Escaping From Home!
How One Russian Missionary and His Wife Escape Ukraine
Editor’s Note: Nickolay, the Russian author of this story, was a professor in Russia who came to Jesus through the ministry of OMS missionary Buddy Gaines. He is also a friend of many current OMS missionaries. He now serves with Evangelism Explosion in Ukraine. We have chosen not to edit the story and share it just as he wrote it.
If somebody would tell me a couple of months ago, that my wife Olga and I will be running under explosions of bombs and missiles around, escaping from our home in Irpen, near Kiev, Ukraine, I would just smile at this not so funny joke. Then it happened on the 6th of March!
I am writing this letter on March 25th at 5:10 p.m. in the city of Khmelnitsky in the Western part of Ukraine. My wife Olga is near me in a room. We thank the Lord so much, He has helped us escape from Irpen, where the war is still very active. The city is mostly ruined, and many people were killed.
It is interesting that March 6th I woke up at 5 a.m. with a clear thought we must leave our home today and there is a way to do it. I did not know how or where we would go, but I believe God was talking to me. My thought was to visit Irpen Bible Church (IBC), which was located a mile from our house. I was sure, somebody should be in the Church and help somehow, but I could not go out from a house until 8 a.m. because according to a martial law, we must stay at home from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. So, at 8 a.m. I went to IBC and saw some people. They informed me that I must walk ASAP to a village Romanovka, two miles from Irpen toward Kiev, cross a bombed bridge over Irpen River where buses should be waiting at 10 a.m. to take the people to Kiev central railway station and then by trains to Western part of Ukraine.
I returned and informed Olga that we have just 15-20 minutes to get ready to leave our home and almost run 2.5 miles while bombs were falling around. Both of us are not young anymore and, as you can imagine, that news was very disturbing for Olga. In fact, it was a shock news, but praise the Lord, very soon we were running and walking through the city and open field... Making a long story short, with a great help of some people we were able to run this distance, cross Irpen River, under a bombed bridge and got on to the bus, which took us to Kiev railway station. It is a miracle we could do it is such a short time, especially knowing that Olga cannot even walk fast, and I was after hernia surgery… It is just by the mercy of our God.
You know, our Lord works through people. He sent to us some people to help. Without them we would not be able to make this way to a bus.
In internet you can find a video with people, who are crossing Irpen River through bombed bridge to get to safety. But not all of them could do it… Some were under explosions…
Thousands of people were waiting on trains at Kiev station. These trains were taking them to Western Ukraine. Soon we got on a train, which was going to the city of Lvov (Lviv), but our destination should be the city of Khmelnitsky, between Kiev and Lvov. I have a niece there and she had a place for us to stay.The train was packed. People were sitting on a floor, standing in passageways, but we were able to get sits. You can see a picture above with us on this train. Usually, a train goes to Lvov through Khmelnitsky, but not this time. It was evacuation train that was going nonstop… So, all of us were going only to Lvov. It was a long 12 hours trip. Usually, it takes just seven hours. I was sitting and thinking… Many different people were around, different lives, but now it looked like we all got one life and one purpose - just escape from bombs and missiles. All other things became very unimportant, and our previous life was gone. For me it was the first and extraordinary experience in my life to see how lives of thousands and millions of people were changed so sharply and dramatically.
What is our life? What do we value most about it? What purposes we have for it? Many people around the world just want to have a long and comfortable life for themselves and their families. Many want to influence others; many strive for power and money… Some want to be on the top of a society. It is understandable, we are human beings.
But the problem is: WE ARE NOT JUST HUMAN BEINGS! We are creatures and GOD IS OUR CREATOR! We carry inside us His image and He made us for His purpose to glorify Him and He tells us how we should do it, how we should live!
Many people forget about it and if something bad happens to them, they find reasons to blame somebody for it. These days I heard how some people in our town and on a train were crying out why God allowed this to happened. In fact, they blamed God!
I think this war between Ukraine and Russia is not just a local war. It will strongly influence many, many countries around the world. Every war comes to an end eventually. This war also would finish at some point. After it the world would not be the same. I do not know what it would be. Only God knows. My constant prayer and hope that many, many people in a changed world would know God and follow Him! This is the real purpose for any human being on the Earth.
Making a long story short, God was so merciful to us that He sent us some great people who helped to find shelter for a short sleep in Lvov and a car, which took us to the city of Khmelnitsky.
Now we are in this peaceful city. All the stores are opened and full of food… All our extended families also are in safe places.
I must share about one miracle story. In the morning of March 18th our youngest son Alexander (Sasha) and his family (wife Lena, eight years old son Ivan and Ludmila, mother-in-low) were able to cross the border with Romania. According to a recent Ukrainian law it is prohibited for all men, age 18-60 to leave the country. They must join the army. The big challenge for Sasha and us is, that his wife Lena 18 months ago had a surgery to brain cancer and last several weeks Lena’s health got much worse. She was under a big stress as she could not get any medical care in Ukraine because of the war.
We could not believe, but on March 16th our parliament voted a new law, according to it a husband can leave Ukraine if he has an invalid wife, and she needs medical care. It is exactly Sasha’s case, made for him and Lena and they were allowed to leave Ukraine. Now they are in Istanbul, Turkey.
They did an MRI and neurosurgeon in Istanbul clinic said she needs urgent surgery, because tumor started to grow into central nervous system.
It was one more miracle that God has provided all that was needed to do an urgent surgery. It was done on Friday, and you can see Lena and Sasha in a hospital room (above) after the operation in which 98% of the tumor was removed. Now Lena would need radio and chemo therapies.
Heavy fighting is still going on in our home city of Irpen. It is because Irpen is in a strategic place to block Kiev from North-West. From Irpen to downtown of Kiev, it is just 15 miles by car.
We do not know if our home is still ok or if it was already bombed. I have found several pictures on the Internet with buildings that are very near our house, about 60-90 yards, which have been victims of the war. I could not see my house though.
We left home with just passports, a laptop and several small things, but here, far away from our home, in Khmelnitsky, we are getting many different things for our life. God provides! On the above picture you can see us in a Red Cross Center. They brought for refugees clothing, shoes, blankets, sheets. So we were able to get some.
It is interesting, how God reminds us, that all our treasures are on Heaven, not on the Earth!
We can have many things on the Earth, but we can lose everything in a moment. It will be not dramatically for us, if all these properties are not our treasures and we do not attach to them.
Frankly speaking, some days after escaping, I was spiritually and emotionally suppressed. I thought, how we will survive with Olga, when we lose everything, no joyful retirement, just time of uncertainty… Now I am recovering and God’s words “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away…” are moving from my head to my heart!
We have questions: “Why this war came? Who is guilty?” I think, people in different countries can give different answers. I am sure the root of these dramatic events is a human sin. Our world is full of horrible sins! Right now, as Christians we can do several main things: appeal to the Lord, share the Gospel and help people physically. In Eurasia we have new opportunities to share the Gospel. People in many countries of Eurasia becoming much more sensitive to the Good News, because Russia deep crises influences them.
Thank you very much for your constant prayers for us! GOD ANSWERS!
Blessings, yours in Him, Nickolay and Olga