Three words you never want to hear in a war zone: “Tse ne navchannya.”
In English, we need five words to convey the same chilling message:
“This is not a drill.”
I was in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Suddenly, half an hour past midnight, the air was pierced by howling air raid sirens—and the loud warnings of public address speakers. “Air threat coming in. Seek shelter immediately.” And then, an ominous sort of P.S., which translates into English as, “Your complacency or disbelief is your worst enemy.”
Our team sought cover. From there, we could hear another round of sirens and warnings, and then a third.
At 1:00 a.m. came the roar of what sounded like the jet engines of war planes. The Ukrainians knew better. What we were hearing were two ballistic missiles—an Iskander M and a KN-23—aimed at Kyiv and Poltava. They were shot down by Patriot missiles, only 7 or 8 blocks from us.
Our Ukrainian ministry director gave me an ironic, war-weary perspective:
“The good news is that we heard them,” he said. “That meant they had already passed over. Those missiles are supersonic; you don’t hear them until they have passed. If they came at us directly, we would not hear them; we would only find out we were shot because we would be in the afterlife!”
At 3:30 a.m., the all-clear alarm sounded—ironically, something like the sound of little Christmastime sleigh bells. We could finally go back to bed.
But at 4:00 a.m., the siren screamed again. This time, they repeated more loudly and more frequently. Then, from our location, we heard what sounded like a police chase through the neighborhood, followed by crackling barrages of machine-gun fire, and finally seven or eight massive explosions.
Ukrainians were shooting down drones—within two blocks of our seminary campus.
The “Jingle Bells” played again at 8:00 a.m., and it was time to begin our workday. This is how the Ukrainians have lived, day after day, through these years of war. Keep going. Keep working. Don’t let the enemy stop you.
Your own spirit of perseverance, through your faithful giving, sent the team and me to Ukraine. We needed to work out, in person, numerous complications brought on by the prolonged war.
In the middle of this nightmare, it’s amazing to see how resilient the Ukrainian people are. Putin has been destroying more and more of the electrical grid, so basic everyday life and work have grown more and more difficult. More than 100 acres of civilian housing has been destroyed. Multitudes had little or no electricity in the midst of the brutal winter.
Four years ago, through the generosity of caring friends like you, we provided a generator to keep our seminary powered and warm despite power failures. The area has been so shattered by war that the seminary’s neighbors take shelter from bombings or from the subzero cold.
But as temperatures plunged to minus 13˚F, the generator labored to respond. At its peak of performance, it could never raise the temperature much above 39˚F.
Now, by the Lord’s grace, friends like you have enabled us to acquire a bigger and better generator. (Thank you for giving! In this way, you help to meet urgent, unforeseeable needs like this.) As I write you this letter, the rush is on to get the new generator installed before the chilling rains of the fall—and the unforgiving winter to follow.
I also saw the grim determination of Ukrainians beyond the capital city, as I rode a train to the Polish city of Chelm. It was a sleeper train—an uneasy sleep, however, because Putin has declared that he wants to stop the train between Chelm and the embattled city of Kharkiv, a key Russian target.
Yet the Ukrainians courageously ride the train anyway—in the spirit of “Don’t let the enemy stop you.” It was an honor to ride with them!
And I am happy to report, regarding our logistical challenges in Ukraine: mission accomplished. But even more importantly, our Ukrainian brothers and sisters felt, firsthand, your Christ-like compassion.
“Thank you so much for your visit to Kyiv,” our Ukrainian director writes. “Your time with us was a tremendous encouragement to me personally, to our friends in Ukraine, and to all of the brothers who are serving in church planting across the country . . . Your willingness to stand with us, even during such difficult days, meant far more than words can express.”
Jesus calls us to go into ALL the world and make disciples—and this Ukrainian excursion was one more example of how you are living in this calling, through your prayers and giving, literally going around the planet with the gospel. It’s an inspiring, God-led adventure!
From Ukraine, I made my way to Germany, then to Spain . . . but in the midst of these travels, I received calls of distress from Venezuela.
