Ukraine at War – Update 14, 2024

Chaplains have become indispensable in the ongoing war, offering critical support to both soldiers and civilians. Their courageous presence on the front lines allows them to provide daily guidance, comfort, and hope to soldiers facing life-threatening situations while extending their care to soldiers’ families, helping them cope with the profound trauma that the war has inflicted on their families.

From a humanitarian perspective, chaplains offer essential aid and comfort to civilians affected by the conflict, providing practical support and compassionate presence during times of great need.

These chaplains face extreme dangers, yet they remain committed to their calling. As one chaplain humbly stated, “We are just doing what is necessary. It is a desire laid in our hearts. We do the work from our hearts and for God’s glory.” Their resilience is rooted in faith and preparation: “We have to prepare well before every trip. Everything you experience on the frontline cannot be erased from your memory. However, the most important thing is that God gives us strength to endure.”

In essence, military chaplains in Ukraine are embodying their motto of “Being there,” providing God’s presence in the army and serving as true spiritual warriors alongside the troops they support.

Your continued support of chaplains and their is making a profound difference in countless lives during this terrible war. Please read more about chaplains in the links below.

Our heartfelt thanks to all of you in our HART community, both in Canada and the USA, for standing with us and with the people of Ukraine.

Ukrainian chaplain killed during church service

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Yaroslav Pavenko, a husband and father of a little girl and a chaplain in the Ukrainian army, was killed by Russian shelling on Saturday while preaching to Ukrainian soldiers.

Pavenko and two other chaplains were in the middle of a church service when they were hit by a missile. Despite wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest, a fragment of the shell flew under his protection. The attendees of the sermon rushed to their preacher and prayed for him.

Yaroslav passed away in the ambulance on the way to a hospital. One of the other chaplains said, “I will never forget the last moment when one of our guys was holding Yaroslav’s head and was praying over him. I think God gave us this amazing moment where the last thing Yaroslav said was: ‘I’m going to heaven!’ And then he left.”

Yaroslav Pavenko dedicated himself to serving as a volunteer chaplain from the outset of the war, building on a foundation of pastoral work that began in his youth when he was just 14 years old. His commitment to ministry was deeply personal, having endured the loss of two brothers during the initial Russian invasion in 2014. Despite this tragedy, Yaroslav embodied the essence of a true pastor, balancing his calling with his roles as a devoted husband and loving father. Please pray for Yaroslav’s family.

Massive Russian missile strike kills, injures over 200

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Yesterday, Russia launched a massive missile attack on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, on the morning of July 8, killing at least 41 civilians and injuring nearly 170 others. Two hospitals were hit in the attack. One was Ukraine and Europe’s largest children’s medical center, where about 7,000 complex operations are performed annually for children with cancer.

Hundreds of Ukrainians from the nearest streets – office workers, shop assistants, students, pensioners, doctors – immediately came together in the first minutes of the disaster and began to help emergency services sort out the rubble and evacuate seriously ill children. Scores of volunteers later dropped off much-needed supplies and donations – including water, food, medicine, and diapers – to the hospital.

The second facility was a maternity hospital where at least 7 people were killed and three injured.

The UN Security Council will hold a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s deadly strike on the children’s hospital after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for an emergency assembly to address these horrific attacks.

Pray for this war to end and that God’s justice prevails.

Reflections: On the train to Uzhhorod

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Taras Dyatlik, an evangelical Ukrainian theological educator, has shared his daily reflections in a WhatsApp group. The following is a recent journal entry from June.

In an old carriage with shabby walls and faded curtains, I am traveling on a train from Kharkiv to Uzhhorod in the same cabin as a soldier returning home for a short but longed-for vacation. His wife and children have found temporary shelter in a land saturated with pain and fear.

Yesterday, this soldier bought his daughter a small puppy. Now, he plays with it like a child, hugging and kissing it as if he has found a ray of light in this tiny creature. In a few days, he will return to the hell of war, and the puppy will remind his daughter of her father’s love.

The soldier is about 30, with a weathered, tanned face. He has scars on his arms and legs and deep wrinkles near his eyes. He naps nervously, anxiously, like almost everyone who has returned from the frontline.

Sometimes, he falls into a deep sleep and starts snoring loudly as if trying to drown out the memories of explosions and cries of pain. And when he is not snoring but still asleep, he shouts orders as if he were back in the middle of a battle.

At one of the stations, when the rattle of the wheels and the squeaks of the worn-out railway car have subsided for a moment, an elegant woman of medium height in a blue tracksuit flies out of the neighboring cabin. She’s about 35, and once upon a time, she must have been very attractive, but now her face is haggard, with deep shadows under her eyes.

Bursting into our compartment, she cries out to me, “Tell him to stop snoring! Right now! Its driving me crazy!”

I look up from my laptop screen and calmly reply, “Keep your voice down; please don’t shout. Don’t wake him up.”

Clearly unhappy with my response, she retreats to her own berth. Half an hour passes. The soldier wakes up, goes to the vestibule to smoke, and takes the puppy with him.

I hear the woman coming out of her cabin again. I meet her in the corridor, look at her beautiful yet tired face, still marked with irritation, and say what has been running through my mind all this time: “You can’t wake up a soldier who is coming home from frontline hell for a short vacation, even if he snores like a bear. Let him plunge into this healing sleep, safe from explosions and screams.”

The woman clamors, “I can’t rest when he snores! And I have my own personal front….” But then her voice breaks as she begins to tremble.

I reply gently, sensing that her reaction reflects a pain and tragedy of its own. “We are not under a hail of bullets.”

The woman freezes; her eyes are filled with tears that are about to spill out. She looks out the window and bites her lip.

After a while, the soldier returns from the vestibule, a slight smile on his exhausted face. The woman looks at me pleadingly as if asking me not to tell him about our conversation. She approaches him and says something about the puppy, gently stroking the little creature as she takes its paws in her palms and kisses them gently.

The soldier enters our cabin, softly closes the door, and lies down to rest again.

The woman turns to me, her eyes two lights of longing and pain. She whispers, barely audibly, “Forgive me. My husband was killed in the winter. I miss his snoring at night so much! I’m going to my mother; I can’t live alone anymore.”

Her words contain the pain of the whole country—the pain of every broken woman’s heart. And while the old train keeps rattling along, carrying each of us in our own thoughts, memories, and hopes, I am silently praying:

For those who are at the frontline, like this soldier.

For this woman and the irreparable loss of her beloved one.

For the opportunity to live and love again without war, which came to our land to sow death and destruction.

I pray for just peace in Ukraine:

For the healing of the wounds in our souls—of the soldiers, civilians, and volunteers who have experienced deep trauma.

And the train keeps rushing along, giving us precious moments of rest—and humanity—amid the chaos of war.

Pray for Ukraine, Pray for Peace

Here are specific prayer points that can help guide our prayers for the situation in Ukraine. Please share these with your friends and family.