November 3: A Day with a Hero

Can’t remember exactly what we did that morning in Kyiv, but I do remember Lara had the best poppy seed roll from this bakery that was famous for them – just a short walk from our apartment. We were definitely going back there tomorrow morning before leaving the city.

I’ve got a video on my phone with air raid sirens blaring from our apartment at 10:00 am. Just another morning in Kyiv.

We picked up our friend Andriy from his rehab centre, where he’s recovering from his leg amputation. Andriy was a combat medic – Lara has written about him before HERE– and we took him to lunch at a cafe by the water with forest paths all around. Spent the whole afternoon and evening with him, doing several rounds of this beautiful park, enjoying the autumn leaves and deep conversation with great company.

At one point, a young woman stopped as we passed to thank Andriy for his service. Later, we saw a grandmother pushing a baby stroller, singing a soulful Ukrainian song to her grandchild. These moments – they stay with you.

Andriy’s Story

Andriy told us what happened to him at the front. They’d built their position with sandbags and wood. A drone chased them underground, but the last guy forgot to close the screen. A Russian drone flew right in, passed over the last guy’s head, and exploded at Andriy’s feet.

The explosion caused a lot of damage. Andriy was next to anti-tank mines that miraculously didn’t detonate. He lost his leg and suffered massive injuries. Here’s the thing – Andriy was the medic, but he maintained consciousness (barely) throughout. He directed the soldiers on how to treat his wounds and save his life.

They carried him out on a sleeping bag to be evacuated by a BMP (armoured vehicle). Then came a drone.  The soldiers said it was one of theirs -but Andriy sensed no – it was Russian. He called out a warning so following standard procedure they left Andriy in the bag on the ground and retreated to the relative safety of the dugout He was lying there in the dark, calling out to the boys to shine a red light on him so the BMP wouldn’t run him over. But it kept coming. Andriy desperately peered out of his sleeping bag and the moonlight caught the vehicle’s tracks right toward him, he rolled away in his sleeping bag – despite being critically injured. The BMP passed exactly where he’d been lying seconds before.

At this moment the drone hit the BMP on path to exactly where he’d been lying moments earlier. Russians target the injured and maimed.  Thankfully, it wasn’t an anti-tank drone, so the drivers and vehicle survived and could still evacuate him. But in that moment, sparks and metal fragments flew everywhere around him.

He remained conscious through pain beyond imagination. When he ‘was dying’ – and interestingly, he didn’t say “when he felt like he was dying,” he said “when he was dying” – he didn’t think about his life or family. He thought about a verse from David: “Better to have one day in your presence.” And Job 19:25-27: “I know that my redeemer lives,  and that in the end he will stand on the earth.²⁶ And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;”

Andriy’s life has taken an unexpected and challenging turn, but it’s not the end of his story…

Power Out, Life Goes On

That evening, we headed back to the food market complex for dinner, but it was mysteriously closed despite being during opening hours. Power was out across the city, so we doubled back and ate at Shashlyk Pro under generator power. Generators were roaring everywhere. At one point, ours stopped, so they brought little battery lights to our table. Still had a lovely meal – best mushroom cheeseboat I’ve ever had.

November 4: Leaving Kyiv

We left Kyiv with a tinge of sadness. Looked forward to our “opioid hit” from the poppy seed cake, but the complex was still shut. Maybe it was the power situation? Saw locks being changed on another complex – who knows what’s really going on.

On our drive out of Kyiv we saw lots of beautiful forest where people go to pick mushrooms. We were tempted to have a go at picking some. After all – someone had told us that it was easy to be safe and most mushrooms here were edible.  Then at one rest stop there was a big sign showing all the poisonous mushrooms and I did note that not only were there a lot of them but some looked suspiciously like some edible ones!  That was the end of any independent mushroom picking plans! 

Drove out to see a lovely female doctor, who Lara met on her first trip. Amazing woman – volunteers with mobile clinics, cares for her dad, works at a lab, helps refugees from Eastern Ukraine. We came for coffee and got the full Ukrainian welcome: huge meal, homemade jam, homegrown apples, and a bottle of pickled mushrooms to take home.

Diana sounded despondent talking about what’s happened since Lara saw her in April. Every refugee who’d come to them was depressed or traumatised. Some had apparently recovered, but she thinks everyone in this country is deeply traumatised. Everyone’s trying to balance normal life with running to shelters, bombings, Shaheds, work, school, shelters again.

They’ve had recent Shahed attacks on a school and hotel close by. She showed us photos from her window – explosions and fire. When Lara asked if she was taking care of herself while caring for everyone else, her eyes moistened.  She said she was able to get away for a one week break not long ago and at least she ‘sleeps now.’

Through Deoccupied Territory

Driving to Korosten, we passed through badly damaged areas in the Kyiv region – deoccupied territories. Google Maps hadn’t updated that the bridge in Makariv had been destroyed early in the war. We drove past a massive industrial facility, completely destroyed, that Google still showed as operational. Russians occupied Makariv for one month in 2022 and destroyed 3,940 buildings. They’ve rebuilt 75%.

November 5: The Shame and the Glory

The hotel in Korosten had been hit by a drone earlier in the war – Lara knew because they told her this on her last visit. Not many choices about, though the church would have happily hosted us, which they did on our return later, but at that time they were full of volunteers.

After grabbing breakfast and exploring I was taken by a monument to the potato pancake. Ukraine do indeed value and love their food, and so my connection with this wonderful country grows!  That night Lara gave a talk to the Grace Korosten Centre team about depression and burnout management.

It was great watching Lara reconnect with the lovely team she’d worked with at the clinic back in April. Pastor Yura remembered her immediately – last time they’d had this deep conversation through Google Translate about his frontline chaplaincy work in the area where Lara’s grandfather’s village is. There was this heavy moment when Lara told him she knew what he’d shared with her – that the fighting had now reached her grandad’s village and it wasn’t safe to go there anymore. He said he visits the guys defending that area.

They took a photo together, and then Pastor Yura said he’d share the story about the vial of dirt Lara carries with her – actual soil from her grandfather’s land that he’d carried with him through war and all the way to Australia over 80 years ago. You could see what that meant to him, this connection between past and present.

Dinner at the church afterward was memorable. Seeing Christ’s love in action brought mixed emotions – inspiration and love, but also shame. Shame at the lack of international Christian support for Ukraine’s Christian community.

This church does everything – helps refugees, provides army chaplaincy, supports widows, military families, and orphans. They’ve seen firsthand how effectively the Gospel spreads when you help people in crisis, and this war has brought millions into extreme conditions.

Here’s what hurts me: Mainstream influencers raise millions for vehicles and drones. But solid Protestant churches in Ukraine trying to support widows, orphans, and refugees? They get very little, if anything.

These people see their job as being the hands and feet of Jesus to serve those suffering in this war – even though they’re suffering too. They do evacuations from frontline villages, provide humanitarian aid, make camouflage nets, support refugees, and so much more.  They asked for nothing but prayer but it was plain that any help would be greatly appreciated.

We went to bed well-fed and well-humbled.

The world needs to know these stories. Not just about the military courage, though that’s important. But about the ordinary heroes – the churches feeding the hungry while generators roar, the doctors caring for the traumatised while traumatised themselves, the grandmother singing to her grandchild as sirens wail.

This is Ukraine. This is why they’ll win. And this is why we need to do better in supporting them.

Help us SUPPORT them today.