I recently returned from Ukraine, where I had the profound privilege of spending time with Baptist World Aid Australia’s local Christian partners—the Ukrainian Baptist church—as they continue to serve communities deeply affected by the ongoing conflict.

It is hard to put into words the weight of what I saw—and felt. Over five days, I experienced multiple air raid sirens and spent time in bomb shelters, including several times across one night. Even as a visitor, knowing I could leave, the sound of those sirens settled heavily in my body. I could only imagine what it is like for families who live with that sound as part of ordinary life, never knowing what the next hour or night might bring.

Every person I met was carrying loss. Everyone knows and loves someone serving at the front. Everyone has lost someone or something. They live with constant fear and anxiety, and with deep uncertainty about the future. And yet, again and again, I heard words of faith, courage and endurance—not because fear is absent, but because hope is being stubbornly held onto.

I also had the privilege of attending the Ukrainian National Prayer Breakfast, alongside leaders from across the Church, civil society and government, including President Zelenskyy. In a nation where so much has been fractured by war, there was something deeply moving about seeing Christians from different traditions gather in unity—to pray, to lament, to seek peace, and to stand together for freedom for all people. It reminded me that the Church’s witness in Ukraine is not only seen in humanitarian service, but also in its shared commitment to truth, dignity, justice and the freedom to worship.

In the midst of suffering, the faithful, steady presence of the local church—and unity across the wider Church – is helping Ukrainians endure and respond with courage.

Churches As Places of Hope

Our partners, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches Evangelical Christian Baptists, are not serving from a distance. They are serving from within the pain of their own communities. Through local Baptist churches they continue to prepare and distribute hot meals, provide clean water and hygiene supplies, support internally displaced families, while always offering prayer, and pastoral care.

In one recent response, two mobile kitchens operated in Poltava and Kharkiv, prepared and distributed 12,000 hot lunches to 1,745 people from 942 households. Many of those reached were internally displaced people, vulnerable community members and people living with disability. In an earlier phase of this work, churches exceeded their planned targets—distributing tens of thousands of hot meals and bottles of water, along with hygiene kits for displaced and vulnerable people.

But numbers only tell part of the story. What stayed with me most were the faces, the stories, the prayers, and the quiet courage of people who keep showing up for their neighbours.

More Than A Meal

I heard stories like Valentina’s. She had built her life in Kharkiv, raising her family there and working until retirement. When the war came, she and her husband fled their damaged home to the sound of explosions. Later, after becoming widowed in an unfamiliar city, she found practical and spiritual support through a local Baptist church. A hot meal, she said, was not only food—it was the assurance that someone was waiting for her, that she was seen, and that she was not alone.

For Julia, another internally displaced person, the mobile kitchen was daily care expressed in a practical form. The calm and organised environment, the kindness of the team, the smiles and words of encouragement offered alongside each meal. These details matter. In crisis, dignity is often restored through ordinary acts of love, faithfully repeated.

Svitlana, Alina, Mikhail and Anatoly speak of the same reality: support that is physical, emotional and spiritual. For some, the church became a place of safety and connection. For others, it was the first place they experienced reliable help after displacement, shelling, grief or isolation.

This is what Christian partnership looks like at its most tangible. A meal cooked by volunteers. A bottle of clean water. A hygiene kit offered with respect. A church building opened to neighbours. A prayer offered gently. A local congregation becoming known not simply as a place Christians attend on Sundays, but as a centre of care in the community.

A Church Strengthened For Mission

One of the great privileges of my visit was the opportunity to encourage our Ukrainian Baptist partners face to face. They are tiredas many have been serving in crisis conditions for years. They face security risks, logistical challenges, volunteer fatigue and shrinking resources. At times, even the simple work of procuring food, transporting it safely and distributing it during air-raid alerts requires extraordinary flexibility and courage. Yet when I sat with church leaders and volunteers, I was struck not by their exhaustion, but by their tenderness. Their grief has not made them hard. Their fear has not stopped them from opening their doors. Indeed, the opposite is true.

And still, they continue. Local churches have grown in their capacity to manage humanitarian projects, cooperate with local government, serve vulnerable people and respond to changing needs. Some congregations have discovered new missional imagination through this crisis. Some people who first came to the church seeking food have since found community, faith and even a place to serve others.

That is why Baptist World Aid’s partnership matters. We are not simply funding activities. We are standing with sisters and brothers in Christ who are already embedded in their communities, already trusted, already present, and already bearing witness to the compassion of Jesus in places of profound need.

A Call For Prayer And Generosity

When I crossed the border back into Poland after just a few days in Ukraine, I felt an almost immediate wave of relief. Then, just as quickly, I felt guilt. I was leaving. I could go home to safety. I watched as a stream of young people with military duffel bags crossed the other way—re-entering Ukraine, heading back towards the front line. It was a moment I will not forget. The cost of this war is not abstract. It is carried in individual lives, families, churches and communities.

As my journey back to the safety and security of Australia continued, I carried with me both grief and gratitude. Grief for all that has been lost. Gratitude for the courage of our partners and for the generosity of Australian Baptists and supporters who have made this ministry possible.

Please continue to pray for Ukraine: for a just peace, for protection, for healing from trauma, for wisdom for local church leaders, and for strength for those who serve day after day. Pray especially for the Ukrainian Baptist churches as they continue to respond to the humanitarian situation caused by the conflict. They are holding tightly to the encouragement of Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” May they know, in every shelter, every distribution point, every anxious night and every act of service, that the Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps.

And if you are able, please give. Your generosity supports local Christian partners provide practical care to people whose lives have been disrupted by war—and helps ensure that churches can remain places of hope, welcome and compassion for the long road ahead. Give now to show support to those hurting in Ukraine.