Welcome to the Christian Chronicle Podcast. We're bringing you the stories that are shaping Church of Christ congregations and members around the world. Here's our host, BT Irwin.
BT Irwin:Family and friends, neighbors and, most of all, strangers. Welcome to the Christian Chronicle Podcast. May what you are about to hear bless you and honor God. Vitayu. That's Ukrainian for greetings. At least that's Ukrainian in my southern, by way of the Midwest accent.
BT Irwin:This episode is different from our normal format because we are bringing you a report direct from Kyiv, ukraine. Four days before we recorded this, the Christian Chronicles CEO, eric Trigestad, put on his field reporter's hat and made the 15-hour drive from Warsaw, poland, to Kyiv. On the day of this recording, june 9, 2024, he worshiped with the Church of Christ in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, and about an hour before curfew he took a walk out on the city streets and joined us by phone. So what you are about to hear is a report on the Church of Christ in Ukraine direct from Eric himself. You'll also hear from Richard Baggett of the Sunset International Bible Institute, who is there with Eric and Ina Kosminko, a Ukrainian Christian who is serving as their translator. Eric, we are so glad to see you safe and sound in Ukraine. Tell us where are you, how you got there and how long you've been there.
Erik Tryggestad:Sure, well, I'm in a town called Irpin, which is a suburb of Kiev, the capital. It's kind of on the northwest outskirts of Kiev. It's kind of on the northwest outskirts of Kiev, and it was the site of some of the most brutal fighting when the war broke out here a little more than two years ago. There are many buildings here in Irpin that were damaged, including this one behind me. This is the Palace of Culture where they would have plays and musicals, symphonies, during Soviet times, and I'm trying to move my head out of the way there so that you can get a better view. But you can see it's been bombed out and still hasn't been repaired. Some of the buildings have, some of the buildings still have not. We're very close to the city of Bucha, if you go just north of us, which you may remember from the news, was hit very hard. They've actually rebuilt a lot of the houses along the main street there in that city and they're very proud of that and have displayed, you know, here's the pictures of what it looked like during the war and here's after.
Erik Tryggestad:So we've been here since Wednesday, drove in in a van from Warsaw and crossed the border to get over here. Obviously you can't get a flight to Kiev like I used to the many other times I visited. We went through a checkpoint there at the border, obviously, but got in without too much hassle. I think the whole trip ended up taking about 15 hours start to finish. We were at the border for maybe an hour and a half two hours, which is pretty good all things considered, but came down here for the graduation of the Ukrainian Bible Institute.
Erik Tryggestad:That's an institute that's had to move a couple of times at least since 2014, when hostilities really began between the Russians and their invasion of Ukraine really started in 2014, when they seized the Donetsk region in the east and the institute had to move from Donetsk to Kiev. And then, after the war started, several of the folks had to flee to Western Europe, including Brandon Price, the director. So he is now living in Slovakia, which is in a town not too far from the Ukrainian border. They're doing classes remotely, and he came into town for the graduation and told me that there's a lot of people that he had formerly only seen over Zoom, so he wasn't used to seeing them in person. So we're here with my friend and translator, ina Kuzminko.
Erik Tryggestad:Hello, she's one of the ones that actually had to evacuate during those early days of the conflict back in 2014 because she was in Kharkiv and she has been doing a wonderful job as our translator here, and now she lives in the town of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine and came out here to help us with the graduation. There was also a workshop for all of the folks who work in a ministry called Volunteer Brothers, or for all of the folks who are receiving aid from Sunset International Bible Institute, which is affiliated with the Ukrainian Bible Institute, and since the war began, sunset has been collecting funds from brothers and sisters in the US and all over the world to help out in the crisis, and the representatives of churches that received this aid came to the conference, so some of them actually came from Kharkiv. We had some folks also from real, near Don Echst, real, near the front lines of the fighting, and we got to hear some of their stories about how the explosions they don't even notice those or the sirens anymore. It's just like birds chirping.
