He didn’t criticize President Donald Trump, who mentioned that Ukraine began the struggle and referred to as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator with out elections.”
He didn’t lament the numerous lives misplaced on the battlefields of his homeland — together with his brother, Dima, whose army unit went lacking in motion greater than a yr in the past.
As an alternative, Sergey Shupishov marked the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion by sending a message to Christians within the U.S. — a message of thanks.
In Irpin, Ukraine, stacks of burned-out automobiles, destroyed in the course of the Russian invasion, have develop into a memorial.
“All through these three tough years, you will have been with us, supporting us by way of fixed prayers, honest care and monetary help,” mentioned Shupishov, minister for a Church of Christ in Irpin, simply north of the capital, Kyiv. The town’s bombed-out cultural heart and stacked chassis of burned automobiles are reminders of how shut the enemy got here.
Associated: Sunday in Ukraine
“Your dedication and sacrifice have been an affidavit to God’s love and mercy,” Shupishov instructed his American brothers and sisters. “You confirmed us Christ in your actions and proved that God’s household has no borders. We’re grateful to you for not leaving us within the darkest occasions, for standing by our facet in our wrestle and for sharing the burden of struggle with us.”
Sergey Shupishov, left, together with his mom and his brother, Dima.
An ocean away, Zelenskyy met with Trump in Washington to debate a deal that might grant the U.S. partial entry to Ukraine’s minerals to recoup the price of American support to Ukraine. Though Trump lately walked again his description of Zelenskyy as a dictator, the Oval Workplace assembly between the 2 leaders shortly turned contentious, resulting in Zelenskyy’s early exit.
Days earlier, on the Lincoln Memorial, about 2,000 gathered for a rally organized by United Assist Ukraine simply earlier than the struggle’s grim milestone.
Jeff Abrams, heart, stands with a gaggle of Ukrainian Catholic clergy throughout a pro-Ukrainian rally in Washington. “I’m a bit underdressed,” Abrams joked.
Jeff Abrams, founding father of church-supported nonprofit Rescue Ukraine, made a return journey to the U.S. capital to participate alongside Orthodox monks and representatives of a number of non secular teams.
Abrams, who lately stepped down from the pulpit of the Tuscumbia Church of Christ in Alabama to work full time for Rescue Ukraine, earlier led a gaggle of American and Ukrainian Christians in a late-November demonstration on the Washington Monument.
Associated: A protest of bears
“Not because the days of the Roman Emperors has the Lord’s church endured hardships as extreme as these now afflicting Christians throughout Ukraine,” Abrams mentioned. “Our brethren have been killed, wounded, misplaced houses, misplaced church buildings, misplaced jobs and misplaced life financial savings. However they haven’t misplaced their religion!
Jeff Abrams holds up a teddy bear representing the youngsters of Ukraine throughout a rally exterior the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
“We weren’t round throughout Nero’s assault on the church,” Abrams added, “however we’re right here throughout (Russian president Vladimir) Putin’s assault, and there’s a lot we are able to and will do in assist of these beneath siege.”
However days later, in New York, the U.S. joined with Russia in opposing a United Nations decision condemning Moscow’s actions towards Ukraine and supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. As an alternative, the US drafted and voted for a decision within the UN Safety Council that referred to as for the top of the struggle with out criticizing Putin.
These actions, mixed with Trump’s remarks, have damage Ukrainians, together with church members, Marina Noyes mentioned.
Marina Noyes speaks concerning the struggle in Ukraine to a Wednesday evening Bible class on the Memorial Street Church of Christ in Oklahoma Metropolis in 2022.
“I do know the folks in Ukraine really feel betrayed,” mentioned Noyes, who helped to launch the Vinograder Church of Christ in Kyiv greater than 20 years in the past along with her husband, Jim. “Primarily, the sensation is that we’re betrayed by allies.”
Her husband added, “I don’t assume we are able to rely upon the (U.S.) president for something, so we rely on the Lord.”
Marina, a Ukrainian, and Jim, a 90-year-old American, fled Ukraine about 10 days after missiles started to rain on Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022. They returned to Kyiv final April to work with the Vinograder church, which has served refugees from jap Ukraine since pro-Russian separatists seized territory there in 2014. They spoke to The Christian Chronicle from the New Mexico Christian Kids’s Dwelling in Portales, the place they’re spending the winter months.
Associated: Ukrainians rely the times as they pray
Jim Noyes continues to show a Wednesday evening Bible class for the church by way of Zoom. One member — Alexander, a soldier in Ukraine’s army — joined them from the frontlines when he may. Alexander lately sustained a wound to his arm in fight, however has not but been demobilized, Marina Noyes mentioned.
Inna Kuzmenko, a Ukrainian from Kharkiv who has relocated to Ivano-Frankivsk because the struggle started, stands subsequent to a area of flags in downtown Kyiv commemorating lives misplaced in the course of the battle.
Their most up-to-date Wednesday evening class became a prayer assembly, she mentioned. The Christians on each side of the Atlantic Ocean prayed for the forthcoming negotiations — and for President Trump. They prayed for leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. to make use of frequent sense, to hunt after justice and peace.
She finds consolation in God’s Phrase — particularly in passages like Proverbs 24:24-25: “Whoever says to the responsible, ‘You might be harmless,’ can be cursed by peoples and denounced by nations. However it can go effectively with those that convict the responsible, and wealthy blessing will come on them.”
Jim Noyes, heart, speaks with refugees from jap Ukraine in Kyiv throughout a Christian Chronicle interview in 2015.
Regardless of the continued assaults and Ukraine’s unsure future, the Noyeses plan to return to Kyiv in Apri.
As for the struggle, Jim Noyes mentioned, “It’ll cease when the Lord stops it, and I believe that is a part of the Lord’s plan.”
A Ukrainian minister prays throughout a retreat within the battle-damaged metropolis of Irpin in 2024.
