Mission Eurasia: Interview with Don Parsons

welcome back to another episode of christian natural health today i am very excited to have don parsons with us don

and esther parsons have served in cross-cultural missions for over 25 years sensing the call to use their

language and cultural skills in the region where their ministry missions began don joined the staff of mission eurasia

in 2020 working as the only western member of the field ministries team through mission eurasia's vast regional

network and working with other partners don is serving as ministry director for the unreached people groups initiative

mobilizing inspiring and equipping the next generation of leaders in eurasia to take the gospel to the unreached in

eurasia and beyond this new challenge allows don to use his extensive experience and training to help equip

the church in eurasia to impact the nations in profound ways when the war broke out on february 24th

of this year don's focus in direction with mission eurasia change he is currently heading the relief efforts of

mission eurasia in warsaw poland through work with several refugee relief clinics providing the for the physical and

spiritual needs don and the mission eurasia team meet with and encourage refugees organizing provisions and much

needed counseling services welcome don thank you so much for joining us today

thank you for the opportunity to be able to be here lauren i'm really thankful yeah absolutely so

tell us about i mean you're you're right on the ground there you're having a lot of the actual direct exposure to the to

the ukrainian refugees what's it like yeah um

so my wife and i uh have been involved in the slavic world for a long time as you've read in the introduction there we

were involved in church planting in both kiev uh in ukraine and then later in kazakhstan so

especially in ukraine we were there for an extended period of time and really fell in love with the ukrainian people

so when you ask the question about what it's like on the ground you know we don't look at our ukrainian friends

brothers sisters if their brothers and sisters in christ or just other ukrainians that are there as just as just somebody else

but really looking looking at them as part of our family as part of our dna uh

we're not ukrainian by birth by genetics but we're very close to them so

you know when i think about what it's like um it's it can be overwhelming

um but there's also great moments of joy and encouragement as we see lives touched ukrainian lives

just right away my wife and i were spending have been spending time in poland and warsaw

we've had the opportunity to be able to enter into the government-run refugee facilities

and those are facilities there's three of them around the city uh one of them with 3 500 refugees in it

another one with 6 000 refugees in it another one i'm not sure of the numbers but

really when you start getting into the thousands the numbers almost they just all blur together because when you walk

into the room and you begin to walk down the the aisle of beds and you see caught after caught

after caught after cot of people and that's the circumstance that they're

in they ran for their lives and then they find themselves in poland received well by the polish people

but here they are uh so many in poland alone over 3 million

the city of warsaw where we're working 15 increase in its population in three

months 15 wow so so yeah you have you know maybe

15 000 refugees living in those centers but you also have tens if hundreds of

thousands more living in individual homes living in hotels living in

um different churches church basements and families and so forth and so forth and

so forth so that's what it's like on the ground when when you take a look at you walk in

and you see these um refugees in the refugee centers

and you see those bed after bedded you begin to think to yourself each one of these people

represents a story and the story is a story of tragedy it's a story of

sadness uh it's a story of loss and almost always it's a story of separation

as you have to also remember that most of the refugees are women and children elderly

uh the disabled um because the men anywhere between the

age of 18 and 60 they had to remain in country unless they had some kind of waiver wow um even

huh what's that said even up to 60. that's amazing up to 60 up to 60 years old so they all

had to stay in country so you have these women and children in each of these places and we would spend time and we spend

time with these uh these refugees uh walking from bed to bed they'll tell

you we're being well taken care of we're being well fed we have a place to shower we have a place to wash our

clothes we have access to humanitarian clothing aid

there's help centers that help people to know where to go next they're trying to make these as transit centers but

honestly we go into these centers and they end up being a place where someone might be living for a month or six weeks

because they don't know where to go next yeah and some and sometimes our conversations with

them helps them to make that decision where to go next because they're frozen in place

and even though the the help centers and the um uh

the the information desks for transport to the next place that they may have it in ukrainian and russian

they still are afraid to even they don't know how to go and ask the questions

so we sit them we hear their stories we pray with them and this has happened a lot we sit there