Ursula Clark:Isn't that what somebody said?
Erik Tryggestad:It's just like birds chirping and they just keep on worshiping and they keep on baptizing and they keep on distributing relief aid. So I'm just so impressed with what we've seen from our brothers and sisters here in Ukraine. So it was a little bit of a training seminar, a little bit of a retreat for them, and then it was also the graduation. So then today I'm contacting you right now we're getting close to 9 pm on Sunday. Contacting you right now we're getting close to 9 pm on Sunday, which means we have about an hour that we can still be outside. Ukraine is still under a 10 pm curfew, so we'll have to go back inside here before too long. But it's summertime so it's nice and it's still light outside. So I figured I could show you a little bit of what's going on here.
Erik Tryggestad:The power has been off and on. Originally, russia's strategy was to come in and take Kiev, which is why there's so much damage right here, close to Kiev. The Ukrainians repelled that invasion and we saw the bridge that they destroyed to keep Russians from getting into town. We saw the cars that were torched, and they've kind of become a makeshift monument to the Ukrainian resistance. That's not too far from here. So Russia changed its strategy then to trying to come in from the east and really concentrate more of the fighting there. However, they are targeting the power infrastructure in Kyiv. So almost all of the buildings you see around here they have generators ready to go.
Erik Tryggestad:The power's kind of been on and off while we've been here. We were blessed to actually have it on for a pretty long period over the last couple of days, but when we first came here they hadn't had power in several days and they were only able to do a couple hours of generator power per day, really in the morning and then at night. So when we arrived they said welcome, get to your room. We're going to have to cut off the generator by 11. So that was our welcome to Ukraine. So that's just kind of in a nutshell what's going on. Ina, could you tell us a little bit about your own story, because you have decided to stay in Ukraine while this is going on instead of going to Europe? If you could tell us a little bit about what drove that decision and what you've been doing since the war started?
Ina Kuzmenko:Yes, I love my country. Yes, yeah, I love my country. I don't want to leave my country because some crazy neighbor wants to free me from something that I didn't ask for. That's why my decision was not to leave my country, and in the beginning of the war, I actually didn't want to leave my harkiv.
Ina Kuzmenko:You know, the city that is located only, like what? 30 kilometers from the border, and of course, we were the first that they hit, you know, and bombing and stuff like that. So I spent 43 days in the basement with my daughter and after those days, when you know like and well, actually, you know like, during that time, we volunteered. We baked bread for everybody, because all these stores were closed, you know, and people didn't have food and we were offered to bake bread just so that volunteers would come and they would take the bread. So we would bake like 300 loaves or more a day and then, you know, they would be taking it to those areas that are. You know that they were bombed more than ours that we stayed and of course, you know everybody was saying that why are you staying in Kharkiv? Move, you know like, you need to evacuate. And when Bucha happened and when we found out what they did, I decided that, oh, I'm sorry, I'm emotional.
Erik Tryggestad:She's been translating all of these emotional stories for us all week, but I guess we've never really talked about your own story.
Ina Kuzmenko:Then, you know, I kind of decided because at that time we didn't know whether they're going to occupy our Harkiv city I decided that I need to take my daughter away from all this. So then we left, finally, and we went to the western part of Ukraine and we are now in Ivano-Frankivsk.
Erik Tryggestad:In Ivano-Frankivsk. There's been some attacks near there as well, so there's really no truly safe place. But I do want to at least dispel a few of the kind of impressions I had. I assumed even in Kiev, air raid sirens would be going off all the time. You know, every place was under fire. It's really not like that. In this part, it really seems like the Russians are content to just try and take out the power grid. In this part, it really seems like the Russians are content to just try and take out the power grid, Although, as I understand it, the air raid sirens came on a few nights ago and we slept through them and they told us that.
