Serving God Under Siege
Serving God Under Siege, Valentyn Syniy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802885692) 2025.
Summary: A memoir of fleeing Kherson when Russia invaded, the challenges and lessons of displacement, and returning home.
Valentyn Syniy’s world turned upside down on February 24, 2022, as it did for many Ukrainians. He is the president of the Tavriski Christian Institute (TCI), located in Kherson, in southeastern Ukraine, not too distant from Russian held Crimea. They were about to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of training Christian workers to serve the church in Ukraine. They’d built an attractive campus with an extensive library. And then came the rumors of war. Working with a security consultant, they’d planned for a possible evacuation. And then a call came from a friend at their bank the day before, urging them to withdraw their funds and clean out their safe deposit box.
Syniy then goes on to narrate the next nine months, living as homeless, displaced persons in Ivano-Frankivsk. Churches there took them in. But first, they had to evacuate, as the sound of shelling grew louder. The drivers they contracted to evacuate them refused to go. This meant buying a used van, which repeatedly broke down enroute. There were good-byes with people they feared never seeing again. Then long queues on the roads, hoping they had enough fuel to reach their destination.
Those who welcomed them did so generously–yet soon there were strains–mostly reflecting the different cultures, including the church cultures of their respective regions. Yet they learned not only to accommodate differences but begin to see themselves within the national fabric of the Christian community in Ukraine.
Assistance from other Christians in Europe and the United States rapidly began to pour in. Quickly, they realized a need to pivot from theological education to humanitarian aid. Much of this consisted of turning the vans around and taking food to the Kherson region, helping those who stayed.
Siniy is honest about his disappointment with Russian theological partners who equivocated or were silent about the Russian invasion. He recounts a long conversation of being urged to “reconcile” without any expression of repentance or denunciation of Russian aggression and war crimes. He also discusses a sobering conference of theologians on “Theology after Bucha” and what it means to preach the gospel in the light of the horrible atrocities in that and many other towns.
But there are also lighter moments–Easter celebrations and his daughter’s wedding. He describes the cross-pollination among believers that would not have occurred apart from the war. And he recounts the continuation of their mission to train Christian leaders in their new location, using both in-person and online courses to continue to train Christian leaders.
In November 2022, the news came that Kherson had been re-captured by Ukrainian forces. (It has remained under Ukrainian control since then, although facing nearly daily shelling from nearby Russian forces.) Siniy describes returning to Kherson, seeing his father and mother who stayed, and witnessing the destruction of the TCI facilities. Russians used them to house military and then stripped the campus of anything of value. Subsequent shelling badly damaged a number of buildings.
This is a powerful and moving memoir. Siniy captures the anxiety of evacuation, the struggles of displacement, and Christians at their best and worst in a crisis. It also captures the resilient faith that presses on in the mission to train Christians for leadership in the church. Their website states: “TCI is the first and only evangelical Christian school in Ukraine with full state accreditation to award bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theology and ministry. Its accredited programs are recognized by Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and provide a legal and professional foundation for graduates to serve in both church and public contexts.” While hoping to re-build in Kherson, they have established a regional training center in Kyiv.
At this writing, Russia and Ukraine remain at war. Russian forces shelled Kherson in the last day (May 27). This book is a good reminder to me of our need to continue to pray for the peace of Ukraine, and for our fellow believers in that country.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.