MDI's 96-hour Experience in Ukraine

Prior to making the long journey to Ukraine, MDI's staff prayed long and hard as to whether it was right for us to travel to Ukraine.  We knew that our friends had erected a prayer tent right in the middle of the "action" and were heavily involved in providing food, tea and prayer support for battle-weary protestors.  The prayer tent was also open to all faiths including the leaders of those faiths.  We decided if we could provide comfort and support to our leaders we are in relationship with, we would go.  Their response to our asking was, "Please come!"  So, on a Monday morning we left.

When arriving on Tuesday, we were a little overwhelmed with people saying to us, "We are so glad you are here.  Everyone else has canceled their visits to Ukraine.  It once again, shows us your deep love for us and the country of Ukraine."  For us, it was affirmation we had made the right decision to come.

What no one realized, was that the very minute we walked through customs, the protests turned from peaceful to very deadly.  Even driving in from the airport, we heard a report that eight people had just been killed.

Upon arriving at our apartment, we walked to the window, which overlooked the downtown area of Kiev where the fighting was.  We could easily see a large wall of black smoke building in the sky and could hear explosions and gunshots ringing through the air.  It was a very sobering sight.  We realized this was not a movie or a news report of somewhere else in the world.  It was about two miles from us and it was happening in a country we call our second home and our friends were right in the middle of it.  We called Anatoly Kaluzhny and asked him for advice as to how we should conduct ourselves.  He told us, that at that moment, the fighting was confined to the downtown area, and we were safe where we were but to not go beyond several blocks of where were living.

During dinner, Anatoly called us and asked if we would come to the New Life Church office (about six blocks away) to pray with him.  Upon arriving there, the stress of the day was clearly written on his face.  After a season of prayer, he told us he was worried about his sons going to Maidan to fight.  He needed to leave to try to talk them out of going.  We left him promising we would go right home and stay there.

We were to learn later that Anatoly had been unsuccessful talking his boys into not going.  He decided if they were going he was as well.  That night, twenty-six people were killed.  When we communicated with our friends to confirm our meetings with them, the shock of the reality of what was happening was evident in their voices.  This was the beginning of when our timely arrival was now turning into a distraction for our friends.  They were not only focused on the conflict, worried about the safety of their families, but were now having to also worry about our safety as well. 

The next evening came the news of a truce!  Praise God, the conflict seemed to have found way to end.  We started to relax thinking we could continue working with our leaders in a normal fashion. We woke the next morning to find out that the truce had not lasted more than a few hours.  We had a full day of meetings planned and decided we would process what to do next while having our meetings.  During the day things started to happen:

1.     More than sixty people had been killed that day.

2.     Most grocery stores were running out of food.

3.     Huge block-long lines were forming at gas stations with stations running out of gas.

4.     ATM's were no longer working.

5.     Credit cards were no longer working due to a communication shutdown.

6.     Rumors were going around they were going to block all bridges including the ones between us and the airport.

We were having a late lunch with Anatoly at a huge mall, when we received a call from one of our leaders (Lena) saying, "I can no longer tell you that you are safe in Ukraine."  We made the decision to leave, so I was calling Delta trying to figure out how we could leave the country.   Suddenly we realized that there was no one around which seemed very strange due to it being only 3:45 in the afternoon.   We got up to leave and found security people waiting for us.  They informed us that the mall had been closed and we were the last people to leave.  They then proceeded to escort us out of the building.  Delta had told us we could not get out until the next morning.  So we called our missionary, Heather Harris, and asked her to get her passport, pack a bag and have a friend drive her to our apartment.

When she arrived, she was not happy to be leaving.  She wanted to stand with her friends.  She did realize however, she too was a distraction to those same friends so agreed to leave with us.  A few minutes later I heard, "Hey Steve, look at this!"  I walked over to the window where she was looking out and there stood about twenty-five men, dressed in black, holding sticks/clubs.  She said, "I can't tell whether those are good or bad guys."  I said, "We are not going to go find out."  That was affirmation that it was, indeed, time to leave.

We all got up at 3am to get ready to be picked up at 4.  We had heard rumors that there were 5,000 protestors blocking the airport to prevent government officials from leaving the country.  On the way to the airport, there was a large roadblock, run by armed young men, which stopped us.  It turned out that they were with the opposition and our friend/driver, Anya, said “Слава Україні” (“Glory to Ukraine”) and let us go.

We are now safe in Madrid.  We so appreciate all of your prayers during this time.  We are asking that you continue to pray for the country of Ukraine and our friends there.

Blessings,