April 25, 2024

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Tag: Ukraine

Surveys: Small Effort – Much Fruit
Mission Methodologies

Surveys: Small Effort – Much Fruit

Sometimes a small amount of effort can yield much information and fruit. In making decisions, and especially when we are making decisions about large amounts of money, we want to have accurate and up-to-date information. When we are dealing with a huge international crisis impacting tens of millions of people, it is hard to know where to look for information that we can trust. A survey of those whom we already know and trust is a great place to start. Mission organizations often do not recognize how simple it really can be to conduct such a survey. When the current phase of the war in Ukraine started in February 2022, SEND created a Help Ukraine Fund and assembled a Eurasia Emergency Response Team. The team quickly put structures in place that would effectively and efficiently distribute donated funds. Our goal was to have maximum impact for the Kingdom by working… Read the whole post
Alfie Mosse9 mins read
Does the spread of the gospel require a time of peace?
Hardship, Gospel, Resilience

Does the spread of the gospel require a time of peace?

Many of our readers know that my wife and I were missionaries based in Ukraine until shortly before the war broke out in that country. In another post, I have written about how I realized that we were in fact refugees. Since then, I have been praying daily for the war to end and for the restoration of peace in this country. Although a few expatriate missionaries remain in the country, most like us, have returned to their home countries or relocated to another country, often to work with Ukrainian refugees. We think it would be better for the work of missions if the country was free from the suffering, destruction and loss of life that war brings. If the war would only end, we could once more focus on the work of the kingdom. Before the war, my mission organization focused on equipping and sending Ukrainians out as cross-cultural… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
A different understanding of boundaries
Cultural learning, Learning Attitude

A different understanding of boundaries

A Gentle Word to Those Wanting to Help Ukrainian Refugees Editor’s note: Julie Mosse and her husband Alfie have spent many years working as cross-cultural workers in Ukraine. Recently, they spent a few months in Poland, helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing the military conflict in their own country. Recently, I sat with one beautiful Ukrainian church worker in a little cafe in Krakow, Poland. She loves Jesus, is a seminary mission program graduate, and has a wealth of ministry and cross-cultural experience. Currently she is also a refugee from the war in Ukraine, having fled Odessa with her mom, sister, and tiny nephew.1 See another blog post about refugees from Ukraine. She works with a local Ukrainian church which, like all of these churches, is flooded – with people, with needs, with decisions, and with opportunities.   Weary leaders The leaders of these Ukrainian diaspora churches are doing everything they can to… Read the whole post
Julie Mosse2 mins read
I am a refugee: reflections of a missionary leaving Ukraine
Photo by a colleague from the Ukraine-Poland border. February 26, 2022
Cross-Cultural Living, Hardship, Resilience

I am a refugee: reflections of a missionary leaving Ukraine

I am a missionary who is also a war refugee. I came to that realization a couple of days ago. My wife and I are Canadian citizens but residents of Ukraine. Or at least we were until about a month ago. We have our Ukraine temporary residency cards, recently renewed. Our home for the past 12 and a half years has been in the city of Kyiv. This has been the longest we have lived in any country or in any home since we got married and left for the Philippines almost 35 years ago. Now we are “back” in Canada. Because of the current war in Ukraine, we do not know for how long. In the past week, I have experienced many different and sometimes conflicting emotions. I am thankful to God that we were given sufficient warning and were able to leave Ukraine before the fighting began. But… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
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