Ukraine (MNN) — The European Union sanctions 16 individuals and entities who allegedly helped Russia abduct tens of thousands of children from Ukraine. The EU froze assets tied to nine individuals and seven centers accused of indoctrinating children; the measures also included travel bans.
Abduction isn’t the only threat to Ukraine’s children. They face a daily combination of physical danger, repeated displacement, and unresolved family separations.
Greg Yoder of Keys for Kids Ministries says, among the families the ministry serves, “A lot of these kids already know Jesus, but they’re struggling because of the fear and anxiety that comes with war.”
Ukrainian teenagers Diana and Alina read Unlocked.
(Photo courtesy Mission Eurasia via Keys for Kids Ministries)
New devotionals address trauma
Partners in Ukraine recently distributed 200,000 special-edition devotionals from Keys for Kids Ministries, designed to help children and young adults process trauma.
Yoder says the latest delivery “gets us close to a million copies that we placed in Ukraine since the war began.”
Developed by Keys for Kids Ministries and Mission Eurasia, the special-edition devotionals offer biblically grounded, trauma-focused material tailored to a Ukrainian context. Read more about the development process here.
Mission Eurasia’s team in Ukraine offered more than translation services. Ukrainian believers helped contextualize the Keys for Kids and Unlocked stories.
“We had some references to, I think, baseball. We had to pull those out and replace them with soccer,” Yoder says. “Things that would normally fit well in the United States just didn’t fit well in Ukraine.”
Nelia finds peace
Although they were distributed less than a month ago, the devotionals are already helping children like Nelia. “She has never known anything but war,” Yoder says.
Nelia shows her Keys for Kids devotional.
(Photo courtesy Mission Eurasia via Keys for Kids Ministries)
“Her mother had a copy of the new Keys for Kids devotional, and she sat down with her (Nelia) and said, ‘Pick any story in it.’ [Nelia] picked the topic, ‘Medicine for Peace,’ [because] something about it spoke to her,” he continues.
The story features a little girl who couldn’t fall asleep because she was overcome by worry and fear. Her grandmother “helped her understand the true peace found in Christ alone,” Yoder says.
“When they finished, Nelia’s mother looked at her and tenderly said, ‘You see, we don’t have to be afraid all the time. We can rely on someone closer than a brother: Jesus Christ.’”
After a thoughtful moment, Yoder says Nelia “realized, yes, I don’t have to be in fear, because God is in control.”
Find your place in the story
According to Save the Children, children in Ukraine have endured approximately 4,000 hours of air-raid alarms since Russia invaded in 2022 — more than five and a half months of alerts. The sirens don’t scare Nelia anymore.
“The book pointed her to where she needed to place her hope,” Yoder says.
“Camps are coming up this summer, and obviously, the supply that we provided will probably cover that, but I don’t know if they’ll have enough for Christmas outreach or back-to-school outreach,” Yoder says.
As you pray for these efforts, Yoder asks you to remember Ukrainian pastors. “Pray for the pastors because they’re tired,” he says.
“Imagine every day having to be ‘on’ with no rest, [and] bombings, missiles, drone attacks daily.”
Header image courtesy of Keys for Kids Ministries.
