More Prayer Points for the Ukrainian Church and Have You Heard of "The Chicken Kiev Speech?"

Ever Heard of "The Chicken Kiev" Speech? It presents an interesting historical context to the present conflict in Ukraine

The Slavic Gospel Association gives you several points of prayer and the perspective of the Ukrainian Church in the midst of the crisis:  

Prayer Update: Heartbreaking Violence in Odessa

Prayer requests excerpted from the article: 

Odessa Theological Seminary, pic courtesy of SGA

Odessa is home to the Slavic Gospel Association-sponsored Odessa Theological Seminary, as well as SGA missionaries

According to Pastor Pavel . . . Odessa’s Christians are mourning. They have united in prayer for peace and stability, calling people to forgive and love like Jesus Christ, and they ask fellow believers around the world to pray for the country. In addition, Pastor Valery Antonyuk (first vice president of the Ukrainian UECB and a graduate of the SGA-sponsored Irpen Biblical Seminary) wrote to me to share several needs experienced by missionary pastors across the country. For their security, I am not reporting their full names or specific locations.

In the Lugansk region (eastern Ukraine where the tensions have been the highest), the Regional Association of Churches needs help for missionary pastors who have large families. 

Sergei is a young brother who works at a mine and serves as acting pastor in a church of 18 people. He has six small children, and three of them are foster children. 

Oleg pastors a church of 44 members, and the congregation was planted in the village through a drug rehabilitation ministry. He and his wife have five small children. 

Another example is Victor, pastor of an 80-member church. But he is also planting several other churches in his region simultaneously. 

Another faithful pastor has four children, but is disabled with several fingers on his left hand missing, so he cannot do many things physically.

The Ukrainian Baptist Union is setting up teams of 4-5 men who will be a mobile group—an immediate reaction force—for the purpose of helping churches, ministers, and believing Christian families in the hot spots in the East. 

We also want to help families from Crimea who have migrated to the Ukrainian mainland as refugees, and military men who have been wounded in the fighting. 

We are praying for help with travel, food for distribution, and other needs for families affected by the turmoil.

Ukrainian troops intensify fight in east
PUBLISHED BY GREG YODER ON MAY 6, 2014

Excerpts from the article:

Russian Ministries Sergey Rakhuba says Russia claims these people are Russian Ukrainian citizens who support Russia, “But, all of a sudden they are in possession of heavy arms equipment, so there’s lots of concern this is not a separatist movement. This is the informal war against a neighboring country on behalf of Russia.”

In the city of Odessa, nowhere near the eastern part of Ukraine, pro-Russian demonstrators stormed police headquarters on Sunday and won the release of 67 people detained after deadly riots there. However, Ukrainian forces counter attacked.

38 people died in the battle. Rakhuba says, this too, appears to be Russian initiated. “15 people were foreign citizens. 10 of them were Russian citizens [emphasis mine].”

“People cannot travel as they used to [as they're] afraid for their lives. In eastern Ukraine, our young leaders are delivering thousands of pieces of Scripture to Ukrainian troops that are waiting for a potential Russian invasion.” Pro-Russian separatists are armed and dangerous.