As Levi Brinkerhoff drove through western Ukraine toward Hungary with his family, he could hear planes overhead. He wasn’t sure whose they were.
Along the way, they kept replanning their route as they heard news reports — another city hit, another road planted with land mines.
Brinkerhoff first moved to Ukraine in 2005 when he was a teenager and his parents went to serve there. Even after they returned, he stayed, having married his wife, Anastasia.
He, his wife and their four young children recently left Ukraine and are staying with friends in Indiana. He will speak at a men’s breakfast at Mt. Comfort Church on March 26.
It’s a very different day-to-day life from what they’d planned. In June 2021 they had moved to her hometown of Dnipro, a city of a million people, where they were working to build relationships and plant a church.
As news of impending Russian invasion came, he and his wife discussed their options. Strikes came around 4:30 a.m. Feb. 24; Brinkerhoff heard about it at 6. By 7:30, the family was in its van on the way to the border.
Five days later, they reached Hungary, where they found an outpouring of care and love.
“The care that everyone in European countries … have had for us has been incredible,” he said.
Once in Hungary, their focus shifted to helping people they knew who were still in Ukraine leave the worst conflict zones, assisting them in figuring out their route and finding places to stay in Poland and Hungary. A few days later, they decided to leave for the United States and are staying with friends in Indiana. On the flight out, the cabin crew gave the family a card and presented his wife with a bracelet, “just as a gesture of solidarity,” he said.
Now, he’s speaking at churches that will welcome him, hoping to gather support and send some supplies to help those still in Ukraine. Mt. Comfort Church is making a donation to Brinkerhoff’s work and will also gather an offering at the men’s breakfast, said the Rev. Ethan Maple, the church’s pastor.
“Two things crossed my mind,” Maple wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter. “First, I don’t know this man’s full story, but I want to; I can’t imagine the journey he’s been on with this family and in his ministry. He can give us a perspective of what’s going on in the Ukraine that is unique and from a Christian lens.
“Second, so many people are wondering what more we can do to help … to have a long-term connection to what inevitably will be a long-term need for the people of Ukraine will be a blessing to hopefully him and us.”
Former Hancock County residents Josh and Sarah Brown ministered in Ukraine for three years. They had not been there long when Russia invaded in 2014.
“There were police cars on fire and overturned right down the street from where we lived,” Josh Brown recalled. The family left, returning in 2015 and staying until 2018.
Now, the church where they were in western Ukraine is working to help the flood of refugees arriving.
“I watch the Twitter accounts in Ukraine, and it’s crazy,” Brown said. “Humans now, from everywhere, can see images that are raw war.”
Several local churches have ministry partners in Ukraine and/or a way to help through their larger denomination.
The Rev. Kerry O’Brien of Mohawk United Methodist Church said the denomination is working to help United Methodist churches in Ukraine, even as those churches help their neighbors. The Indiana Conference of the UMC recently gave $10k to support aid to Ukraine.
The Mohawk church has been accepting donations to send along to help through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), or people can donate directly to UMCOR online. O’Brien said because the United Methodist Church funds it, donations all go to actual relief work and not organizational overhead.
“UMCOR is usually one of the first 2-3 agencies to put boots on the ground during crises,” he wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter. “UMCOR provides help in all three phases of recovery — immediate (ex: food and water); intermediate (ex: clean-up work); and long-term (ex: rebuilding/reconstruction).”
Kelsey Breton of Realife Church said it also has ministry partners in Ukraine. “For the longevity of their ministry we can’t share too much information, but they are housing and feeding thousands of people a day,” she wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter. “In addition, we are also partnering with Convoy of Hope, an outreach organization that focuses on disaster relief. They had teams on the ground the day after everything started in the Ukraine providing shelter and meals for those who were affected.”
Gary Wright of World Renewal, which has headquarters in Greenfield, said it once had missionaries in Ukraine but doesn’t at present. It does have friends there, though, who are refugees and is sending aid to them.
Brinkerhoff encourages those interested in helping the people of Ukraine to, in addition to contributing funds, call their representatives and urge that Ukraine be made a no-fly zone. It won’t stop Russia from bombing Ukraine, he said, but were Russia to violate airspace with that designation, it would incur more sanctions and therefore feel more pressure to stop.
“Pray for peace in Ukraine,” he urged, “for the salvation of the Ukrainian people, and that those who have been bereaved of their homes would find their hope in an eternal home that Christ promises us.”
HEAR HIM SPEAK
Levi Brinkerhoff, an American pastor who recently fled Ukraine with his family, will speak at a men’s breakfast at 8:30 a.m. March 26 at Mt. Comfort Church, 3179 N. County Road 600W (Mt. Comfort Road). An offering will be gathered for his work. Those who’d like to go to the breakfast can register for free online by March 24; go to mtcomfortchurch.com and select “click here to register” on the men’s breakfast notice in the upper right.
HEAR THEIR STORY
Mark and Nora Apple left Hancock County for Ukraine in 2016 and served there for about a year through World Renewal. Mark Apple was recently interviewed about the experience in this World Renewal video: https://youtu.be/N_lGdQ4eEns.
HELPING UKRAINE
-One Mission Society in Greenwood, https://onemissionsociety.org/Projects/detail/refugee-and-relief-fund
-Samaritan’s Purse, www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/ukraine-response/
-United Methodist Committee on Relief,
