Who are the heroes? Part V Ukraine

                           Maxim Belov is in third row on the left.  Olya is in front of him on his left.

I can’t hope to name all the people who selflessly helped refugees and IDPs (Internally Discplaced People) in my blogs.  There are many unsung heroes.  

My goal, however, is to praise those I know who have made a difference.  Usually these people would reject the idea that they were heroes.  They were just reaching out with caring hands and arms in some cases  to friends and relatives.

One such couple of heroes were Maxim and Olya Belov in Zaporozhye, Ukraine.  Maxim is from Fedosiya, Crimea.  Maxim directs the part-time education department of Zaporozhye Bible Seminary. Among the courses Maxim teaches are: Evangelism; Spiritual Growth and Discipleship; Methodology of Working with  Pre-Schoolers, Elementary Age and Adolescents; Preparing and Conducting a Bible Lesson at the Zaporozhye Bible Seminary. The city of Zaporozhye is where the Zaporozhye Bible Seminary is located. I have taught and helped recruit professors to teach in their Master of Theology program since 2012.

Russian forces took over the Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea, taking it from Ukraine in February 2014.  The Crimea was the home of the Russian Naval fleet during the years of the Russian Empire and during the Soviet Union.  Crimea has the only warm water ports (those which do not freeze) unlike the Baltic Sea ports of St Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Archangelsk.  The Russians wanted the Crimea to have these warm water ports (Sevastopol, Yalta and Fedosiya, among others).

While the turn over in Crimea was not as violent as the takeover of Donetsk and Luhansk, later all Ukrainian citizens in Crimea were immediately considered citizens of the Russian Federation and required to turn over their Ukrainian passports and get Russian passports.  If they did not they would be stateless, having no country.

When Crimea was taken Maxim was shocked and heartbroken.  He considers himself a Ukrainian citizen of Russian descent, like many others in the eastern part of Ukraine.

The people, who were driven out of Crimea, were in some cases his friends and relatives.  Maxim did not think out what to do.  He just started helping the “refugees.” (Again Russian doesn’t distinguish between refugees and IDPs.  Technically these people were considered IDPs by international bodies.) Maxim and his team including his wife, Olya, started to collect clothing and food.  They distributed these things to the refugees.  They also spent time just talking to the refugees, counseling them.  They raised up a team of helpers to help with the distribution of these goods.  He also held children’s day camps sharing the Good News of Jesus and encouraging these youngsters.

Our church here in the Netherlands contributed money for food and relief supplies.  Other churches in other places also helped.

Zaporozhye lies about 220 kilometers or 137 miles from Donetsk, which was officially take by pro-Russian forces in May 2014.  Donetsk was home to a Christian college, Donetsk Christian University.  When the pro-Russian forces took over the town they commandeered the university taking all its buildings and equipment.  The pro-Russian forces also took the city of Luhansk in May 2014. Luhansk is about 350 kilometers or 217 miles from Zaporozhye. 

“Refugees” flowed into Zaporozhye from these cities.  Zaporozhye, on the Dnieper River, is the closest large city in Ukraine near these cities which were taken.

This ministry went on for a few years until the Mennonite Central Committee and another NGO came in to coordinate the efforts of groups like Maxim’s and others.

Maxim and Olya would not see themselves as heroes.  They acted from their hearts to care for those they knew and didn’t know.  They are an example of what people can do when they have compassion on refugees and IDPs.

Fortunately, the Ukrainian government has been supportive of NGOs who help these displaced people.  The churches in Ukraine also supported and gave sacrificially.