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Latest Developments in the Conflict between Ukraine and Russia · Centrally Speaking

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Centrally speaking, it is the central strength of the church's publicity.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks about issues that would be of interest to our society.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, it addresses how a Christian worldview intersects with Western secular culture.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of the church's family, we take the perspective of the middle way, which is in agreement with the historic Christian Church.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Dr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Drake Williams, Minister of Mission and Theology of the Church.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Our website is www.cscfamily.org.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're talking today about the latest developments in the conflicts between Ukraine and Russia.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: And we're very fortunate to have Dirk Smith with us today, who's with the Eastern European Mission and has been serving with them for 12 years.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: Dirk oversees fundraising and marketing efforts and with operations here in the United States.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: He's an experienced presenter and storyteller, and he loves sharing stories about what God is doing through Eastern European Mission.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: Dirk would uh is familiar with the uh area we're uh I'm recording today in uh in the Philadelphia area.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: He's uh lived in Collegeville and in Sounderton.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: And uh he has a lovely family.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: He uh lives in the Nashville area and is dad to uh three adult children.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: He was married to a beautiful uh wife uh named Wendy, who he was with for 34 years.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um Wendy battled ALS for four years and went to her arrest uh just um earlier this year.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: And darkly send along our uh sincere sympathies uh with that.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: But uh I was so thankful that uh you could join us uh to talk about uh what's happening in East Europe.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Drake.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's good to good to be with you.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's uh little feeling of home when I saw the Schwenkfelder come up.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: I went, hey, I know where that building is.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, I was born in born in Philadelphia, so um it's uh and there are a lot of us here in the Nashville area.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of fun, you know.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: When we're when I wear my Eagles hat, I hear go birds from lots of people.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's fun.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, it's good to be with you and and uh it is um I'm I appreciate the opportunity to to share with you.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we're very appreciative of you being able to share some of uh the latest stories uh in uh in Ukraine.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um I've been there, uh of course you've been uh there multiple times.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: So can you tell us about the nature of your contacts in Ukraine, uh uh what they're doing, and uh what's happened happening with them in uh this time of conflict?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is trying.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's of course the it's fallen out of the headlines, you know, for the most part, and uh it which is really very sad because there are so many hurting people there.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, I've been there multiple times and have lots of very, very good friends there.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: But uh the contacts on the ground, as you all know, and you're probably reading, there's somewhere in the area of 17 million who are either refugees or IDPs, as they're called, internally displaced people.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So about uh at minimum 11 million are IDPs.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So these are people that are living in the country, but not in their homes.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: So they don't have their stuff, they're in basements, they're in wherever they can find a space to sleep.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been a long time.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's two years.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're coming up on two years on this thing, and it's just an extremely painful process for them because as this war rages on, as with so many wars we're seeing today, they're just not they're not tactical military focused wars.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's just evil.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, bombs being dropped on hospitals and being dropped on on food lines.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we heard a story just the other day of people lining up to receive humanitarian aid.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, this is a targeted strike, it's not like this was shrapnel that was falling from, you know, which that happens, of course, and that's just that's gonna happen.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we often don't think about that when missiles are are fired.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: They can fire a patriot missile to to take it out, but then shrapnel's got to fall somewhere, and it's it's heavy.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, this was a direct strike on a on a grocery store.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what's that about?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it is, it's um they're living, their resolve is something that is absolutely uh encouraging and admirable.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't understand it, honestly.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but there's also so many that have left the country never to return.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and I get it, I understand.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're scratching their head and saying, What am I, what would I come back to?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And when would this when would my home be rebuilt?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Who's gonna rebuild it?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like there's it's not like there's an insurance organization that uh that will rebuild for them.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: So so many are coming here, they're going to Germany, they're they're going on to Western uh Europe and and just leaving the country, which is sad because these are bright, intelligent people who would be wonderful contributors to the nation of Ukraine going forward.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, just thinking geographically where some of your contacts are.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um some in Kyiv, uh the capital city, um some in Lviv.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um Yeah, we've got them.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Drake, we've got them all over the place.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: We've got them in Kyiv, got them in Lviv, we've got them all the way.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we're right up against the the war line.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, right, right where it's happening.