Erik Tryggestad:I said what do we do if the air raid sirens come on? They said well, they're not going to hit anything out here, so don't worry about it. We do have a shelter if you need it, and so I didn't even hear it. So that's been a pleasant surprise, I guess. Um, but of course then you hear the stories from all these people that are near to the front lines, and it's affected everyone here, Brad, and that became so obvious this morning when we went to church. We went to the European church of Christ. We had about 35 folks there and it just seems like a normal worship service, and then Richard Baggett here who is working for Sunset. You talked a little bit about Job and what he went through this morning. Can you share a little bit of what the woman said who came up to you after worship and shared some of her own experience, Because I really found that to be moving.
Richard Baggett:Yeah, she talked about her experience, which is like a lot of others, and that her son was in the military and he was one of those that went in early and been fighting all this time, and he has PTSD, and she had some pictures of him and how that's affecting him and of course she became emotional. There were several days when they didn't hear from him. She thought he was dead, but he wasn't. And now he's got this PTSD but he's still fighting, and so that's one story of thousands. And then she's at the church because she's found God, she's found community, she's found hope during these dark times, and so it's been a tremendous help to her and her faith. And of course she, like all the others, is just hoping for a good end to this. That's not clearly in sight right now, but they do have still hope.
Erik Tryggestad:Yeah, and it was really telling that the preacher at the Erpine Church of Christ, richard, spoke today, but usually it's Sergei Shushipshov. It's an interesting last name, shushipshov. Sergei Shushipsh Is the 30 year old minister For the European Church of Christ. His brother, sergei, was called into action. He was preaching for a church and remind me the name of the place, chernigov, which is up near Belarus. It also was the site of some bad fighting in the early days of the war. His brother, dima, was preaching for that church when he was called into military service. His unit disappeared four months ago and they haven't been heard from since. So his brother is missing in action right now.
Erik Tryggestad:And I got him to talk with me a little bit today about what that's been like for him and he's he's real almost kind of a deadpan. You know, serious guy Uh doesn't show a lot of emotion, but at the same time he was very proud of his brother. I did not realize this. His brother came to Christ in prison in a town called Zaprosia I know that's what I did, richard. I was so surprised when he told me that his brother had stolen something, ended up in prison and was converted through a prison ministry. Then he moves to Irpin, starts working with his brother, accepts this assignment up near the border of Belarus before he gets called into the military. And they haven't heard from him.
Erik Tryggestad:I talked to one of the deacons of the congregation yeah, alexander, who knows his brother, who knows Dima, and the way he talked about what a great guy Dima was, how he would do anything for that, and that was the point that I was going to make he didn't actually talk about what a great guy Dima was. He said I'm using the present tense he is a great guy, he is a wonderful man of God, he is willing to help people, and the reason because I'm not, I'm not giving up on him right now. You now he's missing, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to keep referring to him in the present tense. So I thought that was really sweet. But Sergei thanked us for coming from the US and he told me and Richard that he wanted us to have something.
Erik Tryggestad:And he gave me this, which is a patch that Dima actually wore on one of his uniforms. It says Simul Ad Victorium, something to victory. I should have looked up my Latin to find out what S-I-M-U-L means, but I mean, this has been on his actual uniform. You can tell it's a little bit worn. It's one of those removable patches they give to the military now, uh, where if they get distressed, they can take it off and hide their rank and insignia. Um, but wow, I I'm still kind of in awe and stunned.
Richard Baggett:Orphans raised and orphans supported by the church.
Erik Tryggestad:Yeah, exactly, just amazing the power of that guy's story, and we're just hearing that more and more. So it's been an amazing trip here.
BT Irwin:So when was the last time you were there? About a year and a half ago, Eric. Was that the last time?
Erik Tryggestad:April May of 2022 is the last time I was here, and then I only went to, you know, right after the war started. That was April May 2022. And I only went to Ivano-Frankivsk, yeah, then, and Audrey Jackson was with me and we spent a day there with the group called Volunteer Brothers that have been shuttling supplies to the Eastern Front and then shuttling back passengers to get them out of harm's way. They're still doing that. The focus has changed a little bit. We've seen, actually, a micro-trend of Ukrainians coming back from places like Poland and saying you know, if this is the way life is going to be, I'm going to serve here in Ukraine. We don't know what tomorrow holds, so I'm going to come back here and do what I can.
