ODESSA (ABP)—Violence in the Ukraine is up close and personal for a West Texas Baptist church praying for an eight-member mission team working with college students Feb. 13-March 2 in Kiev.
Jesse Gore posted this photo of protests in Kiev’s main square on his Facebook page Feb. 19.Missionaries from First Baptist Church in Odessa were reported safe after clashes between demonstrators and police killed at least 26 people and injured 241 in Kiev’s central Independence Square Feb. 18.
“Fellow pastors and friends, please pray for our FBC Odessa Kiev mission team,” Pastor Byron McWilliams appealed on Twitter. “They are 2 miles from the action, but safe. Prayers are welcome!”
“Please pray for Ukraine!” Missions Pastor Jesse Gore posted on Facebook. “The day brings continued violence on both sides, 20 dead and thousands injured, as we minister here in the city of Kiev.”
Jesse GoreThe U.S. State Department issued a travel alert Feb. 18, urging U.S. citizens in residences or hotels in the vicinity of protests to leave those areas or prepare to remain indoors, possibly for several days.
The protests began Nov. 21, after Ukraine’s government announced it was suspending preparations to sign an agreement with the European Union in exchange for a $15 billion bailout from Russia.
In a daily prayer guide issued prior to the trip, Gore said with large numbers of students from all over the country, Kiev “has become a melting pot between the Ukrainian nationalism in Western Ukraine and the pro-Russian mentality in Eastern Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders agreed to a truce late on Feb. 19 but violence erupted again on Thursday. (Wikipedia Photo)“God could use this revolution against the government to ignite a spiritual revolution which will give the Ukrainian people what they need most—freedom in Christ,” he said on the mission team’s Facebook page. “We ask you to cry out to God for us as we take the revolutionary gospel of Christ to a people searching for freedom.”
“The last thing we need from our friends and family is a sense of panic, and the first thing that we need is a commitment to pray for us and for Ukrainian people,” stated a memo from First Baptist Church quoted by the Associated Press. “May God bless Ukraine, and may he use this crisis to precipitate a spiritual awakening.”
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