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: So Dnieper and and uh Kershan, I mean, lots of those areas that have really taken taken quite a few hits.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but yeah, our our contacts are are literally all over the the nation.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh our church, I know, would be particularly interested in the Zaporizha area.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one of the things that kept us, and I don't know, uh, you know, for people who are watching or listening, so the nature of our ministry, uh, so we started in 1961, started with seven couples who were in their 20s who decided to go and teach people about Jesus behind the Iron Curtain, as it was known at the time.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And when they got there, the guy who I really credit with being the entrepreneur for Jesus, he realized this is an impossible task.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have Bibles in their language.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: How do we do this?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that really changed things and got them to be printing.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then we were Bible smugglers and worked with others other smugglers and were the provider for smugglers.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the wall comes down.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now today we publish, print, and distribute Bibles and Bible-based materials uh last year into 35 different countries, 26 different languages.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but one of the things in Ukraine that has kept us very busy about 11 years ago, there a regional minister of education came to us and said, Hey, we need Bibles for our public school.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we said, Okay, tell us about that.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they were teaching an elective called Christian Ethics, and they needed Bibles.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that's our we are we are really just non-denominational, and it's just the Bible, and uh, that's what they needed.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: They they couldn't have anything else in it, which it it worked perfect.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so that started about 11 years ago, and right before the war broke out, we had put Bibles in over three-fourths of the public schools in the nation of Ukraine.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, and that it really grew because uh after a short period of time, and this was really when Potoshenko was coming in as the president, he got a report, and he noticed that in the regions where the Bible was being taught, the discipline problems were going down and the test scores were going up.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't believe he's a believer.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: At least he wasn't at the time.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna say that he's not now, but he's pragmatic and he said, Well, good grief if that's what's doing it.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do this across the whole country.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that has really grown.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've seen other countries now watching that, and uh, so that's happening now in Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: We just finished a huge project in North Macedonia to provide 450,000 Bibles for their schools.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um uh God is God's on the move.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: He is He is working in hearts.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: Can you uh share some more about uh East Ukraine and uh the contacts that you have there?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: And thinking maybe first of their history.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um I you have contacts with Baptists, you have uh contacts with Pentecostals, uh, with the Orthodox uh in East Ukraine.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: All the above.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all the above.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we uh I'll tell you, Drake, it's it's fantastic in all of my travels over to Eastern Europe.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: I am continually struck by the lived out reality of Jesus' prayer in John 17.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: I sit at tables with an Orthodox priest, a Catholic priest, Pentecostal pastor, evangelical pastor, Protestants, I mean, just you know, non-denominational groups, all together, all focused on one thing.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get the Bible into the hands of our people.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so much of it is focused on their children.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: We realize this is how we're gonna get our nation back.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: We've got to get this in the hands of our children.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh they are working together, side by side.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and again, they realize they're in a war, not just this physical war, but they recognize the spiritual war that's going on.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're joined, they're locking arms and saying, hey, we're we're in here together.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's fight this.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's it's it's a beautiful thing to see.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I I never cease to walk away from those meetings, absolutely encouraged and looking up to God and saying, This is it, this is what you prayed for.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and being very thankful that, man, I get to have a front row seat at this.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, help me be faithful with this and keep keep moving in in this direction.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: Some of the stories that are coming from East Ukraine, I think, are really dramatic, uh, with the church uh binding together and then let's say taking food or medical supplies uh uh to or helping evacuate uh people uh in right up on the front lines.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have any recent stories of uh of these things uh at all?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we work with uh a lot of the people on the ground.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, when the war broke out, we don't and humanitarian aid is not our our forte, and we're a believer in hey, you know, let's do what we do best and we'll we'll try and find people that are that are doing that.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: But there were so many of our contacts on the ground that we had been friends with for so long that reached out.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: And as you were, as you recall, and many of your listeners and watchers will, your people in your in your church will remember, you know, when the war broke out, it was like crazy money just started surfacing and getting sent over.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as will happen, you know, when crazy money goes over, it goes to crazy places.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we were hearing from the people on the ground who were hurting, we're not getting this.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's not coming to us.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we still need food, we need blankets, we need, we need medicine, we need help.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, so they begged and we said, okay.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we set up a restricted fund and uh just called it Ukraine aid.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we said, we're gonna do this.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Dollar goes in, dollar goes out.