Ukraine

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Ukrainians

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Ukrainian Orthodox

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SEND’s Ministry

For almost three decades, the vision of SEND Ukraine has been to see Ukraine become a place of “healthy churches, passionate senders, and global disciple-makers.”

But what does it mean to engage in gospel-focused discipleship, training, and equipping when local churches are plunged into the midst of war? How do these extreme conditions impact vision and ministry?

From the mid-90s until 2022, with God’s resurrection power, SEND has worked with Ukrainian evangelical believers to nurture healthy churches, passionate senders, and global disciple-makers. In this 30-year period, believers who had been reached and discipled had begun to partner with one another and with SEND Ukraine to reach Ukraine, and beyond—across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East- with the transformative Gospel of Jesus. SEND Ukraine was pivoting to more fully focus on and support this emerging missions movement through training, guidance, and member care when the war in Ukraine started.

We still believe that God wants to use the Ukrainian church to reach the nations. And the statement above remains the vision of SEND Ukraine. We still desire to mobilize global workers who can assist and equip Ukrainians to spread the gospel in Ukraine, both among its increasingly multi-ethnic population and around the world. Yet with the war still raging in Ukraine, new realities and new dimensions have been added to the above stated goal.

• What does a healthy church in a country at war look like?

• How does it fulfill its biblical mandate to be a light for the Gospel in its local, and even in a global context while existing in a state of war?

• How does SEND Ukraine walk alongside Ukrainian churches now to work together toward the goal above?

• How do we pivot to serve with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters as they minister to deeply grieving and traumatized people?

• How does a healthy church operate with resilience in places of daily, consistent risk?

• How do we help churches upskill leadership, formally and informally, and disciple leaders to continue the mission of Jesus in the conditions they face currently?

In spite of the war, the Spirit is moving in many Ukrainian churches to see the needs of the world around them, and to keep asking how they can serve in God’s global mission to bring every tongue, tribe and nation to Himself.

Other churches are overwhelmed in meeting the needs of local people fleeing war, or seeking to live in very uncertain circumstances. It remains to be seen how God will use the catastrophic experiences of war to shape and mold the Ukrainian church.

While SEND Ukraine’s current mandate remains to help equip, train, and send Ukrainian believers to the nations, we are doing so while we also weep with them, comfort the hurting with them, and partner with them to meet very real physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

We are still committed to laboring toward our stated goals, but like our many Ukrainian ministry partners, SEND Ukraine’s ministry continues to be disrupted, while also adapting.

Spiritual Climate

Historically, most Ukrainians identified as Orthodox Christians. Ukraine has also historically been home to millions of Jews and Muslims. After its independence in 1990, more and more immigrants and international students from all over the globe were coming to Ukraine to live, work and study. Before that war escalated in 2022, SEND Ukraine was moving more toward opportunities to engage unreached peoples in Ukraine. At that time, more than a million people from more than 30 unreached people groups called Ukraine home, and some parts of the country remained less than 1% evangelical.

How has the war impacted these demographics? Ukraine currently has one of the highest Internally Displaced People (IDP) populations in the world, at almost 4 million people in 2023*. There are currently about six million Ukrainian refugee and asylum seekers outside the country, 99% of these are women and children. Most international students and many immigrants to Ukraine left the country if they were able to.

Many evangelical churches report a renewed and urgent interest in the Gospel in many who are fleeing war. Many of these IDP’s and refugee’s have become believers as they have been given care and shelter from war. SEND Intl has been able to help many Ukrainian churches provide for the physical and spiritual needs of these millions of vulnerable peoples, made more so, by war. Many non-Ukrainian people who call Ukraine home have stayed, and still need the gospel. These include Roma, Central Asians, Jews, and Tatars.

Team Goals

• Partnering with Ukrainian theologians and educators to:

○ Implement intensive pastoral training for emerging leaders who are rising to replace church leaders who have left, are serving military personnel, or who are themselves serving in the military.

○ Continue developing graduate and postgraduate theological training in Biblical theology

• Supporting Ukrainian church planters and pastors as they:

○ Disciple established churches to reflect, in healthy ways, the Kingdom of Jesus in this season of intense suffering

○ Plant new churches to serve vast numbers of recently arrived IDPs, as well as long-time locals

○ Grow more skilled at addressing immediate humanitarian needs of their communities, as well as trauma healing, PTSD, and myriad theological questions connected to human violence.

○ Seek to enable resilience, missional thinking, and thriving community in their churches.

• Processing with Ukrainian church leaders what globally anchored, missional ministry looks like during a time of war.

• Support the thriving of ministry families through third-culture kid (TCK) education.

* https://reporting.unhcr.org/operational/situations/ukraine-situation

Life in Ukraine

Signs of war are visible in almost every city of Ukraine, but just as equally juxtaposed with resilient signs of everyday life. There is increased risk throughout the country. In spite of war, Ukrainian life still reflects a mix of ancient and modern, urban and rural, scientific and intuitive. Lately, long-held passions for both political freedom and stability characterize many people’s view of modern Ukraine. Clearly, people in this ancient land tend to hold numerous values in tension.

People in Ukraine often engage others with both curiosity and skepticism, a mix that allows for deep discussions, and requires patient relationship building. Reaching out to the many residents of Ukraine who live here means honest conversations about life, values and spiritual matters. It means holding deep mourning and processing pain with new and old friends. These friendships can take a long time to build, but once trust is established, their roots run deep.

SEND Ukraine desires to build teams that thrive in their communities, deeply impact believers through discipleship, and catalyze passion and resolve for God’s global mission.

Join the SEND team

Ukraine offers opportunities both to reach others for Christ yourself and to equip Ukrainian believers as they develop their own view of and commitment to local and global missions. As you explore becoming a missionary with SEND Ukraine, here are some areas to consider:

• Character:  Do you have a growing love for God, his Word, and others?

• Coachability:  Are you teachable and committed to life-long learning?

• Competence:  What gifts, skills, and experience have you developed?

• Calling:  How do you see God leading you into global service?

• Crisis: Am I processing the reality of living in a country with increased risk?

• Chemistry:  How will you contribute to healthy team community?