BAM! A rocket penetrates a building, shattering windows and shaking foundations. Clatter! Bomb debris splatters cars, building façades, and adjacent roofs. Bang-Bang-Bang! The jackhammer staccato of AK-47s fills the streets as Russian soldiers assault Kharkiv. The attacks seem random, a restaurant here, an apartment there, a shop on the corner. No one can sleep. No one knows where the next bomb will strike.
Stephen K. (pseudonym), one of unfoldingWord’s Eurasian church-planting partners and translation team leader, knew it was time to evacuate Kharkiv, but what about his wife? She was trapped in a Russian-occupied zone. He had no idea when they would meet again. How would he get his mom and dad, his nephew, and his disabled aunt to safety in another part of the country? Civilian travel was perilous. And what about the rare Bibles and translation work? Under the rule of the old Soviet Union, more than 160 million people from other countries were forced to speak Russian for over 70 years. These people lived in places like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. Many never became fluent in Russian. Today, most continue to use their mother tongue at home. They need those Bibles and the translation work.
The situation was so bleak that the ordinarily optimistic Stephen penned this poem.
What to do when hope leaves you?
What to do when faith fades?
But love doesn’t cool.
Every hour you die again and again.
You go to the store and don’t know if you’ll come back or not. You go to the bathroom and don’t know if a bomb will fly to your apartment or not.
You want to wake up, but you cannot because you are not asleep.
You want to fall asleep, but you can’t because there’s a bomb.
And you’re tired of the unexpected.
And where is God in all these situations?
He is right beside me. He is watching.
And the world is watching while others are doing something. But God also protects.
While Americans fretted about their tax returns, Stephen’s family made a fateful decision. Stephen would shut down all social media, and the family would split up, traveling in different directions. His father would stay in Kharkiv. Would he ever see them again?
Finally, the day came. Here’s how Stephen reported it.
“Yesterday, the Lord brought me out of Kharkiv by the hands of a pastor. He did not consider his life, time, or family, but came to evacuate me. His car broke down on the way, but he got another. We saved rare copies of the Bible. We had to take the book drawers (which weigh a lot) off the fifth floor because the elevator didn’t work. We were very tired, but the pastor called his friends, and the Church came to the rescue. They helped us fill up the whole van. Two-thirds of these were Bibles, different translations, and different languages. Everything I had we took away to give to the benefit of the Church and to save others. Printer, scanner, paper, towels, sheets, everything.”
“I prayed all the way that our car wouldn’t break down or we’d get stuck in a deserted place in the open air. This man saved me and the Word of God so that, in the future, as many people as possible will know what the Word of God contains and be saved by God.”
Stephen’s prayer requests the following day were:
That God will help my wife to be saved from the occupied territory. That the Lord gives us a home to continue to live and help others as we continue to serve and work. For the pastor to get a car so he can serve others in the future. He has four children.
All of us at unfoldingWord were praying for Stephen K. and his family. On April 21, the word flashed across our network: “Stephen has reunited with his wife!” Praise God!!
Even with war raging, our Eurasian friends continue the good work. You can be part of this story by partnering with Bible translators like Stephen. Visit our Eurasia Project Page to see why Bible translation is still desperately needed, and become part of what God is doing with the Eurasian church today.