Erik Tryggestad:Another thing that's really affected the Volunteer Brothers this group that has been transporting materials back and forth for the ministry is that Ukraine has changed its registration laws for, and has been drafting people in the military service. A lot of the volunteer brothers have an exemption for the work they do, the number of kids they have for various health reasons, but you have to get that certified by the government and those papers you can understand in the middle of a war are a little slow in coming are a little slow in coming, so some of them have not been able. They've been real reluctant to travel extensively lately because they don't have that paperwork in place in case a military person were to pull them over and say why are you not responding to the draft? A couple of folks at least that were supposed to be at this conference were not able to make it because of those circumstances. Nonetheless, there were still about 100 folks at the conference, which was held in a Christian center in Irpine I think it's run by a Baptist group or something like that.
Erik Tryggestad:We have used it many times before for church events. In fact, I came to a church event here in 2015, a singing school put on by a guy named Stan Bryan, a Christian farmer from northeast Oklahoma who teaches all of these acapella Ukrainian language hymns, and it's just an amazing event. So it was something to be on that campus to see the room that we used where we did all that wonderful singing. It's kind of filled up with humanitarian aid. Right now. There are two giant tents for Samaritan's Purse right across from it and there's a big power generator out next to it as well to keep the lights on at the facility. So that's that. I think that you were asking when the last time I was here was, and so that was 2022. I couldn't remember the question.
BT Irwin:But the last time you were in Kiev was that nine years ago, Is it?
Erik Tryggestad:That would have been that 2015.
BT Irwin:Okay, this is a silly. This may seem like a silly question, but I think you'll understand what I'm asking. How has it changed? And obviously it's wartime right now, but many of the people you've known, so what differences have you noticed in the people in the church and their lives since the last time you were there?
Erik Tryggestad:Well, what's amazed me is the things that haven't changed. One of the things that's really drawn me to Ukraine is that these people you know they have genuine faith, they're very evangelistic and even in the church just last week and we met that lady Her husband had actually been in the middle of the fighting out here. That happened in Irpin. She was in Kiev when it happened. So that hasn't changed at all. And even as dire as the situation has been at times, the Ukrainian sense of humor hasn't changed, which is one of the most endearing qualities that I find.
Erik Tryggestad:At the UBI graduation there were more in jokes and ribbing each other and giving the professors a hard time. It was just that that part of it was really encouraging to see. It's almost like laughter in defiance. Now that you may, you know you can, you can take out our infrastructure, but you're not going to break our spirits. So we see a little bit of that. But there, of course, is an underlying sadness, and so that's there, if anything, I'd say, the gospel message of the stuff that we're living out about the need to, to, to repent, you know, before it's too late, because every time you say goodbye to somebody here, yeah, that's right, because you know, like, when people are facing all these atrocities, you know, and all these hard times, you know, sometimes they have this question what is the sense of my life and why I'm living here?
Ina Kuzmenko:And of course you know they are seeking to find someone who will comfort them. And only God can comfort really, you know, give you this comfort that they are looking for. And that's why you know people. They are coming, you know, to be helped physically, you know, like materially, getting some humanitarian aid, but then you know, when you teach them that it doesn't come from us as human beings, you know, as people, you know it comes from God. Then they start asking okay, who is this God that is caring and loving and helping in such difficult situations? And so they just start coming, you know, to Bible classes, hearing about God, you know, and so the kingdom is growing, which is, you know, great and wonderful.
BT Irwin:Yeah, amen to that. So can you tell us a little bit about you've only been there four days. By my count, it's Sunday, june 9, as we're recording this, and you got there last Wednesday. Have there been any let's call them themes, as you've listened to people talk to you, especially the Christians there in the church, have there been any themes that kind of emerged from what you're hearing over and over again as you listen to the people?