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're not taking anything off the top of it for overhead because it's not really what we do, and we can keep we can keep doing what we're doing.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because the other thing that was happening is oftentimes before some of these refugees or IDPs would even ask for help, they would ask for a Bible in their language.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we the requests were just flooding in.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So just I mean, last year in the Ukrainian language alone, our requests rose 40% in one year.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: But we see these churches working together and bringing it, doesn't matter who they are.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: The beautiful picture, too, is as and you're if you've been to East Ukraine, you you know all about the you know, so you got the separatists, and well, as the war broke out, Russia started bombing them.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're dropping bombs on them, so they're thinking, well, what are we doing here?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're we're supposed to be on their side.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: So they started fleeing West.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now you got an interesting dilemma.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: We got these people who are supposedly our enemies coming and asking for help because their homes are being bombed and they're being driven out.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it has been absolutely beautiful, Drake, to watch the Christians, to watch the believers take them in and take care of them and say, no, you got a place with us, and watching churches band together.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and we we do, we've we've gotten messages and we work with every every denomination you could possibly think of who are over there because again, it's a war.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a war, and they recognize we we've gotta we've got to work together.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it's it's been a it's been a very, very beautiful thing.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, we did the humanitarian aid last year.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're continuing to do it this year.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's just been very tough this year because it's not in the headlines.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: And where it is in the headlines, unfortunately, even with the conservative part, there's all this negativity around Ukraine.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I keep telling people, we're not giving it to the government, we're giving it to the people on the ground.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's happening between government to government.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's not my job.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's way above my pay grade, and I don't I don't want to know.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I know there's hurting people, and they're not getting what they need to to survive.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And winter's coming.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes, a Ukrainian winter is uh a fearsome thing, especially when there's no heat and there's no shelter.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um at the church, we are in contact with uh uh somebody who runs uh bread and medical supplies uh into Amdivka right now.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_03: Omvdivka is of course uh in the news uh quite a bit as uh much of it is surrounded by by Russia.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: But he goes in uh every other day uh driving uh there and uh dropping off food and supplies, but now uh taking people out, um including their with their pets and uh and all it's uh yeah, but it's an amazing story.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm wondering if you have uh stories such as these.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um when they bombed the dam and and it just flooded.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, flooded that entire area.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: For our listeners, which dam is this in the world?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in Cursor, but I mean huge area, so you got all the water coming in, and I mean it's it's a wasteland now for probably a hundred years or more.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just devastated.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but there was a a grandmother that everybody was looking for, and they knew that uh she had she had a number of pets, and so she just kept climbing.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: She kept climbing.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: She grabbed and she grabbed other people and said, Come on, follow me.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so she was like the Pied Piper leading people, and so they just kept climbing up and climbing up and climbing up, and she's grabbing pets as they go along.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, grab the dog, grab this.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: So they get to the they get to the top, and of course, now the boats that's at level, that's at water level.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're up on the roof, and she's got everybody's chickens and goats, and I mean she's got it's like Noah's Ark.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: She's got up there with her, you know, that she's trying to save these animals because it's you know, in that part of the in that part of the world, that's their livelihood.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they don't have that, that's money.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: That is that is their livelihood.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have the goat, I don't have the chickens, I don't have food.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so we got a story of a very good uh friend of ours who was part of the group in boats going around and and rescuing people and everybody talking about her.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: We've got to go check on her, and they arrive, and he said we were like, we felt like we were Noah's Ark.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, okay, get all the animals in, let's get them in.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we got some pictures, and it was but she but here's the thing, Drake, that I love about these people.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: You see the picture of her, and she has a big smile on her face, she's got this big smile, and I'm thinking, uh I have to be personally challenged.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm not personally challenged, I I don't there's there's something wrong.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I find myself saying, would I have that big smile on my face?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Would I would I have that joy?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: And again, not that she's happy and not that she loves what's happening, but the spirit of God is coming out, and she is she's a very strong believer and just a great, great lady, and it just exudes it, which is why I really believe our requests are skyrocketing because especially in areas like Ukraine, and as Ukrainians are displaced and as they are refugees and going into Poland and other areas, other areas, because people are hearing this horrific story of what they've been through.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then they also have non-believers who are traveling with them who are experiencing the same hell, if you will, and they're looking at them and saying, How are you handling this with such peace?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, dare I say a peace that passes understanding.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they're telling them about Jesus, and so it's an opportunity.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I don't know if I don't know if St.