Molotov
Cocktails
Ukraine
and
By Randy Marshall,
Missionary in Ukraine,
One Mission Society
Prayer
in
Pastor Vadim’s voice had a touch of fear when he called
me one evening in early December to request prayer for
Ukraine. “The riot police are getting ready to clear Maidan”
(Kiev’s central square), my friend told me. “Something could
happen in the middle of the night.”
Pastor Vadim feared for the many protestors who had come out in force to stand
in Independence Square—protestors
who initially demanded the government change its mind about
canceling proposed trade agreements with the European Union
but later demanded the president’s resignation and a movement away from corruption and
toward the rule of law.
There was concern that the
government would use force
to oust the peaceful protestors
and that people would be hurt
or even killed. So, Pastor Vadim
asked me to send emails to all our
Christian friends in the U.S. and the
world, requesting prayer for Ukraine.
Although the protest movement, located
about 20 minutes from our apartment by
metro, had sprung up a couple of
weeks earlier, it didn’t seem dangerous to me until that moment.
So, we prayed and got others
praying, and thankfully nothing significant happened that
night.
But that was the beginning
of a tense standoff and even
tug-of-war between the government and the protestors
that lasted more than three
months.
It led to massive rallies on
Sundays—rallies that competed
with our Sunday meetings, leading
to a drop in participation in our events.
It led to physical conflicts between police
and protestors, which included incidents of
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