“Sooner or later, they will call on us to fight,” Pastor Oleksii said.
When he and his two friends, Pasha and Dima, heard that military officers were circulating service orders among the men in nearby villages, they decided that they would not wait to be called in by the Ukrainian army, but rather they would report on their own.
The three men had no intention of becoming soldiers in the war, but they also had no intention of avoiding the authorities that were conscripting all men under the age of sixty to bear arms and fight for their country.
“We chose to go to them first,” Oleksii reasoned, “so that they would not accuse us of trying to hide.”
A few hours later, Oleksii and his friends were standing in front of the military authorities.
“Where are your papers?” the officers demanded.
“We have not yet been served our papers,” Oleksii responded. “We have come on our own initiative.”
The officers were both curious and suspicious. Although many men volunteered to join the army, officials would regularly go into the towns and villages to conscript soldiers. Some men were even detained at borders trying to flee Ukraine to a neighboring country for refuge, and then forced into active combat.
“We are here to serve,” Oleksii told the officers. “But we will not bear arms. Our faith in God will not allow us to kill another human being. Yet we would like to tell you about other things that we are doing to support our country.”
The three men went on to explain how they, along with others from Mennonite Brethren churches, were actively addressing the practical needs of Ukrainians who were caught in this brutal conflict. Over the next hour, they described in detail how they were caring for orphans and the elderly, helping with evacuation and resettlement, bringing generators and wood stoves to villages during winter, and how their church buildings were being used as shelters for the displaced. They were also distributing food and relief goods in dangerous zones along the front lines, feeding and caring for soldiers, and offering counselling and even days of respite for traumatized families by sending them away to a retreat camp set up in the mountains by New Hope Center.
“We are fighting,” they said boldly, “but not with guns or missiles. We fight against despair, against hunger, against hate. We believe Jesus won the final victory on the Cross, but many are still being attacked and needing to be rescued and reconciled to God.”
The officers listened, perplexed, wondering whether these men were trustworthy.
Detaining them further, the officials checked and verified the men’s church membership status, as well as the statutes of their MB churches regarding active combat. They even verified baptism dates. Finally, the officers sent them away, saying brusquely, “Go! Do what you are doing. To us, you are useless!”
The interrogation, however, was not over. The next day, military officials showed up at the church shelter in Mukachevo where Oleksii and others were serving. The officers proceeded to hand out service papers to men throughout the village, including members of the church, obliging them to report to the military center.
“So, we went again,” Oleksii said, shrugging, “and again we had the same conversation, but with different officers. Eventually they, too, let us go.”
These officers, however, had already seen with their own eyes the work that was being done by the churches. They knew it was genuine and invaluable, so they gave official acknowledgement that their religious status qualified its members and leaders as non-combatants. These men, the officers declared, were neither cowards nor traitors. They were fighting for their country. But theirs was a different kind of war.
PRAY
Please pray for peace in Ukraine. Pray specifically for the Heart of Christ MB churches in Berdyansk and Vinnytsia, that their hearts will continue to beat strongly during these challenging days.
