught consistently over the years. And they have trained pastors from Germany, Ukraine and Russia.
And a few years ago, Arche Church planted a church in Ukraine with one of the PC graduates, a Ukrainian pastor. And he is there "for such a time as this” with updates even this week. His church is located in a place in Ukraine, I'd rather not give the city just to protect him or use his name, but they're located in a place in Ukraine where people are fleeing from some of the Southern cities, port cities that are really being bombed. They're making their way through his city on the way to the west, trying to find refuge and safety. Typically they're headed to Poland. His church has been designated as a red cross center, which I think basically means that the red cross sends people to his church. They've got 90 beds in their church, but typically on a given night, they'll have 150 people that need a place to sleep. They need food. And so that church is actively serving folks with practical needs, with food and shelter and encouragement.
This pastor has also reported that they've had opportunities to share the gospel with people and one or two that they've led to Christ. So God is using tragedy to advance the gospel. So that's just very, very real. Also, Dave Taylor and I met this week with Christian Wegert who leads the Arche Church in Hamburg, Germany, and they're actually receiving Ukrainian refugees in Hamburg. He said they have now between 30 and 40 refugees that have made their way to Hamburg. I believe members of the Arche Church are actually housing those families to help them get reestablished. So the needs are very real.
And it's one of the reasons I sent out the email you mentioned, Ben, and I want to just remind everyone that if you want to give financially to support the work there, you can give to the Europe Development Fund, which can be found on the Give page of the Sovereign Grace website. But continue to pray mostly, whether you give or not, pray for our brothers in Germany, but pray especially for our brothers in the Ukraine.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. Amen. I was able to post your message along with that link to give our church an opportunity to participate in the privilege of helping and providing relief for the brothers and sisters and citizens of Ukraine. Mark, another country that we're connected with and we've talked about before that is in that region and so it also has experienced significant tensions, is Belarus. We're exploring, moving into partnership with some pastors there, officially, in Sovereign Grace. Can you give us an update about what's going on in Belarus?
Mark Prater:
Well, thanks to Kyle Huber, who's been traveling to Belarus for maybe 20 years, we have relationships through him. I've gotten to know pastors there and the churches pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace. And Kyle just sent me an email this morning from the main pastor that he's been relating to for a number of years, who's reporting that there are a number of members of his church that have actually left Belarus and moved to Poland. And the reason for that is because they work for Western-based companies who are protesting the war and therefore moving their offices, if you can say it that way, and their work to Poland. So he was reporting that he's going to lead worship for the first time this Sunday since 2015, because he's lost at least half of his worship team.
What's so interesting and so faith building about this man's response to losing a number of members of his church headed to Poland is now he's saying, "Hey, let's plant a church in Poland." And so he's actually having a meeting with the members that are leaving his church in Belarus and moving to Poland about planting a gospel centered church in Poland. And it's just a wonderful faith-filled gospel response to the tragedy or the unsettling that the war in Ukraine has brought to that region of the world. So may we continue to be affected by brothers like that who have faith like that and may that strengthen Sovereign Grace.
Benjamin Kreps:
Amen. I had the privilege of jumping on a Zoom call with those brothers with Kyle, and walked away from that conversation thoroughly impressed and humbled by their peaceful, humble, joyful demeanor, even while they were describing significant and difficult realities in that country and yet maintaining their joy in Christ and their desire to be faithful in this dark season in Belarus. So if those brothers are reading or watching we just want to communicate our affection for you, and we are praying for you as well. Mark, thank you for the update. And to those of you watching or reading, we'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.