and we pray with them and then they say but i need to get to berlin and i don't know how to get there

and i say or my wife says we'll go find out for you and we go and find out that in one case there was a bus going the

next morning we were able to register them on that bus and get them going and and we're

able to in the midst of all of that say to them and did you notice we prayed for you and god answered that prayer and don't

forget that those those moments are very vital and important and we leave them some literature and some tracks and of

course share the gospel with them wherever the opportunity comes gets open but this kind of story repeats itself

again and again and again and again uh it can feel overwhelming for sure

you're praying for wisdom and god answers and gives them the answers right there yeah absolutely

well and in any sort of crisis situation of course that means that people are going to be more hungry for the gospel

than maybe they were before tell us a couple stories about that who have people who have been more open than maybe they had been previously

sure sure well um a couple stories come to mind but the

one one that sticks out right away is uh a young man who was in that center and

our team went in went into the center i wasn't with them this day they went into the center we're just praying to the

lord god show us who to talk to who to engage with who to pray with who to chat with who to share the gospel

with and this young man sergey was there and it was ironic to see a young man

because of what i told you before yeah he was there now the reason that he was there is he was one of the refugees from

mariopol and he had gotten to the center in poland through russia

he had been evacuated through russia okay he was given the opportunity to um

to go up to moscow and from moscow through belarus he was able to evacuate into poland there's a lot to that story

in and of itself but here he is in poland and uh

he was told by the authorities that he only could stay there for a few more days we're not sure why he was

specifically told that he couldn't stay longer term but that was the story so our team decided to take him out of

the center put him into a hotel and began to build a relationship with him while

looking at options for him to um uh you know to find a more permanent

place they found a permanent place with a believing family in germany but while he was there with them for those next

few days many opportunities to share the truth of jesus and at first this young man was very

very standoffish and hesitant what do these people want with me why

are they putting me up in the hotel what's going on and this

icy kind of persona really began to melt and the night

before he left he started asking questions of the pastor there's a pastor in our group

and started asking him some very pointed questions about spiritual things and he even started to talk about a

situation where he's married to a woman but the reality is is they just live together they say they're married but it

just lived together and he said that's not right i shouldn't be that way and the pastor is like who told you that

that's not a good thing he says i know i just know so the spirit was beginning to convict him

just by being in their presence by hearing spiritual things he said that to them said he wants to reconcile

with his wife or not reconcile to reconcile the situation with his wife who wasn't with him

and uh the pastor says said that he would be very happy to marry them if they were able to get back

together he said but that but i have a more important question even right now and that's would you like to receive christ as your

personal savior do you believe that he is god that he sent that jesus is god that

god sent his only son died uh lived a holy life and died for us on the cross and rose again do you want to

you want to receive christ and believe that he says i already believe that so they prayed together

and i'll tell you the countenance on this young man sergey was completely changed in those that last 24 hours

before he left and we hear from him from stuttgart germany and he's doing really well and is

growing in his faith growing in his walk he's got that awesome very very yeah yeah

god is working powerful ways absolutely and so what do the refugees who come to

you who maybe already are believers tell you about the state of the church in ukraine how are they handling all of this

[Music] well let me back up just a little bit with

that one and just say that the church in ukraine

has grown to become one of the strongest churches actually the largest

and strongest most vibrant evangelical church in all of europe in the last 30 years really not many people yes really

wow i had no idea yeah not many people know that um it has

grown in leaps and bounds god has really opened up doors for the gospel for

church planting thousands of churches uh well over um

well over a million believers uh evangelical we're talking evangelical brothers and sisters in christ yeah yeah

and so uh you know there's a real vibrancy in the church in ukraine and when you think about this war and i

know i'm going to answer and say more than i was even planning what i was thinking about in this when

you think about this war it there's this spiritual component for sure in it and we know as believers that we battle not

against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in dark places ephesians 6

the eight years have become the most repressive for the evangelical church in all of europe the

european evangelical alliance has said that those are the most replaced repressive places can't get registrations churches have had

buildings confiscated that they previously had registered under the ukrainian authority pastors put in prison those kinds of

