It was just another Tuesday in Ukraine.
As Russian missile strikes rained down across the besieged nation in Eastern Europe, Churches of Christ kept preaching, teaching and conducting Bible studies with their war-weary countrymen.
In Zaporizhzhia, a city near the frontlines of the four-year-long conflict, two women decided to give their lives to Christ in baptism after studying with minister Andrii Bilokonnyi. He and a small group of church members took the ladies to the Dnieper River to immerse them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.
As smoke plumes rise from the city of Zaporizhzhia, Andrii Bilokonnyi prepares to baptize a new believer.
“Just before the baptism, there was another attack that took people’s lives,” said Svetlana Shevchenko, a church member and journalist in Zaporizhzhia.
In photos of the baptisms, plumes of smoke rise from the attacks across the river.
“We saw and heard the explosions,” Bilokonnyi said, “and at the same time heard the women confessing Jesus as their Savior.”
In a text message, Shevchenko added, “We live in such a city and such a world. The devil takes lives, but God saves for eternal life! What a blessing to be together with the Savior!”
The attacks on Zaporizhzhia are part of an intensive wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine in recent days. In the capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called one such raid “one of the most massive ballistic attacks” since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the BBC reported. Meanwhile, Ukraine has launched multiple drone attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, leading to a nationwide fuel crisis, Reuters reported.
As they assess damage from the recent strikes, Bilokonnyi and his family make plans to distribute relief through Program for Humanitarian Aid, a Texas-based nonprofit supported by Churches of Christ.
Seeing ‘God’s hand at work’
In the midst of the attacks, more than 400 Ukrainians gathered in western Ukraine for Camp Amerikraine, an annual retreat sponsored by Churches of Christ in the U.S. and Ukraine. Jeff Abrams, the camp’s founder, reported multiple baptisms during the camp and in the days after at Churches of Christ across Ukraine.
Clad in their 2026 Camp Amerikraine T-shirts, Ukrainians smile for a group photo.
“Thank you to all who travel a difficult path to get here,” Abrams, director of the nonprofit Rescue Ukraine, said in a message from the camp. “Thank you to the team that plans and organizes everything. Thank you to all who pray and pay for this annual family reunion to occur.”
One member of the organizing team, Stas Kuropiatnykov, was baptized at Camp Amerikraine 20 years ago.
“Back then, I had no idea what God was preparing for my future,” said Kuropiatnykov, who now ministers for a Church of Christ in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and served a tour of duty in Ukraine’s military during the war.
Stas Kuropiatnykov, minister for a Church of Christ in Lviv, Ukraine, leads singing during a family retreat in Irpin, Ukraine, in 2024.
“That 20-year milestone is especially meaningful to me,” the minister said. “Looking back, I can clearly see God’s hand at work through every season of my life.”
Mariupol survivors return to Ukraine
During the camp, Yevheniia Kalchuk shared her testimony of survival during the brutal siege of Mariupol in the early days of the invasion. She and her family were among 33 people — ranging in age from 9 months to mid-70s — who spent 51 harrowing days in the Mariupol Church of Christ building as the war raged around them. After an exodus that took them to Sopot, Poland, they spoke with The Christian Chronicle about their ordeal in mid-2022.
Ukrainians take shelter in the hallway of the Mariupol Church of Christ as Russians lay siege to the city in early 2022.
“God did not remove me from difficult circumstances,” Kalchuk said during a session for women at Camp Amerikraine. “Instead, he was with me in them. He did not stop the war. But he led me to safety.”
Kalchuk and her husband, Aleksei, have welcomed two daughters into their family since leaving Ukraine. The family made frequent trips back into Ukraine to help distribute humanitarian aid. Last year, the Kalchuks made one such trip to Vinnytsia, a small city in western Ukraine. That visit led them to do what other Mariupol survivors might consider unthinkable — they moved to Vinnytsia and planted a church.
The Kalchuk family stops for a photo with Jeff Abrams, far right, during Camp Amerikraine 2026.
“Today that church has more than 50 people attending,” Yevheniia Kalchuk said, “and I believe God is preparing salvation for many of them. Today I am the mother of four daughters and serve alongside my husband in that church.”
Amid the horrors of Mariupol, “God (was) shaping his vessel,” she said. “He was shaping me. He is shaping all of us so that we will be ready for heaven.”
In Zaporizhzhia, two new sisters in Christ hug after their baptisms.
ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.
