Greetings dear brothers and sisters,
We thank God for life and for the opportunity to continue serving the people of Ukraine in Kherson.
In times of war, it is not easy to perceive the present as something good, much less to see God’s grace in it. But as we look at what is happening in countries where there is no war, where life is stable, secure and peaceful, we compare the values of those countries with the values that most Ukrainian people think and rely upon.
One of the most striking observations in recent days has been the Eurovision Song Contest. I did not watch this contest because I do not perceive modern music as art at all, but I must pay attention to such events since they shape people’s worldview. What a contrast between the message of Western countries and that of the unbelieving singers from Ukraine.
The Western countries presented transgenderism, occultism and witchcraft rituals. Ukraine presented a song about Mary the mother of Jesus and Mother Teresa. As the tip of the iceberg, Eurovision shows what people in different countries think and rely upon.
Bleeding Ukraine, struggling against a vicious enemy that has come to destroy the entire Ukrainian people, relies on God, realizing that no one else can be truly trusted. In wealthy, stable countries we see more and more blasphemy, occultism and opposition to Christ.
While Ukraine was resisting Russian aggression in 2016, European political leaders were comfortably attending a blatantly satanic theatrical production at the festive opening of the San Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland. As we compare the trends we see in “stable” countries to the search for Christ, to the filled churches in warring Ukraine, we thank God for leading our nation through such terrible circumstances, yet saving people for eternity.
It is true what God’s Word says, “God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” As difficult as it may be for us right now, we thank God for the real revival which He gave to Ukraine, even if through pain and sorrow. We thank the Lord that, because of our terrible circumstances, the Lord has shaken up His church in many countries of the world.
As Christians look at what is happening in Ukraine, different countries are being forced to reconsider their lives and their values. They must either join the service of Ukrainians or side with the opponents of the truth.
We thank God, dear friends, that you support us with your prayers.
Despite the authorities’ ban on gathering in large numbers for the Easter holidays, more than 400 people came to our church service and joined us in praising God for Christ’s love and resurrection.
The next Sunday we baptized sister Irina (55 years old). Before attending our church after the liberation of Kherson, Ira was not connected with Christianity at all. Her husband died during the occupation, and her daughter and family went to Kyiv. Irina started coming to the church service together with her three friends.
For 1 ½ years they actively attended the service, took an interest in spiritual matters, and talked together about how much they had lost by not taking an early interest in Christ and His church. It is interesting that Irina’s friends began to ask about baptism earlier, interested in whether it was right to baptize infants and why baptism should be administered after faith, not the other way around. We explained these issues both in the sermon and in personal conversations.
When sister Irina placed her faith in Christ and declared her desire to be baptized, her friends began to discourage her. “Aren’t you in a great hurry; how can you be so sure that this step is exactly what God wants you to take?” She replied, “In this year and a half, the church has taught me things that neither my parents nor my education taught me, and the gospel explicitly and unequivocally calls a person to commit his or her life to Christ through baptism.” Moreover, in a conversation with me, she told me how the Lord Himself had through circumstances removed any doubts and pushed her in every possible way toward baptism. It’s always interesting to watch as a person born of the Lord begins to hear and discern His voice.
We hope that the Lord, through our common ministry, will continue to spread the gospel and save people. We hope that the Lord will continue to spread the gospel and save people through our common ministry.
Life in Kherson is unique because of the constant shelling. We see Moscow criminals hitting various cities in Ukraine and we sympathize with people and pray for them, but Kherson is different in that it experiences shelling every day. This is not an exaggeration – this is our harsh reality.
In our city we can see a very striking contrast in people’s reactions to danger and destruction. We know cases when people survived after being trapped in a dwelling, then cursed with profanity everyone and everything, from the occupants to God. People who attend church regularly have a very different reaction – instead of swearing and cursing, they thank God for their lives and rely on Him for their future.