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Francis of Assisi actually said this, but he gets credited with it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: And and I and I love the quote, and that is preach the gospel daily and when necessary, use words.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: But it's because they're actions.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: They are all in disciples, and they're hanging on to the hope, and they're ready to share it.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they uh, you know, you mentioned on the, you know, in the beginning, my wife passed away with ALS.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I tell people, I've got the cure for ALS, I got the cure for cancer, I got the cure for depression, got the cure for anxiety.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: We have the cure for all of it.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And how in the world do we keep that to ourselves?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that just that makes no sense.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about something that makes no sense.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: That makes no sense.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: We see these uh amazing stories taking place in the midst of uh uh great tragedy, and uh it is a time for uh matters of faith to shine through in uh in various uh faithful people.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um since the uh we're getting less uh news about uh Ukraine now uh because of the the focus on uh um um Israel and Gaza and perhaps other places of the world.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um I'm wondering if you might be able to share what is happening uh on particularly out in East Ukraine or or maybe even uh Kyiv.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: But um how about a city like Zaporizh?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Is it uh receiving uh uh daily missile strikes, uh drone attacks?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um what about some of these?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh how about Kyiv?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: Is Kyiv receiving uh uh nightly air raids?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: So what's happening on a day-to-day basis um uh there?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, not nightly.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's so sporadic and it's so random, but yes, I mean they are still under fire.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they still are are having to run to to bunkers on on occasion.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it it's it is so unsettling just because there is no rhyme or reason.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's you can't expect, you know, it's not like you can really expect anything.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in a way, it's not bad because welcome to life, you know, control is such an illusion.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so, in in in many ways, I mean, as we say, we're in the parable of sower business.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is good soil.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the soil is churned up.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: They recognize that this this around them is an illusion.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: This, you know, so yeah, the the strikes are happening, they're still hitting random targets.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um of course, the their defense uh weapons are working, but as I mentioned earlier, I mean, when you hit one of those missiles and it doesn't hit its target, the shrapnel's coming down.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so those are some of the strikes too.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: People don't have warning on those.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have uh we have a warehouse in Kyiv because we we truly we believe in creating economies.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So when we're when we're distributing, for example, in Ukraine, we're printing in Ukraine.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: We print in Ukraine and put their people to work, and we do that uh as much as we can across across the footprint that we work in.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: But um, so we have a warehouse in in Kiev, and it got hit by some of that shrapnel.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: And thankfully, we just got a little piece, but it weighed over a ton, this piece of shrapnel, and put a big hole in the roof.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, we got it fixed, but there was a Pepsi plant right next right next door.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: It got hit with the bulk of it and just wiped it out.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just absolutely wiped it out.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Wasn't a direct missile hit, you know.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people going, What are they shooting at a Pepsi plant for?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, they weren't.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the defense defense weapons worked, but it's gonna come down on innocent people.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: So there's just a a lot of that going on and a lot of fear and and infrastructure that's not working, or it's sporadic, you know, electricity's on, it's off, you know, water's you know, water there's kind of sketch anyway.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're they're having water issues and and just a lot of infrastructure challenges.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the war continues to rage on.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: It just uh it's not letting up.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just the other day there was a a pretty significant strike.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So so they kind of come in waves.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say they're they're daily, but they come in waves, and when the wave is is there, it's intense.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's an intense uh uh battle for for them.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: When that wave comes, is it coming mostly in the east?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, or how about in places like Lviv uh that we hear about in Western news?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, I don't see and I'm not hearing from our contacts in Lviv.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Lviv seems to be a pretty safe spot.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, western Ukraine is is good.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Revna, Lviv, you know, those areas are are good.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh For now.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: But again, Lviv has been a target, which, if you've been to Lviv, beautiful city.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: I can see Russia doing that.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I can see Putin and his regime.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: I won't say Russia, Putin and his regime doing that.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Just um to be mean, because it's such a beautiful city.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: But um Kiv is still getting hit.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's still strikes that that happened in in Kyiv.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: They're they are getting better about Kyiv and West, you know, really hitting, you know, defending that and keeping the strikes from from hitting their target.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but yeah, eastern eastern Ukraine is just oh, it's a it's a wasteland.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, because this is what people have to understand, this is like World War I tactics.