Eurasia (MNN) — Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s border four years ago today, launching the most significant conflict in Eurasia since World War II.
An estimated 1.8 million soldiers have been killed, injured, or are missing on both sides, the Associated Press reports, with Russia bearing the brunt of the losses. Nearly six million Ukrainians fled to neighboring countries, and approximately 3.7 million remain displaced within Ukraine.
Bible translators were not immune when Russia invaded Ukraine. Dane of unfoldingWord says one gateway language project had to be put on hold.
“We were using Russian as a gateway language because almost everybody [in the former Soviet Union] was forced to learn it,” he explains.
“The war has had a devastating impact on Bible translation and church planting efforts, including our ability to deliver completed translation guides in Russian to the Church-Centric Bible translators across the former Soviet Union.”
War forces change
unfoldingWord equips believers in the local church to translate Scripture into minority languages. More about that here. A team working near the front lines in eastern Ukraine had to be relocated when the war began.
(Photo courtesy Алесь Усцінаў/Pexels)
“That team had six translators and was doing really well. They [were] working through translating the Bible into Ruska Roma,” Dane says.
“The Romani people are scattered all over Europe [with] various versions of the Roma language. That version (Ruska Roma) has about 29,000 people.”
Today, like many Ukrainians, believers are living far from home. In a recent report, the team leader told Dane that daily survival takes priority.
“He said, ‘I am living in a place without heat, water, or electricity because one night, Russia bombed the heat and power stations. As a result, no pumps can deliver water to the apartment buildings where people live, including people with infants and relatives who are bedridden’,” Dane says.
“‘For us right now, getting food can feel like something out of The Hunger Games. But,’ he said, ‘we continue working on Bible translation.’”
Perseverance shifts perceptions
Yet believers see a glimmer of hope. In their language community throughout Eurasia, “evangelical Christians have always been viewed with a little suspicion,” Dane says.
“But because they’ve stayed and they’re serving their neighbors, people are beginning to have a different attitude about the evangelicals and the Gospel they preach.”
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
Keep praying for the Russia-Ukraine war to end. Pray that unfoldingWord receives the funding it needs to get the Eurasia translation project back online.
“We really can’t do much until this war comes to an end, but when it does come to an end, we need to have our funding ready to go,” Dane says.
“Pray for those church planters who are staying in Ukraine when they could leave. If you want to stay up to date with what unfoldingWord is doing around the world, please go to our website and sign up for a prayer calendar that is sent out via email every month.”
Header image depicts an elderly woman peering over the edge of a recently bombed site in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo courtesy Mykhailo Volkov/Pexels.