Such a case happened two weeks ago in a family of people who have been attending our church since the liberation of Kherson. The home of these people is about three hundred meters from the church. After an enemy shell hit, several neighboring houses were partially destroyed, and in the house of our “parishioners” all the windows blew out and destroyed one of the walls of the house and the roof.
After the shelling, representatives of the authorities came to the victims to assess the extent of the destruction and provide assistance. It was they who posted a short video interview with the victims. “We were sitting in the kitchen by the big windows – my wife was giving me a haircut. Suddenly the phone rang and we both went into the other room to answer it. That’s when the explosion went off – the windows we were trimming next to flew out, and we realized that if we had stayed where we were, we would have died cut by the glass. – Lucky? – asked the authority figure. No, answered our parishioner, – God preserved us, because we ourselves did not realize why we went to the phone.”
There are many such cases and testimonies in our area. We continue through our ministry to teach people to rely on God and trust in His protection. Thank you for your prayerful support of the people of Kherson.
With your participation, dear friends, we can help not only the residents of Kherson, but also people who live in villages near our city. One such village is fifty kilometers from Kherson and is called Shirokaya Balka. There is a small church there and next to it a rehabilitation center for addicts. I often visit this rehab center, helping the director in his spiritual work with the addicts.
For about a year now we have been helping the center, as well as the local church, financially. We donate (if possible) food packages, clothes, medicines, children’s gifts for Christian holidays. Imagine, friends, an ordinary portable Bluetooth speaker, which we bought and gave to the Sunday school, caused real joy and a wave of gratitude to God. The Sunday school leader thanked us for our help and said: “Our children have long wished that we had a microphone through which to tell poems and sing praises to the Lord, and here we are being handed a speaker with a with a microphone! Praise God!”
Now the Sunday school in this village, which is a few kilometers from the Dnieper, is attended by about 25 children, and there are six men in rehabilitation. We thank God that together with you we can serve these people. Pray for them.
Dear friends, we would like to ask for your prayerful support regarding the future of Ukraine. Being in a war zone, we see in a special way the problems that await Ukraine in the future. The war affects everyone, the civilian and military, young and old.
Teenagers in our area, cornered by circumstances (shelling, lack of a normal social life, education and work), often talk passionately about how, immediately after coming of age, they will go to serve in the assault brigades, whose recruitment advertisements they constantly see on billboards in our city. We understand that the state needs defenders, but it is very difficult to look at these children who do not know and do not understand the value of life, and do not realize the realities of combat operations. They are still just children, but the enemy has deprived them of a normal childhood and are forcing them to take up arms to defend their homeland.
Russia is killing Ukrainians not only with weapons – with their actions the occupiers are trying to divide Ukrainians among themselves, they are trying to destroy our mentality. It is the Church that must come to the aid of people. Pray, brothers and sisters, that the Ukrainian people will remain a peace-loving people and will not allow in their hearts the beastly hatred in which the so-called Russian occupiers have been living for many years.
We read a very strong example of the real Ukrainian mentality recently on social media in a publication by a combat medic who serves in the Kherson area. “During my service I have seen a lot of human pain and grief, killed military and civilians, wounded and mutilated human bodies, dead fellow soldiers and enemies.”
“It would seem that under such conditions the heart should be filled with irrevocable rage and hatred for the enemies, but there is none. You continue to look at your enemies as those from whom you have to defend yourself, from whom you have to defend your country and your people, but you still do not find the hatred and rage that would lead you to stop seeing them as human beings and start calmly shooting prisoners, killing the wounded, doing to them what they are doing to our people”.
With your help, friends, we continue to serve the people of Kherson, helping them with food, drinking water, medicines, hygiene products, and building materials.
We thank God that we can join you in preaching the gospel in our area and helping people with their problems. God is great!
With respect and brotherly love to you,
Brothers and sisters of Kherson Antonov Church and Pastor Oleg Derkachenko
Editor’s Note: This letter has been slightly revised for clarity
