Signs of Jesus Return: Persecution
This news story from Russia hits especially close to home this morning. The church spoken of here is that of one of my fellow pastor’s son and daughter in-law who minister at Calvary Chapel in the Ukraine. They are loving and gentle people who want nothing more than to bring the Love of Jesus Christ to the Ukrainian people. Reports from our pastor’s son are that they will continue to stay and do what they have been called to, give the gospel to the people of the Ukraine.
As we approach the return of Jesus, there will be greater frequency of these types of attacks worldwide. Two months ago, one of our Calvary Chapel’s in Africa had their church ransacked and the chairs from the church stolen, seeking to disrupt the services. Some of the members were beaten and the congregation was shaken but not moved. The following Sunday morning they all gathered once again to worship the Lord with planks of wood stretched across cinder blocks.
Nationalists target Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk in Ukraine with firebomb attack
By Peter Wooding
Special to ASSIST News Service
KAHARLYK, UKRAINE (ANS) – The pastor of Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk, just south of Kiev in Ukraine, is thanking God for His protection, after their church building, where his family lives, was hit by a firebomb attack by suspected nationalists.
In the early hours of Wednesday October 14th the attackers sprayed painted on the church wall: “Out with Sects” “ОУД an abbreviated name for a Ukrainian Nationalist movement.
Pastor Wayne Zschech recalls the horrifying turn of events in his blog: “At around 4 or 5am, after smashing the window with a rock, arsonists threw a molotov cocktail into the children’s ministry room of our church/home.
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| Fire damage. |
“The attack went unnoticed until about 7am when my wife Olya was woken up by the smell of smoke.”
Wayne says it was only after the local fire-brigade arrived in just a matter of minutes that they discovered the location of the fire itself.
“After the fire was extinguished we spent considerable time with militia inspectors responsible for investigating the crime answering questions and writing statements. Later in the day the Head of Police for the Kaharlyk region came in person to get a better handling on the situation. He said that this sort of thing had never happened in our town before and in particular to a religious group.
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| Fire-bombed window. |
“Praise be to God for His protection. The fire and water damage turned out to be minor. Good thing we hadn’t bought new furniture that we’ve been praying about for the children ministry for the last few years. There was some water damage in the basement where the computer class is. We haven’t determined the extent of the damage to the computers yet.
“God is so gracious. Things could have been so much worse. Previous attacks had been limited to breaking windows. This act however is a much more serious statement. It was act designed to destroy (our building is valued at maybe $500,000). Worse still six people were asleep in the building at the time of the attack.
“Our three week-old son, Nikita, was sleeping next to a window, whose protection shield has been jammed open for the last couple weeks. (I fixed that roller today!).
The crime may also be assessed as attempted murder if the room floor boards had ignited instead of slowly smouldering. We may have all died from smoke inhalation.”
Pastor Wayne Zschech is asking people around to world to pray that God would be glorified through all of this: “We pray that the Lord would call people to salvation and that He would build up His body. We rejoice in being chosen worthy to suffer for the sake of our Lord and His Gospel. We do also pray for safety but hold this prayer out with open hands.”
For more details go to: http://wayne.calvarychapelkaharlyk.org