Erik Tryggestad:You know, usually that requires me to go back through my notes after I get back from a place and say, oh wow, this was brought up a lot. So that's kind of the mentality I have. Richard, have you thought about that anything? You're more of a theme guy than I am. Can you think of any themes that have jumped out at you as we've talked to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters over?
Richard Baggett:the last few days. I think you identified that a lot of the major themes are just continuing but they're expanding, Like a lot of the growth of the church is new converts not to the exclusion of the members that were there. So the church is growing and they're really embracing this idea that if we give help in God's name and are genuine about that, that makes connections and open doors that they're really eager to follow up on. They're really eager to follow up on, and so I would say one thing I've noticed is a broadening of the vision of what's now possible in this tragedy and they're really eager to make use of this time. They wish they didn't have to have this time, but now that it's here and they understand the dynamics, they are really stepping into it.
Erik Tryggestad:I'm trying to remember the way that Jim Noyes phrased it. Yesterday we visited Jim and Marina Noyes. Jim is 89 years old. He is a farmer from Oklahoma who married Marina, a Ukrainian, and they've been together 23 years.
Erik Tryggestad:And he moved out to Kiev. They fled when this happened and then he came back and something may have bitten me on the leg, Anyway, but so, yeah, they came back recently and we talked to him and he it was so funny that in the middle of all this trauma I don't know how many times he kept talking about blessings. And we're so blessed that this is the situation. We're so blessed that we live on the first floor of our building. In cases you know cause I don't move fast in case we need to, you know, if there's a missile strike or something like that, Um and I I, when he prayed with us, it was like he basically said Lord, we don't know what you're doing here, but we know you're up to something and we're eager to see you know this, this work to your will, whatever that is.
Erik Tryggestad:So that's kind of a theme that I, and I've sensed that about this as well. We talk a lot about what you intended for evil God was able to use for good, and we see a lot of good coming out of this terrible situation. It's real easy for me to say when I get to go back home to the US, you know, but I just sense that you know God is not done with this situation yet. Just sense that you know god is not done with the situation yet and, uh, I every the thing that I've noticed about the ukrainians is that they've just taken punch after punch and they keep getting back up and they laugh and they love each other and when the lights go out, they worship in the dark and that's just kind of that's. That's the theme that I've seen over and over.
Ina Kuzmenko:Okay, can I share my theme?
BT Irwin:Sure, please do.
Ina Kuzmenko:Ukrainians have. I think that you know, patience is something that people are learning, you know, because quite often we want it now and we want, of course, this war to be over today. You know this second, but I think that people come to a realization that, you know, everything is in God's hands and God is in control and he has His timing. So we just need to be patient and we just need to rely on God, you know, and keep on going, and, of course, humor is our weapon. We are using humor to, you know, encourage each other, to, you know like, be strong in the circumstances. But I think that you know patience and you know like, in the Bible it says that you know you should not worry about tomorrow, that you know you should live, you know, one day at a time. So this is what we learned how to leave one day at a time, like God commanded us to do, and I think that's one of the themes too.
Erik Tryggestad:That's good.
Richard Baggett:We had an incredible conversation with the lady. That's good. Yeah, we had an incredible conversation with the lady as we were walking out of the hotel to come here and do this podcast. You and I were just talking with the lady at the desk in the hotel and they had quite a conversation, real short. She knew who we were because she had received aid when her house was bombed out oh, my goodness, wow. And she knows the people at the local church. She knows the people at the church in this other town. We had no idea We'd seen her working. We talked to her, but that came up, and so the church has a great and growing reputation, by the way, that it's helping and conducting itself, and she happened to be one of the recipients and we didn't even know it.
