“We lost everything. Our plans to buy land, start a business, and plant a church in that area are all gone. For some reason, God allowed all of this to happen.” These are the words from Irina, a close friend of SGA team member Angela, who shares Irina’s story below.
Sometimes we have beautiful plans that get taken away by circumstances outside of our control. For Irina, it was the much-anticipated plans for the birth of their first child. She and her husband prepared, but not near enough for what was to come. The full-scale invasion in Ukraine began just days after their newborn arrived. She and her husband were separated due to COVID restrictions still being in place. After much trial and hardship, they were finally reunited. Now there is a different plan for their lives.
“God is now using their family to preach the Gospel to people who have lived through similar circumstances,” and Irina is continuing to put her trust and hope in God. Today, she lives by the words in Deuteronomy 31:8 . . . He will not fail you or forsake you. As Irina looked back on that very difficult time, she was able to say, ”Yet this whole time, He was near and continues to hold us.” She realized that God had put her in a situation where she needed to trust Him completely.
God does allow trials and difficulties, but He uses those difficulties to draw us closer, and then uses our faithfulness to glorify His name. Please pray for Irina and her family as they continue to serve Him through SGA-supported ministry . . .
Irina is a wife and mother in an internally displaced family from the Kherson region. Here’s her story, two years later down the road, having survived what she didn’t think was even possible.
Irina grew up in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. There were five children in the family, so their Christian mother had her hands full. Going to church was the highlight of her life. “It was a safe and bright haven- unlike the atmosphere with my alcoholic father at home,” Irina recalls. When she was nine years old, her father died, and that same year, she prayed in repentance at church. At 15, she was baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ and became active in different ministries in church, such as worship, theater, camps, and ministry with orphans.
At 26 years old, she opened up her own sewing shop and worked in the business for three years. When she was 29, she met a good Christian brother, Ilya, from Oleshki, Kherson region. He soon became her husband. After they got married, they moved into a house in Oleshki. Two years later, God granted them their first pregnancy. “I thought my pregnancy was difficult,” Irina says. “Back then, I didn’t see the whole picture. I didn’t know how God would break me.”
The happy couple prepared everything for their first baby. Irina sewed clothes and curtains, and together they made up a beautiful baby room, complete with a new bed, stroller and all the things that young parents do in expectation of their little one. On February 18, 2022, Irina went into labor, and they traveled from Oleshki to the hospital in Kherson region, passing a bridge that connected the two cities. It was still COVID- era, so her husband wasn’t allowed to stay with her. The labor was very hard, and Irina was weak with multiple health problems, but their newborn Matthew also got sick. So instead of being discharged and going home, mother and baby had to stay in the hospital and be treated with antibiotics.
Days later, the full-scale invasion began. The city she was in, Kherson, was immediately invaded. Missiles whistled overhead and men with guns appeared outside of the windows. Weak, ill, and without her husband in a hospital with a sick newborn, Irina didn’t know how she would survive. The bridge they had driven on to get to Kherson was constantly bombed and under attack, so there was no way that Ilya could come get her. “My health was terrible, and I was in a lot of pain. I couldn’t sit and I could hardly walk. We’d have to run back and forth to the cold basement, away from the shelling, and two of the newborns died due to the cold temperatures. All we had to eat was stale bread and unsalted porridge, and we all lost many pounds a week. I didn’t sleep for weeks. The new mommas around me would sob—day and night—hold orthodox icons over their babies, and pray over them. I tried to encourage these mothers and find words to pray for them, although I didn’t know how I would make it through myself.” When it was possible to talk on the phone, Ilya called her and said, “We will never be the same.” He’d stood in a long line of people, both rich and poor, all of whom waited hours to get a single loaf of bread.
Irina recalls her last day at the hospital before a local pastor’s family offered their apartment and help. Another newborn had died, and the cold hospital walls were filled with the echoing screams of the young mother mourning the loss of her baby. Emotionally, it was too much to bear. ”If I didn’t put my trust in God, I’m not sure how Matthew and I would make it,” says Irina. Soon, they were able to be together again as a family. In a few days, they took the risk of leaving the occupied region. God saw them through, and they were offered a place to stay in a safe region in Ukraine, where they healed physically, spiritually, and mentally. In some time, they moved to [a different region] and became volunteers in a volunteer church plant (partly supported by SGA) in a region that was previously under occupation. They serve in teen ministry, women’s ministry, and are responsible for different evangelism projects and events in the Kyiv area. God is now using their family to preach the Gospel to people who have lived through similar circumstances.
This family recently got word that the house in which they lived in the Kherson region was flooded by the Kahovka dam explosion and then hit by a missile. Their last hopes of moving back one day have been buried under the rubble of what was left. “We lost everything. Our plans to buy land, start a business, and plant a church in that area are all gone. For some reason, God allowed all of this to happen. Yet this whole time, He was near and continues to hold us. His truth, that we had only read about but never truly experienced before- became real and relevant in life today. Maybe, in the future, I can help someone who went through a really hard time,” Irina says.
Irina is continuing to put her trust and hope in God. Today, she lives by the words in Deuteronomy 31:8 . . . He will not fail you or forsake you.
In a time of great uncertainty, God is bringing help, healing, and hope to the people of Ukraine through SGA-supported pastors, churches, a seminary and SGA-supported Compassion Ministry. Be a part of God’s incredible work with your generosity and prayer support.
Your gift of compassion helps struggling people with emergency aid that generally includes Scripture materials, food, and hygiene supplies.