Dear Friends,

Three years ago today, we were awakened by the sounds of bombs exploding at the airport in Kyiv. The Russian invasion had begun. By the mercies of God we were able to escape the country, leaving our loved ones and all our possessions behind. It was necessary to close the Bible college and to abandon immediate plans for ministry in Ukraine. Consequently, the course of ministry for us has changed, but we have been as busy as ever, teaching Bible in half a dozen different countries and filling pulpits in America during this time.

Now, on the third anniversary of the war’s onset there is talk of a possible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine being brokered by our current administration. We have been praying without ceasing for peace in Ukraine. However, a peace deal is fraught with many risks. The greatest fear is that concessions will be made with Russia which could bring millions of Ukrainians under Russian domination. This would surely be a disaster if the Russians act as they have in the past. When they invaded the countries of Georgia and Osettia in 2008, the people were murdered, brutalized, raped, tortured, and enslaved.

When the invasion into Ukraine took place in 2022, the Russian soldiers did not change their behavior. In the cities around Kyiv, civilians were murdered, raped, tortured while their homes were being pillaged. The same scenario played out in the south and in the east of Ukraine. It would be reasonable to expect this to happen again if the Ukrainians are forced to cede ownership of territory in the southeastern Donbas region of Ukraine.

I have been getting numerous letters recently about the current situation in Ukraine, many expressing confusion about US policies that have changed recently. Politics, politics, politics. Who knows what is taking place behind the scenes?

I have talked personally with our associates in Ukraine to get their assessment of what is happening. It should be remembered that Ukraine did not start this war nor antagonize Russia into invading Ukraine. The war began because of megalomaniacal aspirations of Vladimir Putin who has delusions of restoring a Russian empire. He wanted a warm-water port in the Black Sea, thus captured the Crimean Peninsula; he wanted the heavy industry and the mineral wealth of Eastern Ukraine, and thus invaded the Donbas region back in 2014; he wanted to establish a puppet government in Ukraine and thus attacked the capital city of Kyiv three years ago in 2022.

The war does not continue because of the recalcitrance of the Ukrainian people. This war continues because Russia continues to prosecute it relentlessly, as seen in their sending in hundreds of drones and missiles night after night. They kill not only brave soldiers along the front lines, but also have brought death to thousands of civilians with daily/nightly drone and missile strikes. The Ukrainians are not willing to become slaves to Russian barbarity, so they continue to fight and die for their loved ones and their nation. The brave Ukrainians know what a surrender would bring, and they would rather die on their feet than live on their knees.

The war could be over in an instant if Putin would just pull the plug and recall his troops. If Russia stopped fighting, things would pretty much return to normal in Russia. However, if Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine would be destroyed. If a peace deal could be brokered that would stop the senseless killing, we would love that. But not peace at any price.

The US blackmailed Ukraine into giving up its nuclear arsenal back in the ’90s, along with a promise that we would be their protectors if they were invaded. Well, it turns out they were invaded, and we did not keep our promise. Shall we now blackmail them again, this time to give up much of their territory, while we promise them something that may or may not be delivered?

Pray for Ukraine. Pray for these brave people. I admire their fortitude and their resilience. It is hard for Americans to realize what it is to be under attack, to have entire cities destroyed, to have to live without electricity, without water, without a neighborhood grocery store. I have personally seen the devastation in Ukrainian towns and villages. It would make you weep.

Below are snippets from a letter I received from a Ukrainian woman.

My dear American friends!

It is very hard to watch them [Russian and American politicians] decide our fate without us. It's as if we were raped in front of the whole world, and now they are making us guilty of it and making us pay reparations because the enemy is evil and we must not anger him. How sad it is.

We did not start this war, we are very tired of living under constant shelling and we really want it to end and our territories to be returned, not cut off. Our homes are there, not everything is destroyed yet. There is still hope!

Pray for a divine solution, not a political answer. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

On March 11 Phyllis and I will leave for 3 weeks of teaching in Brazil. In May we will go to Zambia and then in June to the Philippines. Please be in prayer for these trips.

Over the past six months I have had the privilege to provide pulpit supply for Dr. Robby Dean at West Houston Bible Church. During that time I taught through the abecedarian Psalm 119, and will be completing that teaching on Tuesday, February 25. Click here if you'd like to partake of this enlightening series.

All by grace,

Jim