Ukraine missionaries share experiences at Bollinger County church event

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Seats started filling up 30 minutes before Dan and Lori Upchurch were scheduled to speak Sunday evening at County Line Baptist Church near Marble Hill.

The Bollinger County natives, who have spent years as missionaries in Ukraine, but now reside in Poland, because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, are in the United States for two months this summer updating people and churches about the situation in Ukraine and their ministry to Ukrainians.

"In our first month back in the USA, we have already spoken at six events and engaged in many individual conversations about Ukraine," Dan Upchurch said. "We have been speaking to various groups and encouraging them to pray for Ukraine and Ukrainians and to give to help support the refugees and internally displaced people."

He and his wife live in a small apartment in Zory, Poland, -- 75,000 inhabitants of whom 10% were already Ukrainians before the war started.

"We travel around western Poland ministering to various groups of Ukrainian refugees in about a two-hour radius," Upchurch said. "There have been over 1.5 million such refugees within this radius; however, the number keeps changing as some return back to Ukraine and new ones cross into Poland. We also send support back into our partners in Ukraine."

He pointed out that the vast majority of the refugees in Poland are not living in refugee camps.

"The Polish people have been very generous and either have the Ukrainians living with them or have provided simple homes and apartments where they can live," Upchurch said. "However, some are still being housed in places like bankrupt malls. We will return to Poland when we leave the USA and will continue to work with refugees there and internally displaced persons in Ukraine along with our Ukrainian and Polish partners."

He said most of the refugees in Poland are grouped in the large metropolitan centers of Poland with Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Wroslaw and Gdansk leading the way in total numbers.

"Some of the refugees are living in large group complexes. They are not living in tents," Upchurch said. "Ukrainians love the outdoors and love to be in large groups, but they need walls and roofs. Almost all of the refugees with which we are presently working are living with Polish families. However, more long-term solutions need to be found. Some of the churches are trying to get them into simple apartments and helping them find employment. Poland changed its laws very early in March to allow refugees to be able to immediately seek work and has provided a small stipend for them. The biggest challenges for the Ukrainian refugees in Poland are emotional and spiritual rather than physical. Almost 90% of these refugees are women and children. Almost all men 18 to 60 years old are forbidden from leaving Ukraine at this time, just in case they are needed for military service."

Since the fall, the talk of an invasion by Russia had been growing, but Upchurch said he never expected it to occur.

"Due to the growing risk, the U.S. embassy recommended that all Americans leave the country in late January," he said. "In response to this, our organization required us to leave on Jan. 28. When we received word that we had to evacuate, we only had 48 hours to do so. So we hurriedly packed up all of our belongings and moved them into one room of the apartment we were renting, threw what we could into two checked luggage-sized and two carry on-sized suitcases and headed out of the country. On Feb. 24, when the attack came, we were safely in another country due to the care of our organization, but the news of the invasion of our beloved country where we have lived 12 years shook us to our core. The nightmare had begun for our beloved Ukrainians."

Over the past few months, Upchurch said he has seen again and again the principle discussed in Genesis 50:20 realized: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

"Despite this horrible war, God is touching lives and bringing hope to Ukrainians both in Ukraine and in the other countries to which they have been scattered," Upchurch said. "Sixteen million out of 43 million of them have been forced to leave their homes either short term or for all time. But God has not left them or forsaken them. He has cared for them. Many Ukrainians are sincerely turning to the Lord in this time and finding new life and hope in him."