Ukraine Update: TWR’s Ukrainian partners evacuate Kyiv area

UPDATE: February 26, 2022

Dear friends and supporters of TWR:

Thank you for continuing to pray for TWR’s partners in the Ukraine. Scripture says the prayer of a righteous man has great power (James 5:16), and your prayers have a powerful effect during this grave situation.

We are endeavoring to keep you as up to date as possible so that your prayer efforts may be well-informed. Because of security concerns, we are not sharing the names of the individuals involved nor photos that have been taken, but God knows who they are, and he sees them.

As of late Saturday, Feb. 26, all of those in our Ukrainian team are alive and accounted for. After taking refuge in the basement of a home near Kyiv in precarious circumstances, they took advantage of a time of relative calm and peace to move farther away.

Our team leader and most of his colleagues traveled 300 km (about 185 miles) in 15 hours to a place of relative safety. While recovering from their ordeal, they are working to produce short devotions for social media that also can be turned into audio files. They want to provide some sort of comfort to their people. This work depends on the internet and electricity holding up.

One team member was given the group’s bus so that his mother, who is very ill, could be transported lying down. They traveled about three hours farther away from the city, but during a video call with them on Saturday, constant gunshots were heard. The team member said that because of his children, he couldn’t stay near Kyiv any longer.

Meanwhile, supplies have been delivered to TWR’s partners in Belarus. Their situation also is unsafe.

The latest media reports indicate that huge numbers of people are leaving Ukraine, with women and children waiting up to 27 hours in line to cross into neighboring Moldova.

How you can pray:

• Please continue to lift up our team in Ukraine. Pray for safety, wisdom, the peace that comes only from God and the ability to withstand the strain they are experiencing. Ask that electricity and internet connections will hold up so they can deliver messages of hope and comfort to their people.
• Pray particularly for the team member whose mother is ill and who is caring for his children and remains dangerously close to the fighting.
• Remember our friends and all believers in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Countries may be divided by war, but Jesus followers are united as part of a much greater Kingdom.
• Pray for those who have been casualties of war, and for their families and loved ones.
• Ask God for a rapid and honorable resolution to this conflict, and that many will turn to him during this difficult season.