Ukraine

Frequent readers and listeners of Breakpoint know about Max. The grandson of Chuck Colson and subject of a book called Dancing With Max, authored by Emily Colson (Chuck’s daughter and Colson Center board member), Max is a remarkable young man who has autism. The last few years have been difficult for Emily and Max, especially since the COVID lockdowns disrupted their routines and canceled their helpers. But Max has used this time to minister to those who are hurting in Ukraine and around the world.

The vice president of an international Christian ministry is urging churches in the United States not to forget about the war in Ukraine, saying the needs remain great even though the American news media largely has moved on to domestic issues.

Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary President Yaroslav Pyzh says that about 400 Baptist churches have vanished during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

A congregation in Illinois has distributed hundreds of handmade wooden crosses for people to place in their yards as a reminder to pray for Ukrainians caught in the Russian invasion.

Twenty-four people are dead, and over twenty are still missing after an apparent Russian missile strike on an apartment building in eastern Ukraine.

On Monday night, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize for a record-breaking $103.5 million to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees.

According to an official, Russia controls about 80 percent of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and has cut off three bridges leading out of the metropolis.

On Monday, over 260 Ukrainian fighters abandoned the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, as Russia prepared to capture the port city.

On Sunday, Evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization Samaritan's Purse airlifted 28 Ukrainian refugees to safety in Toronto, Canada, from Poland.

That the US has been and continues to walk a very fine line in Ukraine does not mean that what the government is doing to support their defense is wrong. There are very good reasons to oppose Russia’s aggression and attempts to claim land over which they have no right. That said, it would be naïve to assume that the conflict in Ukraine will stay in Ukraine. Maybe it will, but every choice our government makes should be weighed against the possibility that it will provoke something more. I bring all of this up today as a reminder that the biblical command to “pray for all people,” and specifically “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” is just as relevant and important for us today as it was for the first generations of Christians (1 Timothy 2:1-2).