What Is Happening in Ukraine: Voices from People on the Ground - Jaroslaw Lukasik, Oleksandr Ozeruga

This talk addresses the war in Ukraine, hearing from leaders seeking to make a difference in the midst of the crisis. We hear about how Christians in Ukraine view the war as well as some of the creative ways they have responded to the challenge. 

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Jaroslaw Lukasik was born in Eastern Poland. In 1989, at the age of 17, the Lord called him to preach the Gospel in the Soviet Union. After graduating from Warsaw University, Jaroslaw moved to Belarus where he founded John the Baptist Church in Minsk and initiated a number of ministries, mainly aimed at evangelizing young intellectuals and spreading the Christian worldview in various spheres of society. In 2007, after 14 years of living in Belarus, Jaroslaw was accused by the neo-communist regime of being a national security threat and was deported. In 2008, together with his wife Natalia and four children, he moved to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he has lived ever since. In 2011, Jaroslaw began the Eastern European Leadership Forum. In 2016-17 he was invited to join the Central Steering Committee of the 500th Anniversary of Reformation in Ukraine. Together with the team of Eastern European Reformation, he carried out many different projects (media, educational, evangelization etc.) within the program Reformation 500. Since 2020, Jaroslaw serves as the director of the Christian Open Academy, which is focused on training and equipping Christian ministers for the Public Square in Ukraine. Since 2012, he has served as a member of the Steering Committee of the European Leadership Forum. Since 2013 Jaroslaw has been the president of the Eastern European Reformation Foundation. When the war started in Ukraine Jaroslaw opened an office in Lublin, Eastern Poland and started to organize humanitarian aid for Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

Oleksandr Ozeruga was born in 1969 in the Soviet Union in the region that is now modern-day Ukraine. He was born into a family with a long tradition of pastoral ministry. In 1990 he was given the miraculous opportunity to leave the country and study at a Bible Institute in England. In 1992 he returned to his home in Ukraine, just north of Kyiv, where he established the first Pentecostal church in the city of Vishgorod. Oleksandr married Oksana in 1995, and they have 5 children and 2 grandchildren. For 31 years, Oleksandr has pastored the church in Vishgorod. For the past 5 years, he has also served as a Bishop for the Ukrainian Church of the Christians of Evangelical Faith, leading the 49 churches in the Kyiv region. Since the war in Ukraine began, Oleksandr has led the church network into serving his nation of Ukraine in many different areas.

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