WAR ROBS UKRAINE CHURCHES OF MEN, HUSBANDS, FATHERS: Dasha, pictured, is one of many grieving young war widows in Ukraine’s churches who face a lonely Christmas, yet are reaching out to others in need, showing them “the love of God.”

NEWS PROVIDED BY
Slavic Gospel Association (SGA)
Dec. 16, 2024

LOVES PARK, Ill., Dec. 16, 2024 /Standard Newswire/ -- War is robbing Ukraine’s churches of men — leaving congregations of grieving war widows and anxious wives this Christmas.

Dasha recently gave birth to a baby boy. Her husband, Pavlo, didn’t live to see his newborn son. He was killed on the frontline in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

Now a widow in her 20s, Dasha has to raise her baby in a war zone, all while grieving and coping with crippling power cuts that go on for days.

“Somehow, we make it through,” said Dasha, who attends a local evangelical church.

This Christmas, there will be an empty place in the pew beside her — a picture that’s become all too familiar in Ukraine’s growing number of “men-less” churches.

One young widow described her feelings as “an abyss of loneliness.”

Congregation With No Men

One evangelical congregation in the village of Novoivankivtsi in southeast Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region has no men. They’ve all been called up to fight, or fled the war-torn region with their families. Only a handful of widows are left, determined to carry on with church services and their small Bible study group.

Hundreds of churches across Ukraine have been virtually drained of men, including their pastors, to bolster the frontline troops. Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers since the war began.

“After more than 1,000 days of war, the complexion of these churches has changed dramatically,” said Eric Mock, senior vice president of Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org). “It’s estimated 400 pastors are serving in various capacities on the frontlines, and many more men from these churches.”

Left behind are the women and children, including many, like Dasha, who’ve been widowed — and those who live in dread every day of receiving heartbreaking news from the front.

Yet, with support from Illinois-based SGA, these brave women and their churches are looking beyond their own grief and loss to help their struggling neighbors this Christmas.

Elderly widows at the Novoivankivtsi church have been supplied with firewood to keep themselves warm during the winter months. It’s part of SGA’s Heat & Hope initiative that helps local evangelical churches in Ukraine provide practical aid and warmth for the most vulnerable, and share the hope of the gospel with them.

Courageous Women of Faith

“These churches and their members, including many women, minister to the needs of people coming to them while struggling themselves to put food on their own tables and care for their own children,” Mock said. “In the face of anxiety, fear, and sorrow, these courageous women are caring for others.”

SGA supports thousands of evangelical congregations across Ukraine, Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Israel. This Christmas, its church-run Immanuel’s Child outreach will provide gifts and Bibles — as well as Star of Bethlehem ornaments from individuals in the U.S. — to tens of thousands of children, including many who’ve never heard the Christmas story before.

The organization’s Orphans Reborn ministry also supports local churches delivering gifts and “sharing God’s love” in bleak orphanages across the former Soviet Union, where Soviet-era atheism is baked into the culture, leaving a grim legacy of hopelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction, and child abandonment.

Founded in 1934, Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) helps “forgotten” orphans, widows and families in Ukraine, Russia, the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel – caring for their physical needs and sharing the life-transforming Gospel. SGA supports an extensive grassroots network of local evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across this vast region.

SOURCE Slavic Gospel Association (SGA)

CONTACT: DeWayne Hamby, 423-505-0041, dhamby@inchristcommunications.com