things and so when you look at this war you can recognize and acknowledge that there's

an intentional press to push out the west the church and so forth so there's a

real spirit no one knows of an evangelical church inside ukraine today that is not

actively working to help the displaced the refugee the suffering

uh the injured um they're providing food they're providing

transportation to borders or to a safer city they're providing scriptures they're

giving people places to live and to sleep you know opening up bridges between locations so that someone can

stay here move there move there move there left and right you hear about leaders pastors deacons

young people in churches serving as volunteers mission eurasia

our our organization is not a large organization but it's got a pretty big impact with

this training that we've done over these last uh these last 30 years since we've been

in existence we've done a lot of training a lot of partnership with a lot of evangelical churches

and now we're heavily involved in the humanitarian response we were involved in the east for these last eight years

but now obviously it's the scale is shifted yeah much much bigger than it was before

um uh so the relationship that mission eurasia

has with the evangelical church allows us then to now come alongside of the evangel church to do a response

in ukraine mission eurasia has helped to provide 35 000 food packages

600 tons of food and with all those food packages and with all that food comes scriptures

we've distributed upwards towards 200 000 pieces of scripture

each food package 35 000 has at least one new testament very possibly if it was in the warehouse at the time a

children's bible and and some other scripture reference material or

evangelical material handed out so alongside of us handing out those things

we have a very small staff is hundreds actually thousands of volunteers

three to four hundred churches i don't know the number right now in ukraine are partnering and working alongside of

missionary asia a thousand to a thousand and a half volunteers every week helping to pack

boxes ship take boxes put them in a van and drive it into this remote city or

town that's in a bad place i say all that just to say here you have multiple hundreds of churches just

passionately trying to take aid and trying to take this the word of god

to places that are desperate for it so there's a real vibrancy in the church

and it's a beautiful thing to see in the midst of this trial to see churches thriving and even

growing and pulling together like that that's wonderful so and how are the people that are on

the ground and the refugees that you've encountered how are they handling all of this emotionally as far as like the the

war itself are they hopeful are they expecting anything to change in the imminent future what do you hear about that

well it all depends on who who we're talking to yeah um

you know in the center and uh in our there's a refugee center

at the church we partner with in warsaw it's not the government center but um we provide aid for hundreds of refugees

every week uh about 10 days ago there was a group of 11

refugees that came from mariopol as well and they too came through russia uh came

around the border came to belarus and then down into um

into into poland and talking to them they told these horrible stories of

tragedy um i won't get into all the details they they go through a

this is after they were then taken out of the steel plant

so they saw a lot of atrocities they saw violence they saw just horrors of war

again not going to get into all of that but then they spent up to seven days in a so-called

filtration system that's what russia called it it was an interrogation

it was a documentation it was research on your family history it was looking

checking your body for tattoos that maybe indicated some kind of western allegiance or

nazi connection or something like that and then then they were given opportunities to

move to different places around russia and praise the lord that they had opportunity to go to a place in russia and they they as

a whole group were able to sneak out the belarus that they got out but the sorrow

and talking to them just the the heaviness the stories the children that have seen

help change that as we begin to share hope and begin to share god's truth and pray with them and so forth so

uh to take the flip of that is my i have friends um my wife and i had breakfast

with a pastor and his wife in warsaw just about two weeks ago

uh alex and irina and this is a family that

has been ministering faithfully for decades they have many children i believe they have eight children but

most of them are adults now a few of them are still at home but um

they have a home in erpine and erpine if you remember is the place that was occupied by russian troops

most of it was destroyed and their home was one of the places that was destroyed

and their home was a hub for activity and ministry with all those kids they had kids coming

over all the time as as a lot of homes have you know that kind of thing but also he was heavily

involved in music ministry he would have concerts and ensembles and practices and discipleship meetings and leadership

meetings all right there in that church i'm sorry in the house so it was a real

you know center for for ministry family for life and it was gone and you would think

they kind of they kind of wanted a home their whole lives as you can imagine and here they had one and

