Christian persecution is real. Warfare in the Ukraine is real.
Just ask Ukrainian Pastor Elisey Pronin.
Pronin visited Mid-Missouri this week as a respite from his war-torn country, where his church building was burned out by separatists. He shared his story with local pastors and congregations in the hopes of building support as his nation attempts to heal.
A thriving congregation with an expanding outreach mission, Revival Church was the largest Evangelical church in the Lugansk region of the Ukraine.
They also were helping to plant a new church in a nearby village, which had grown to about 30 members, until the invasion. The First Baptist Church of Jefferson City was also supporting the new church plant and continues to provide for the young pastor while he is displaced in his work, Pastor Doyle Sager said.
Neither Pronin or Sager who has also worked in Ukraine, would now be allowed to return to their ministries in that eastern part of the country.
When the first pro-Russian occupation soldiers arrived in Pervomaysk, they targeted Evangelical Christians and churches with violence and threats of destruction, Pronin said. Within months, they had followed through and a beautiful sanctuary had become black rubble.
"It was real persecution," Pronin said. "Because I have been in the United States, they think I'm an American spy."
Today, in the areas under separatist rule, all Evangelical churches are illegal, he said.
"There was not only war, not only attitude; I felt scared," Pronin said.
Pronin's wife Oksana and their children Viola and David moved to a refugee camp in central Ukraine as Russian separatist activity increased in June 2014. Pronin and a few deacons remained in Pervomaysk to assist with evacuation.
"For 12 days, the area was without electricity, gas and water. Bombing and shelling was a daily event in Pervomaysk," Pronin said. "It was dangerous; thousands died."
Revival Church was burned by the Russian separatists in August and the church body has dispersed.
"Pervomaysk has suffered great destruction; approximately 90 percent of the town has been damaged by war," Pronin said. "It is now an uninhabitable city."
Pronin, who published eight books already, nearly has finished his firsthand account of the devastation of his homeland in "Chronicles of the Undeclared War." He hopes to find a publisher soon and have it in the hands of both English- and Russian-speaking readers.
A Kansas church invited him and his family to come to the the United States to rest and recover while he prayed and sought direction for their next step in ministry. They arrived in November.
Since then, Pronin was offered a professorship at the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in western Ukraine. They will return in July.
However, the culture will be very different, despite being in the same national boundaries.
"It's like two different worlds - east and west," Sager said. "It's like New England is not the same as southern California."
Sager has traveled several times to eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Belarus. And through the Future Leadership Foundation (FLF), his congregation has stayed informed about mission work in that area.
Pronin and Sager had not met, despite working on the same church plant in recent years. After Pronin's week here, Sager expects First Baptist will develop a long-term relationship with this ministry in the Ukraine.
"I repented at age 18; all my life, I've only had one sense for my life - God's call for me to ministry," Pronin said.
Pronin and his family are being hosted at different Missouri churches during their four-week stay.
"People here appreciate and are touched when I share my story," Pronin said.
He will preach at First Baptist Church Sunday at 8:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. services.
Many places have collected offerings to help the Pronin family in their new life, after they lost everything in the place they called home. Some churches have collected clothes and items to help the more than 2 million refugees.
"Because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin took Crimea, he needs the roads and access (of eastern and southern Ukraine)," Pronin said.
Once an industrial and manufacturing area, the region "is empty, it looks like a robbery," he said.
More importantly, Pronin observed, their home was to serve as an example for Putin's authority. Ukrainians wanted freedom from government corruption and dictatorship, he said.
Propaganda from the eastern Ukrainian destruction is now used to scare other populations away from resistance, he said.
Despite the loss they have suffered, Pronin and his family remain sure in their faith.
"It has been tough, scary and hard; but it should be," he said. "It is the best proof you are truly Christian."
Pronin never doubted God.
"It does not matter what happens around you - war, being targeted, persecution," Pronin said "It is about God's love and only Jesus Christ's sacrifice that we can be sure of."
With the religious liberty and opportunities Americans enjoy, Sager said, "we take so much for granted."
"This is a good reminder, a good wake-up call."
Call 573-634-3603 or email to [email protected] for more information.
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