A Russian bomb exploded near a Christian mission worker sharing the gospel in Kherson, causing him to dive for cover, en has been told.
Daniel Rus is a Romanian working with the Global Network of Evangelists (part of the Luis Palau Association), who has organised and led 24 humanitarian trips to Ukraine. In December 2023, on day two of his most recent visit, he and his team visited five villages surrounding Kherson. While distributing food parcels at the third, a mortar bomb exploded 40 metres away, in the garden of the house they were in front of, and the team were forced to run to their cars.
‘The sound was terrible!’ Daniel commented in his report: ‘I confess that I panicked and did not know what to do.’
A peaceful beginning
Despite an earlier cyber-attack on the local mobile network depriving them of internet or signal, the trip had begun in relative peace. At 6.15am, the team met at a gas station, had a breakfast of coffee and hotdogs, before unloading a truck full of supplies that one of the partner ministries brought.
Daniel shared: ‘We ran the first event in a church in Kherson at 9.00am. Over 350 people came to hear the Good News and receive help. I spoke from Jeremiah 29:11 and we believe many were encouraged and prayed with us.
‘From there, we went to two villages right on the Dnipro river, which is on the border with Russia. We could not stop to take pictures, as we were in an open field which makes it very easy for Russian snipers to get you. Actually, when we drove through that exposed area, the pastor driving our van went so fast that I thought either our engine or tyres would explode!’
After welcoming 100 people at their second event and providing them with a diesel generator to help them charge their phones (the village had been without electricity for over a year), the team heard the sound of mortar fire getting closer.
‘It was a strange and new feeling for most us, as we sensed the war so close and realised the conditions the people still living there have to endure,’ Daniel said.
In the third village they went to, nearly everything had already been destroyed.
Daniel said: ‘No other place in Ukraine has given me such a weird feeling as I had there. It was a ghost village. There were only around 40 people left, mostly widows and elderly with nowhere to go. The government should really evacuate them; it is inhumane to live under the terror of hearing a constant sound of bombing. They told us that the previous day, in the house next to one we were doing the event in, one person had died, and another was badly wounded.
‘As I finished my gospel message and started distributing the food parcels a bomb exploded just behind the house … I did not know what to do. My Ukrainian interpreter just laid down with his head in his hands. I ran to look for a place to hide while trying to see where my son was. Some of the team members threw the rest of supplies out of the van and were rushing to the cars to leave – clearly, we were the target that the Russians had under drone surveillance.
‘I do not know how to describe this,’ he added, ‘But some of the old people present did not seem to care anymore. While most tried to find shelter near the wall, some did not do anything. They simply collected their bags and went home. We left in such a rush… it was the only time we did not say goodbye, as there was no time for it.’
Continuing to serve
Despite the shock of the experience, Daniel and the team continued on their mission. They were given lunch by a partner church in Kherson in a basement where over 50 children share a daily meal and have a safe place to do some schoolwork. They went on to share from Luke 19 with a group of teenagers in the next village, and by the time they arrived at the final village, it was dark.
‘Dark, cold and muddy … but not the hearts of the people!’, Daniel said. ‘They received us with such a warmth and kindness, standing for over an hour to listen to Emanuel as he shared the gospel, and few songs by a local famous singer. But they were hungry. When we started the distribution, probably for the first time, the decency and respect the Ukrainians usually have was not so present. Even though they let the mothers with kids come first, some started pushing as they thought we didn’t have enough supplies for everybody. They did not know that a third van and trailer was parked on a nearby street.
At one point, right in front of me, an old lady who was carrying a crutch in one hand and some bread, a New Testament, her purse and a heavy food-parcel in the other, tripped over a cable on the ground. She fell down and dropped everything in the mud. I tried to help her stand, but she would not leave the New Testament and the bread on the ground, even though it got dirty. I could not hold in my tears, neither can I now as I remember that moment. It is heart-breaking what these people have to suffer because of this war that has gone on for almost two years.’
The team ended the day at a restaurant owned by a pastor in the region, singing old hymns in Romanian and Ukrainian.
Reflecting on their work, Daniel shared: ‘The first thing you learn when you go into a war zone is that you can make plans, but they will change. 100%. There are changes in the number of attendees, changes of time, and changes in the length of the meetings. But we also see a ‘change’ that even Heaven rejoices in – the change of many hearts deciding to put their faith in Jesus!’