they had it for a period of time and now it's completely gone and when they left to go to poland um the place wasn't destroyed at that

point but they only took the things that were in their car so just a little bit that they had

and they found out that it was gone you know they went through a hard time but as they're sitting with breakfast at

breakfast with us they're saying you know the lord gives the lord takes away

blessed be the name of the lord we will serve the lord where he calls us

where he puts us those things the house it's just stuff

right you know eternity is what we're living for they had a chance to go to another

country and they decided not to go uh to that other place

and stay in poland because they felt like and feel like this is a place that they could use their gifts

for god's glory in the best way possible so they're working as part of our ministry team through the church

together with them we went into a uh we've been going into a refugee center a

smaller one small 220 people that's all um but trying to do some ministry with

kids um with the adults that are there in that center living there it's a little bit it's a lot it's a little bit

better than that government center they have individual rooms and so forth so it's definitely definitely better

um but just trying to meet the needs of those people that are there and we're actually we haven't done this yet but we're talking about doing some concerts

since they're they're so musically gifted to actually just do some concert outreach we asked the people when we

were there and they said oh we'd love to have that so that's great so you know you have those contrasts

people who are who are fearful who don't know what the future holds and then you have alex and irina and they don't know

what the future holds but they know who holds the future you know and that's the key and

they rest completely in that and it's such an example to me um [Music]

all the things that we have all of our homes all of our cars any any stuff

it doesn't matter you know and that's the reality of war it begins to make you think about what

really really matters in life in eternity

in eternity yeah and so i thank the lord for people like alex and erina

absolutely so and how would you say i mean you've talked about the people kind of coming

together and having optimistic outlooks and helping each other but i mean aside from that is there anything else you can

tell us about how god is taking this situation that was meant for evil and turning it for good like any miracle stories or anything like that

sure sure well you know early in the so my wife and i we were church planters and kiev

as i mentioned before um helped plan a church that's called hope church uh in the city

itself and a young young man at the time who i helped mentor to become um

well he wasn't even that young he was older than me but to become pastor to become pastor

has now served there for for nearly 25 years as as pastor of that church

and when the war started i was talking to him on a daily basis they went having having air raid sirens

the city of kiev was being was being bombed or at least there was missiles coming into the city

um literally a hundred meters a hundred yards or so down the street from the church was one of the very first

missiles that hit one of the living blocks in the entire war wow we lived

right we lived really close to that spot and i remember when my kids saw those pictures it was so surreal to imagine a

place where they learned to walk they were learning minis learning

what you know church they were learning life they were learning family we're growing up

in a place that was now being bombed but pastor andre was was sharing with me on a daily basis what

was going on and they had 40 50 60 people living in the basement of the church in those early days

a lot of people were unbelievers a lot of children they would have worship worship services they would have

bible stories sharing the gospel one day he shares with me about a young

man and his wife who were living down there the the wife had become a believer

the year previous she wanted to be baptized and her husband refused to let her be baptized

and here he is with the pastor in the basement with air raid sirens going off

with barricades being built outside the church by government forces and here he is sharing god's truth with

this young man wow and over the course of one particular evening

they were debating back and forth is a kind of a vibrant conversation and ultimately this young man gave his

life to christ that's awesome and so and that story repeats itself even at

hope church many times uh pastor andre and i were talking yesterday he's heading back to keeve and

i'll tell you where he is right now in a moment but he's heading back to kiev shortly and uh he's going back because they're

going to do a baptism in the first week of june and all of those who gave their lives to christ down in the basement of

the church in the bomb shelter inside the church which sounds strange but that's the reality

they're going to baptize them they're going to be baptized now the other miracle of the story with

with andre is he very unexpectedly was evacuated himself i say that because he

had to take a trip to western ukraine with his wife for a different purpose but related to

the war ii and someone told him he should get on this bus and go to switzerland with this

group of refugees ultimately it was a caravan of buses and 120 130 refugees taken to one particular

location in switzerland when he arrived there he wanted to turn around and go back but people persuaded