A massive double earthquake had struck—you saw it, I’m sure, in the news. NASA revealed the horrible realities in satellite images from space, with damaged areas color-corrected in red to help visualize the devastation. The entire Venezuelan coast appeared to be bleeding. Some 59,000 structures were devastated by the two quakes combined—an incredible 100+ seemingly endless seconds of the earth grinding and shaking and swallowing entire buildings.
We immediately reached out to check on our teams around the nation. By God’s amazing grace, no one was injured or lost. But the general population was thrashed. With sadness, I remembered preaching at Mount Ararat Church in La Guaira the last time I visited Venezuela. La Guaira was ground zero for this catastrophe, the hardest-hit area: 80% of its buildings collapsed.
The church’s pastor sent an audio message, with heart-rending sobs, sharing that he had lost his son and grandson in a building collapse close to the church. “Send whatever help you can,” he said between sobs, “and we will get the help to the people.” I’m receiving videos several times a day with overwhelming stories of people in very dangerous underground digs, trying to rescue loved ones.
A building “pancaked” into its basement; a man stood in the hole and gratefully reported, “We got my mother and my daughter out about an hour ago,” along with a neighbor’s mother and daughter. But he was still at work, for the sake of “the neighbors and their loved ones,” he said. “We won’t leave here until we get everyone’s family members out.”
- I was deeply shocked by what was most urgently needed. In that first day alone, the government ran out of body bags. Could we send 625 body bags, just for the church’s area?
We found friends in a neighboring area of Brazil who could gather 625 body bags, and Brazilian pastors graciously crossed the border to deliver them. They were all used up in three days.
Then came the heartbreaking plea: Could we send 1,000 more? And also, to keep bodies from decomposing, could we send formaldehyde?
Meanwhile, the mayor of Caracas was so moved by our willingness to help provide body bags that he reached out to us. Humanitarian groups are providing basic staples for 25,000 survivors now living in makeshift shelters in 9 refugee camps—but the mayor wanted to know: Could we provide chaplains to minister comfort and hope to these shattered people?
Once again, thanks to generous partners like you, giving as the Spirit leads, we were prepared to say an immediate yes. As you read these words, we are deploying 120 chaplains to minister in those refugee camps. Wherever they can, they’ll establish churches . . . permanent beacons of hope!
The past several days have proven to me all over again: Ministry is not merely scheduling social events at church.
- It is the biblical addressing of human need in its most extreme forms.
- It is a visitation from God in the most sobering experiences on our small planet.
- It is an understanding of, and an engagement with, the ultimate reality of His person in the universe: the Creator Himself, and the protocols He has established through the overwhelming attributes of His personhood.
This is a 2 Cor. 2:15-16 moment: “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?” Answer: None of us are adequate, in and of ourselves.
- We who would partake in the ministry of reconciliation must understand this:
On our own, we are not sufficient for the task.
We are all in it by—and only by—God’s grace.
By that grace, we are made adequate through Him.
This is how, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37)!
I thank God for you, as you graciously share what you have received by His grace! I praise the Lord for the courageous ones of Ukraine, and the tireless rescuers in Venezuela, and so many around the world in seemingly impossible situations who keep going, keep working . . . who, like you, refuse to let the enemy stop them in expressing God’s love.
I never expected to be shopping for body bags in my lifetime. It never crossed my mind that I might have to look for embalming fluid, or bulletproof vests, or night vision binoculars to reach church members cut off from supplies. Life on our planet, infected by human sin, hosts endless desperate scenarios.
But you and I are able to respond by the grace of God. As 1 Peter 2:9 declares, you and I are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Thank you for your love for the Lord. Thank you for your faith. Thank you for your priestly exploits unto which we are called together. I look forward to hearing from you soon. God bless you!
Following from victory unto victory,
Dr. Manny Fernandez
P.S. Today, I’m on my way to Kenya, to teach accelerated church planting as we inaugurate the planting of 300 churches—not just for Kenyans, but among large refugee camps full of people who have fled neighboring countries. These churches will replicate themselves throughout Kenya and countries beyond.
The adventure continues! Christ is in the lead, building His church. You and a band of brothers with you, led by the Spirit, are the force in the expedition. Please be part of the adventure again today. Give as generously as you can. Thank you!