A Time of Harvest: An Update from Ukraine (Part 2)

In February 2022, TEAM Ukraine workers Samantha and Maria (names changed) were evacuated from their homes in southern Ukraine. Shortly after that time, the two shared how God was using them to minister to those in need outside of Ukraine’s borders. Now as the war drags into its third year, these two women continue to serve faithfully. In this second of a 2-part series, we share an update from Maria. (Check out Part 1 here.) 

For Maria, the calling to serve in Ukraine began in the early 1990’s. While living in Florida, she participated in a short-term trip to Ukraine organized by her local church. That trip planted a seed for Maria, and she later returned to Ukraine in 1996 for full-time ministry. 

Maria was a part of three church plants in Ukraine, the third of which landed her just outside a city in southern Ukraine. It was here that Maria lived and worked in early 2022. As the rumblings of a possible invasion by Russia began to circulate through her community, most people didn’t believe this could be possible. “No one believed there would be a war,” Maria recalls. “They said, ‘We’re friends [with Russia]. It’s not going to happen.’”   

When the war began in February 2022, Maria was out of the country attending a conference. Realizing she would not be able to return home to Ukraine she immediately sought how the Lord could continue to use to minister during what she knew would be very difficult times ahead for the Ukrainian people.  

An Open Door in Romania 

“I had some friends who were working in humanitarian aid, and they had an opportunity in Romania for me to serve with refugees,” Maria recalls. She served there for three months as millions of Ukrainians fled their homeland into Romania and other neighboring countries.  

Maria was thankful for this open door to serve in Romania, but her commitment to return to Ukraine never wavered. “During that whole time [in Romania], I desperately wanted to go back to Ukraine,” says Maria. Her teammates and friends in Ukraine had become like family to her. Ukraine was her home. “I asked the Lord, ‘I want to go back…How is that going to happen?’” 

Humanitarian Aid and Gospel Hunger 

After discussions with TEAM leadership, much prayer, and through the Lord’s provision, Maria was able to return to Ukraine after only seven months. Maria and her team found it a great blessing and opportunity to focus on caring for and ministering to people who had lost their homes in the bombings. The team, in partnership with the local church, began providing humanitarian aid for those who were displaced and came to settle in the town where the church is located.  

Maria tears up as she recalls the spiritual hunger that people had, especially in those early days. “What was so exciting for me is that a lot of the people hadn’t heard the Gospel. And so, it was such a great time to just be sharing the Word with them.” 

Lives Impacted Despite the Horrors of War 

As those seeds began to take root, the Ukranian pastor at Denise’s church saw that the time was right to form small groups where people could come and dive deeper into studying God’s Word. “And through that, we had people start coming to know the Lord,” Maria says. 

Maria also shares how God pursued a group of young teens both before and after the invasion. “I had been working before I left the country with some young teens in a discipleship group,” Maria recalls. “When I returned to Ukraine, I began to meet with them again. Since then, two of those young men have come to know Jesus. For me, this was another exciting time.” 

Young people are not the only ones being impacted by the love of Jesus in Ukraine. Maria recounts the story of an older woman who began attending prayer meetings that Maria was leading. “She had been living in a really small village. When she came to our town, she had not heard a lot about the Gospel. She remembered her grandmother telling her stories from the Bible, but she thought they were fairy tales. She asked a lot of questions, and I answered them with Scripture.” Maria goes on to say that as these prayer meetings and discussions continued, this woman became a believer in Jesus. “In the first week of June this year, she was baptized. She’s 83 years old.” 

An Ongoing Journey 

These stories are exemplary of the many ways that God’s presence penetrates the devastation of war to bring people to Himself. As Maria shares these testimonies, the love she has for the people in her community is beautifully evident.  

“For me, it’s been a journey,” Maria says. “The Lord has answered my prayers to let me go back and minister to people in this time of harvest.” 

As Maria and her teammates continue in their faithful work, they invite the body of Christ to pray.  

• Pray for those who have lost loved ones – especially the many women who have lost husbands, brothers, and sons 

• Pray for an end to the war 

• Pray that God would meet the spiritual needs of the Ukrainian people 

• Pray that as people come to know Him, that He will enable them to love and forgive their enemies