All posts by george.devuyst@gmail.com

Caring for God’s People

Last week and this week George has beenCherkasy March 2015 leading Timothy Leadership Trainings in two Ukrainian cities.  This week’s training is in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy.  Please pray for the 15 pastors and church leaders gathered to develop practical skills in caring for God’s people and to learn how to train others in this ministry at this critical time in Ukraine’s history.

Zaporizhya March 2015Last week in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, 32 participants learned about how to care for God’s people. Many of these pastors are traveling every week into the war zone in Eastern Ukraine (just under 200 km from where we held the training) to minister to those who have remained in their homes and to the soldiers on the front lines. Plans have been made to bring at least 100 people to Christ in the next 5 months! Please pray for God’s Kingdom to come in the lives of these leaders, their families, their churches and their communities, and pray for the people they are planning to visit and share Christ with!

 

One Year in a Minute

ABC News gives a short video synopsis of the past year in Ukraine.  It’s decent except for their labeling the conflict a “civil war”.  This is not a civil war but Putin would like you think it is.  He doesn’t want the rest of the world to care about the fact that he is doing everything he can to wage war against Ukraine without the world doing anything about it.  War is real.  5,400 civilians (the numbers may be much higher) have lost their lives already. Pray for peace in Ukraine!

http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/ukraine-timeline-crisis-28761247

War Not Peace

“What a terrible thing war is, what a terrible thing!”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Ukraine is no closer to living in peace as Russian soldiers and Russian-backed fighters have increased their attacks on Ukraine.  Today’s war zone looked like this:

19-01

Last week thirteen civilians were killed and many wounded when a bus was hit by a shell in Volnovakha.  Civilians are dying daily as the death toll (civilian and military) has surpassed 4,800 on the Ukrainian side alone.   Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are internally displaced.

The numbers are only likely to rise.  Fighting has been very intense, especially at the Donetsk airport.  Ukrainian forces say that they have have defended and reclaimed the portions of the airport that the Russian forces had seized.  Today reports are that around 600-700 Russian soldiers have crossed the border into Ukraine.   Analysts predict that Russia is preparing to use air bombardment.   All indications are that Putin will not wait for spring to escalate the conflict.  The escalation is happening now.

Although this news is devastating for Ukraine, we feel confident that the fighting will stay to the eastern region of the country and we will be safe in Kyiv.   Please pray for Ukraine.  Pray that the Ukrainian leaders would have wisdom in how to respond to this aggression. Please pray that western countries who claim to support Ukraine would take necessary action.  Pray for the people of Russia who suffer under a leader who has no regard for his own people or for life itself.

For more details, check out these articles and videos:

PBS Frontline’s documentary on Putin’s rise to power

Follow Radio Free Europe’s live blog on Ukraine

Euromaidan Journalist Collective’s Facebook updates