Erik Tryggestad:Sunset, I should say, has been doing incredible work, collecting funds and helping. A lot of it was just kind of need-based and emergency-based. The ministry now is going to transition into kind of a next phase of what do we do? And they're still collecting funds. There's still ways and we can put links to that, to the, the global relief mission although they don't, they just may call it something different going forward, um, and we'll be writing about that, you'll. You'll see that more in the pages of the christian chronicle in the months to come uh.
BT Irwin:So last thing, eric. Uh, how much longer are you going to be there before you leave?
Erik Tryggestad:tomorrow. Uh, we're headed out tomorrow morning, uh, and and we'll still be uh, headed back to Warsaw and talking to some of the refugees there that are doing amazing work and baptizing folks. We uh met some of them just before the we came out here, so our mission here is not over yet. Um, we're going to have to say temporary goodbye and pray that we'll be able to come back and this will all be over.
BT Irwin:So by the time that people hear this, you'll be in Poland from the sound of it, lord willing. You know I don't take anything for granted.
Erik Tryggestad:That's one thing that 20 years of working at the Chronicle has taught me. That's one thing that 20 years of working at the Chronicle has taught me. You don't you know. If the Lord wills it, our podcast listeners will hear this and I'll be back in Western Europe. So who knows? But who knows what tomorrow holds?
BT Irwin:all right. So last question this, this could be for all three of you. I just checked and so the this podcast has an audience in all 50 states and as are listening to this, all over the world.
Erik Tryggestad:Just well, you know, my first message is keep praying for peace and pray for justice. Brandon Price, director of the Ukrainian Bible Institute, said don't just pray for Ukraine. Make your prayers very specific. Let the Ukrainians have a peaceful night tonight, Let them experience joy, Let them find justice. Your will be done. Please bring this to a speedy resolution. You know the specific prayers are what Brandon asked for, and that's a theme that I keep going through. Nina, do you have anything you want?
Ina Kuzmenko:to add. I think that it's just. I mean amen, that's what we need Prayers, prayers, prayers. Because without prayers, you know, and without God's support, I don't think that you know, we will survive. So we need prayers of all people all around the world, of all the Christians.
Erik Tryggestad:Anything you want to add, Richard.
Richard Baggett:Just tag on what you said, but just to pray that we can see what God's doing through all this, and that's a big thought. But God's big and he is doing something and this is right, involved, very involved in that. Okay, big and he is doing something and it's this is right, involved, very involved in that.
BT Irwin:Okay, so how do you say the lord bless you and keep you in ukrainian?
Ina Kuzmenko:you're gonna need some help here okay, amen, very nice amen.
BT Irwin:That was the christ Chronicles' own, eric Trigestad, along with Richard Baggett of the Sunset International Bible Institute and Inna Kuzmenko, their translator, who is a member of the Church of Christ in Ivano-Frankivsk, ukraine.
BT Irwin:In the show notes we'll add some links to the Christian Chronicles coverage of the church in Ukraine, as it is now well into its third year enduring war. We'll also add links to the Sunset International Bible Institute's efforts to come alongside and support the church in Ukraine. So you can be part of that if God so moves you. We pray that God blessed you through what you heard today. If you received that blessing and you want to pass it on, please pray for this ministry and do us a favor or two. Subscribe to this podcast and then share it with a friend, recommend and review it on whatever podcast service you use, and send us your comments, ideas and suggestions at podcast at christianchronicleorg. If you feel fuller or richer or wiser because of something you heard today, please pay it forward. Make a tax-deductible gift to the Christian Chronicle. Just click on the link in the show notes or go to christianchronicleorg slash donate to make your gift now. Until next time, may grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Ursula Clark:The Christian Chronicle podcast is a production of the Christian Chronicle Incorporated May grace and peace be yours in abundance, jr and President and CEO Eric Triggistad. The Christian Chronicle podcast is produced, written, directed and hosted by BT Irwin and is recorded, edited and engineered by James Flanagan at Podcast your Voice Studios in Southfield, michigan, detroit, usa.