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: This is if they study their history, it's it's throw a bunch of bodies and a bunch of resources to go literally 10 yards.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they get 10 yards and they celebrate as a as a victory, and you're like, I mean, these little towns you're taking, there's nothing there.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you're what you're celebrating.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you're just decimating this country.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I heard the other day that um uh there's more mines now um in uh Ukraine than it's past uh you know other countries around the world.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um I don't know if you have any update on uh uh unexploded armaments or mines, uh if anything you might share on that.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they came in, as you know, and you probably read they came in and and just put mines in all of the all the fields, you know.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: So the green fields and the sunflower fields, and so they've done a good job of sweeping them and trying to, and they are getting rid of a lot of them, but you're right.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they put a ridiculous number of mines out, and so there is a I know there is a a fairly good-sized team that continue to sweep and try and and take out the mines, but you know, as we go forward, that's the fear.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this area is going to be off limits, so you can't even live here.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, don't let the children go in there, and how many accidental explosions of mines are gonna happen?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it it's it's just awful.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh and we in our comfort of our homes, we sit here and you know, we turn on our TV and we watch our football games, and you know, everything's everything's great.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't think about the fact that there are people who they don't know where their next meal is coming from.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: They don't, I mean, they're trying to find a job, they're just trying to take care of their kids.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: Earlier, you talked about uh refugees and internally displaced people.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, what's the number of uh refugees from this conflict now?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: The last I heard, and again, I I know this is a moving target, is about 18 million total.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: So about 7 million are refugees, and about 11 million are internally displaced.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh again, that's a that's such a moving target.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there are there are some who have come back.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Some some people have come back into the country, not near what they would hope, you know, would come back, but I know there are some who've come back and gone back to Kyiv.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know people have gone back to Kyiv and just said, hey, I'm I'm going home.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care what it's like.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: Population of Ukraine uh before the war was in the 40 and 43 million.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: 43 million, yeah, 43 million.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we're we're close to about uh one-fourth, right?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, which is a crazy number.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's a crazy number, you know.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I I've said to people that if you can imagine, you know, what this does to that entire region and that area, this would be like Mexico being the superpower that Russia is, and coming in and invading Texas.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're coming into South Texas, they're invading Texas, and they take over, you know, they take over Houston, they take over all these southern cities, and people begin to flee north.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so they head up to Dallas Fort Worth.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: But now Dallas Fort Worth is really the business center, and so you know, they're firing missiles, you know, into Dallas Fort Worth and they're hitting there.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: So there's people thinking, man, this isn't safe.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're now they're coming into Arkansas and Louisiana and and Oklahoma and getting up here to Tennessee, you know, they're they're moving.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: And we're hearing the stories firsthand.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: What would that do to our soil, if you will?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: What would that do to our false reality of you know, confidence and security that we have in things that are not of God?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and of course, it took me back to 9-11.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, you were I was there, I was living up there during 9-11.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, spent a lot of time in New York City.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: New York City was kind of home.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, grew up going into New York with my grandfather, and I can remember post-9-11, New York was a different city.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: I would tell people, you want to see how different it is?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Stand on a corner anywhere, act like you're a tourist.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Just hold out your phone and act like you're looking for something.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And watch how many New Yorkers come up and say, Hey, what do you need?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: What are you looking for?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'll help you.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, now you better keep one hand on your wallet.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, it's just not, it's not the same.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: But post post 9-11, we all came together and you know, the unity was there.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And and what happened, our churches were our church buildings, were full.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: People were turning to God.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's the part of the world we get to work in.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and it's been churned up for a long time.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all you have to do is look at their history, which you've been over there and you know, you know their history.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's been churned up for a very long time.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: Very long time.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: Might you have a story or two that you've been involved with with um uh Eastern European mission um uh about uh the work uh uh taking place uh uh currently in the middle of the war?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: One of them that I love is, and we've got this picture out there, and it was a a story that came back from some of the refugees, and uh they'd fled, they'd fled Eastern Ukraine, and they'd gotten humanitarian aid, but they, as I mentioned, they start asking for Bibles and they start asking because we came here with Christians and they're sharing this hope, and we want, you know, we want to read these stories.