By Christi Mays
When Russia invaded Ukraine in late February last year, Dr. Ivan Rusyn helped rush his seminary faculty, staff and students away from the artillery and missile strikes while he and other key administrators bunkered down a mere 1,000 feet from the Russian front lines to assist those who couldn’t leave.
From that first day of the war, Rusyn, who is president and professor of missions at the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary, and his team have been actively involved in a relief ministry, providing care to those suffering from the atrocities of war.
Rusyn, who visited a chapel service this fall, shared with students how he stayed behind to help, placing himself in grave danger, because “the church cannot serve people without being among the people. We have to walk the same path.”
To help students understand his decision, he challenged them to look at the parable of the Good Samaritan through “Ukrainian lenses amid a full-scale war.”
“A Samaritan was ready to help when it was dangerous,” he said. “He gave the most important thing to the one who was wounded—time and resources. He demonstrated compassion.”
After spending more than 600 consecutive days serving in the war-torn country, Rusyn looks back, knowing Jesus challenged him to stay.
“Our first reaction is to run away from the suffering—from the places where danger is—but Jesus is the incarnation, teaching me to go to the epicenter of the suffering,” said Rusyn, who is also an ordained minister of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church and co-pastor of Christ Temple Church in Kyiv.
