This coming Sunday, I was scheduled to fly to Kyiv, Ukraine, where I and some others were going to be speaking at a seminary and then leading a conference for Calvary Chapel pastors and leaders from all over the country.

We were notified this week that Lufthansa and KLM cancelled our flights to and from Kyiv because of the escalating tensions with Russia.

We are tentatively planning to reschedule the conference for later this year, in the spring, hoping that things will have calmed down by then.

I am grieved by Russia’s attacks against Ukraine, and what it means for the Ukrainian people. I long for the day when righteousness and the knowledge of God will cover the Earth like water covers the sea, and people will beat their weapons into plowshares and wage war no more. (Habakkuk 2:14, Isaiah 2:4)

I have many friends all over Ukraine, and our church supports several missionaries there.

Please join me in praying for the safety of the Ukrainian people in general, and for our friends and missionaries in particular, especially those in the city of Kharkiv, which is very close to the Russian border.

Pray for their churches to be havens that people flock to, for the believers to shine the light of the knowledge of Jesus in this dark time, and that they would be beacons of the hope of the resurrection and the good news of the gospel.