Ukraine War Relief Visit #3: Dignity
Dignity
By Amy Petrenko
First Presbyterian Church, Mooresville, NC
On Wednesday and Thursday, The Outreach Foundation’s team visited the border of Ukraine and Poland with faithful friends from Kyiv (Ukraine Evangelical Theological Seminary) and Lviv (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church). This visit has left us stunned and still processing so much.
As I reflect on the wonderful people we met today, I am happy to report that God has some very special selfless servants showing Christ’s love here. Our day began with prayer. Since Father Oleh from Lviv was delayed several hours yesterday, today we focused on listening to him. His experiences have been quite different and the network of charities, universities, and congregations supporting the war effort is much more stable than in Kyiv. This became a learning point for each of us: there is a significant distinction between the experiences of those in Kyiv versus Lviv, and that difference showed in these two heroes of Ukraine.
Pastor Saul from City Church looked at these two men and humbly said, “These two are among the real heroes of this war.” To some of us he admitted that in Ivan and Oleh he has met two of the greatest men of faith he has yet known.
These brave pastors shared accounts from the early stages of the war and how wonderful the Polish people were to allow millions of women and children to leave Ukraine as the Russian bombing began on February 24th – and it has not stopped. There’s even an eerie rhythm to it now as Russians try to destroy the power grid. The Russians think that in making Ukrainians cold, their will would break. Hardly! Fear yes, sadness of course, but their dignity remains.
We learned of the trauma that the women “who left Ukraine with the kids” were experiencing while the men of certain ages were dealing with the challenges of staying behind to fight. I was so proud to hear that the people of the churches, the military and families who are still in Ukraine are bonding together to help each other. Since my husband Vic was born in the U.S. after his parents escaped from Ukraine during WWII, we are very proud of the Ukrainian people’s will to keep their freedom and press into their dignity.
Dignity. This word was repeated several times today. There is dignity in dying in the war effort. When a dead soldier is being driven to be buried, all stand silent in the streets. Though our media reports that those fighting the Ukrainians are from prisons and are poorly trained, Father Oleh said Ukrainians do not hear this. They hear that these are trained soldiers. “Who wants to die thinking they’ve been killed by an untrained thug? There’s dignity in dying from a trained soldier.”
There’s dignity in staying and dignity in leaving. There’s dignity in Ukrainian solidarity and in providing the compassionate care to heal wounds. We saw this on display at the College of Theology and Social Sciences (CTSS) after our 5-hour return drive. The Ukrainians had insisted on providing lunch for us, the college staff, and international students themselves. And it was delicious! Dignity. Only 19 refugees remain – these are working and finding apartments to rent. We couldn’t see most of them because they were out working or in school. Dignity.
After lunch the international students studying various degrees at CTSS put their gifts on display for us. We learned of the Trauma Center, called Novus, which has trained over 100 people with a year-long advanced level counseling certificate. Graduates are in Ukraine and Eastern Europe where refugees are becoming residents, yet struggle with PTSD and trauma. These students will help Christ restore dignity among the broken people of this war. That’s Christ at work.
Dignity is the gift of God. Tom has lifted up Psalm 22 to remind us that what we are seeing today is bound to the ancient story of God’s faithful people. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Yet you are holy…it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.”