him and his wife to stay to become pastor of a new church at this

refugee center which was basically like a vacation place he says it's really

nice but it's not home but he was showing me pictures and sharing stories

21 people have come to christ at that church plant

in the last two and a half months 21. yeah he's

he's invited down the street to the catholic church this is a baptist pastor friend of mine

to the catholic church where he's been invited to preach multiple times in his broken english

and then they translated into german swiss german down there i met the catholic priest online

yesterday actually and uh they're letting the baptist church our my pastor friend from kiev

to have a worship service at the church every week on sunday at two in the afternoon and so there's this picture of

about 80 people inside a church catholic church building in a worship service baptist worship

service in switzerland wow how crazy everybody's coming together

well yeah and and people are coming to christ which is beautiful and pastor andre says to me yesterday

and this is something that's been on my heart and you think about what god is using and how god is working

you know one of the worst saddest moments in scripture if you

didn't know what was coming next would be stephen preaching the gospel and getting stoned and that the horrors of that

that happened in chapter seven of acts and then in chapter eight the church falls under great persecution

and they're scattered and in verse four it says and as the church was scattered they preached the

gospel wherever it went preach the word of god wherever it went and andre said this yesterday

and i've seen this happen again and again i've heard pastors say this the ukrainian vibrant strong ukrainian

church is now going back into europe into some of the most unsafe places now

you know some of these countries have have really dwindled in their evangelical presence

and they're able to be a light for the gospel and he says that's my big prayer request is that

ukrainian believers would be intentional to do that acts 8 4.

as they're scattered preach the word of god wherever you go that was his prayer request so

um what what man intended for evil there's some pictures of what god is

doing for good lives are being changed transformed the church is responding

and and there are believers that are going and planting churches and planting

seeds of the gospel i could share more stories about those very things and that's what we're trying to help

with in poland is helping leaders uh which there aren't a lot because of

that whole thing i said at the beginning was 18 to 60 staying in country but those that are there trying to help them

to to be intentional with their walks and and their witness in poland and switzerland and

moldova or wherever absolutely well is there anything that i have not

asked you that you want to make sure that you leave with our audience that's my catch-all question

yeah no um

don't cease to pray for ukraine

i say that like that because in the first 90 days

um maybe two months of the war and we're we're past 90. no we're not past 90. we're getting

close but in the in the first in the first few months of the war um

there was a lot of fervency there it was on the news a lot there was a lot of interest there was a lot of prayers by

churches and a ukrainian pastor baptist brother said that the prayers of the global

church is the iron dome of ukraine whether or not we want we want the west to send to close the sky whether or not

we want more weapons to go in or not or get nato involved whether or not what it doesn't really matter

he said the key is that the church of jesus christ around the world would intentionally fervently passionately

pray for ukraine so my my word is keep praying for

ukraine god has answered prayers on these spiritual levels we've even seen

some of those miraculous things on on the battlefront because what is happening is evil

the war is evil the violence the atrocities that are in the thousands

are horrible and we need to pray that god would would uh would stop what's happening

we also need to pray that the church in ukraine and in russia would stand up for

the truth be intentional in the midst of this war in the midst of what's happening

and even in both cases grow expand and continue to do the the things that god's called

us to in the great commission absolutely absolutely so where can people go to learn more about you and

about your ministry well it's real simple mission eurasia.org

www.missioneuration.org and you'll see right on that very first page you can click and find anything that you need to

know about giving to mission eurasia we've handed out 35 000 of these

boxes around ukraine and plus additional aid in other places so beyond that

with scripture each of those boxes costs about fifty dollars to deliver to into a person's

hands a needy person you can see lots of pictures of that even on our website

and you can sign up for newsletters and our prayer update we do a regular daily prayer update praying for the

different needs of ukraine i mentioned the critical need to pray well that's a good reminder get a get something in your inbox every morning

so go to missionerasia.org and get signed up for those things and and give to help send

some more food packages and scriptures into uh into those that need it the most fantastic i will link in the show notes

to that url and make sure that everybody has access thank you so much for your time really appreciate everything you're

doing sure thank you so much lauren i appreciate your time for sure

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