Thank you for your prayers and for caring about the people of Ukraine.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” — Matthew 25:40
I am on the road between cities and need to write, so here it we go.
Travel here can be challenging. Many gas stations have been destroyed, and during air alerts, the few that remain often close. On one trip, we stopped at four gas stations before finally finding one open.
During this trip, we noticed what we thought was a strange cloud formation in the distance, only to realize it was smoke from a large factory that had just been hit and was burning. This is the reality of life here right now.
On the road between cities.
Last week, I traveled to Kyiv to partner with GLOW Missions, led by Andrew and Dar Draper. They are former New Lifers whom I had the privilege of marrying years ago, and reuniting and serving together here in Ukraine has been a true joy.
One of their key workers is an incredible man named Maksim, who has cared for elderly widows in the Chornobyl area north of Kyiv for eight years. God has given him a deep love for these “babushkas,” or grandmothers. He knows them, checks on them, brings them food, and makes sure they are not forgotten. To me, Maxine is a hero. No stage, no lights, no crowds. No “bigger, better, or brighter.” He keeps showing up and loving some of the most vulnerable people I have ever seen. He is a true pastor, not an executive, not a systems guy, just one who has a pastor's heart.
I kept thinking about the words of Jesus: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these…you did for me.” Those words sound different when you are standing inside the home of an elderly Ukrainian widow who has almost nothing.
Some of these women are frail. Some have very little food, some face serious health problems, and all are basically alone. Now they’re preparing for another tough winter in northern Ukraine.
We helped about 20 widows, and two of them received enough firewood to get through the winter. Watching the truck pull into their yard and seeing the wood unloaded really moved me. Firewood might seem simple, but for an elderly widow here, it can mean warmth, safety, and even survival. About 18 women in the GLOW network still need firewood, and I hope we can help.
“The least of these”
It is one thing to preach about caring for the widow. It is another thing to sit in her home, look into her eyes, see how she lives, and realize she is indeed alone.
After all these years of ministry, I’m asking myself some hard questions about the Church and about my own life. I love the Church. I’ve spent most of my life serving it. Buildings matter. Programs matter. Good preaching and worship matter. Organization matters. But sometimes I wonder if we get so busy keeping everything running that we lose sight of the people Jesus called us to see.
How much energy goes into keeping the machine running, and at what cost? I’m not saying those things don’t matter. I’m just asking myself if our ministry is really moving us toward people, or away from them.
Things are different here—way different.
Vinnytsia, Ukraine
The site of a ballistic missile direct hit.
Jesus did not wait for hurting people to find Him. He went to them. He touched people others wouldn't touch, stopped for people others passed by, fed the hungry, welcomed children, cared for the sick, befriended sinners, and paid attention to people who had been forgotten.
And He said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these…you did for me.”
GLOW Ministries has also helped start a church in a community where nearly 80 percent of the homes were destroyed. That immediately made me think of Boone, North Carolina. What if 80 percent of Boone's homes were gone? Where would people live? What would happen to families, schools, churches, and neighborhoods?
What if our schoolchildren spent a part of their school day in a bomb shelter, or we were told there would be electricity shortages for much of the winter? What if you had to check for air alerts each time you went to the grocery store, or while you were there, alerts kept going off?
What would we do? More importantly, who would God want us to be?
After almost four decades of ministry,
I find myself increasingly drawn to hurting people in hard places—to the forgotten, the rejected, the suffering, the refugee, the soldier, the widow, and the child.
Somehow, in their brokenness, I seem to find a deeper sense of Jesus' presence.
For the last year, all I have known how to do is look for Jesus in what's happened in my life, family, and church community, and try to understand again what it really means to be a minister, a lover of God, and, more importantly, a son.
For the last year, I have tried to find Jesus in my current broken state and make sense of what it means to be in ministry and in a church.
These days, I want to find God, follow Him, and ask Him to somehow make a mosaic from the brokenness of my heart and the broken community I spent nearly four decades caring for.
MOSAIC
—something marked by what was broken, but put back together in a way that reflects something greater than the pieces themselves.
Maybe that is what Jesus meant when He said, " Whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me.” Oh Father, in the brokenness of Ukraine and my life, family, and Boone community, let us find you in such a way that the pieces could reflect something greater than you had before.
My prayer: make us a mosaic that would reflect your goodness to the broken, scattered places of this present world.
Delivering children’s art from Grace Academy to a nursing home in Chornobyl, Ukraine.
Please keep praying for us as we continue ministering here. We need your help. The need is tremendous, but so is the opportunity to carry Christ’s hope and love.
Sometimes that looks like prayer, an offering, going to the front lines, or visiting double amputees in the hospital; other times, it looks like a truckload of firewood delivered to the home of an elderly widow who thought she had been forgotten.
And by ministering to the “least of these,” yes, we actually do minister to Him.
God, save Ukraine!