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so we provide we have a children's bible, we have a teen Bible, and then we have a regular Bible, and the children's Bible is just a collection of a hundred stories.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's got it's a great reader, and it's got illustrations in it, and it's a it, it's a it's a favorite over there.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: And a note came back from a mother and the picture of her six-year-old in bed with her arms wrapped around that that children's Bible, holding it asleep, and said, She wants to read these stories all the time.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: She wants to read them, she just wants to keep reading them over and over and over again.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's taken us into the Bible that we got to read the deeper stories, and she won't let us take it out of her hands.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: She just, when she wakes up, she says, read me another story.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: She goes to bed and she sleeps with it, like a teddy bear.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what it looked like.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, wow, you know, that's that's amazing.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's a here's a child who is just comforted by by these stories of God and and recognizing that, okay, I want I want something bigger.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: I I want to I want to get away from this and recognize this is not even at that young age.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: But then the the letter from the mom was so heartfelt and so just so grateful and and thanking us um, you know, for not only helping helping with some of the humanitarian aid, but making sure that there were resources like that available for people.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because again, their their world is turned upside down and they want to know what am I doing here?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me some good news.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Give me something good.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you could um as we draw this to a close, maybe you could give us some direction as to how we might be able to be in prayer for the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: As the news seems to be uh uh becoming less um uh maybe you can make a few suggestions as to how people might be able to pray.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: I would definitely, I mean, the prayers need to be for the people.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the Ukrainians.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: They are they are um they're resilient people, but this is like a chronic illness.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: It gets old and it begins wearing on people psychologically, emotionally, every way possible.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: Physically, you're gonna see physical ailments happen because, again, as I mentioned, infrastructure is not there.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So good food, good water, things of that nature are not gonna be prevalent.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: So they're gonna they're gonna go to eating and drinking stuff that they wouldn't normally eat and drink.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I I would I would be very, very prayerful about the people and just their spirit and that the spirit of God, they would they would recognize and feel his presence and continue to work together and to have the resolve.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I would I would also be in prayer for the believers who are there to really continue to be that uh that light and salt that Jesus called us all to be.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, pray for an end.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: Pray for an end to this thing, pray for peace.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, that's only gonna happen.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: We know the only way that's gonna happen is for the Prince of Peace to invade some hearts and uh and come in and say, okay, for people to say, okay, enough's enough.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta stop this.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's that's the deep prayer for for the people there.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that they will they'll continue to shine that light.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because they are, they are, they are an example.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're an example for a lot of people watching them.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you so much, Dirk, for uh taking time to uh pass along some of this latest news of uh uh what's taking place between uh Ukraine and Russia.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe we can just close with uh a brief prayer for peace.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: Father in heaven, thank you for Dirk and the work that he does.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we pray your blessing on him, and we pray uh for your blessing on uh those in Ukraine uh suffering so much today.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh give them your resolve, uh, give them uh a sense of peace, and uh we do pray for uh a long-lasting peace uh in this part of the world.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: We pray today in Christ's name.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Drake, I will mention um if people want to learn more, I mean, they can go out to our website, eem.org.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we do have a podcast as well called the 5511 podcast, where we do share, we we interview people.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, our last podcast that just aired, we actually interview uh one of our contacts in Russia.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so it's a it's a very, very interesting interview.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if they want to keep up with some of that, they can do that.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's on Spotify, Apple, anywhere, anywhere you find podcasts, but it's just 5511.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't mean it goes 55 minutes in 11 seconds.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: I had I had a guy say that.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I thought if I click on that, he said, I didn't have 55 minutes.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I went, What?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: I said, No, it's from Isaiah 5511.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Oh.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_03: And what does can you share that verse for uh for our listeners?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it's just a reminder.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the prophet, you know, lets them know God's word, you know what well God reminds through the prophet, my word's gonna go out and it's gonna do what I want it to do, and it's not gonna come back empty.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that's that's really what we see.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not about us, it's not about EEM, it's about the power of his word going out, and we see it on a regular basis.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: We see and and are so encouraged by the by the spirit and how the spirit moves through that.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so they can go and they can you know learn more about what we're doing on EEM.org.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh the podcast is 5511.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we'd welcome to welcome their there listening.
• 34:14
  unknown: Great.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you for joining us uh today, Derek, and uh uh blessings on your ministry.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Drake.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: God bless.