Nataliya Krishanovsky: My heart breaks

Moving account of an Aliyah field worker about her homeland Ukraine
The army that liberated us from the concentration camps in 1945 now came to attack us! According to one of the war veterans, a female holocaust survivor.

Terrorists, separatists, shelling, buildings burning, executing families… recently, that was the news we read about from foreign countries, but today there is trouble in our own house – Ukraine.
Close to my apartment block a Mercedes car was torched and completely gutted. There were terror attacks in the Kiev metro. There are warnings not to assemble in places of mass gatherings. People in public places started to talk quieter, looking over their shoulders. Our friend who is a Christian journalist was held up in Slavyansk for 13 hours, mocking him and only by a miracle he was released. Families of Pastors from our denomination regularly leave with their families out of Eastern provinces where real battles are taking place now. A Bishop in Lugansk was threatened for his support of Ukraine, so he was forced to leave and escape with 5 children. People in his church are divided – some are for Ukraine and some are for Russia. A leader in his church is a separatist, he started to provoke his own pastor and even threatened him! Synagogues were torched and besmirched with scurrilous language. Jews started to receive threats! How can this be in a peace loving country?

Peaceful demonstrations in the center of Ukraine’s capital ended in the bloody period of November through February. “The heavenly hundred” is the name of the demonstrators shot. Then there is The Crimea, a peninsula the size of Belgium, it’s still not clear to whom it belongs. People in The Crimea are at a loss, bank accounts are blocked. Pensioners don’t get their pensions, there’s a tight control from local “authorities” and telephone conversations are wiretapped. Hesed (a local organization supporting poor Jews) in Sebastopol got the money cleared by a miracle, because Mr. Kolomoyski (local oligarch and banker) personally helped to take the block off the charity’s accounts so that old people could get proper aid.

There’s a war now raging in the East with casualties on both sides. Hundreds of criminals were released from prisons who think they are bosses at the check-points. Movements are not safe by any means of transportation. Thanks be to God for the aid received from “Christians for Israel”. We visited Kramatorsk and Slavyansk during very dangerous circumstances and brought food parcels. There are no coincidences. When we were buying the flour, there were no 1 kilogram bags available only 2 kilogram bags. And then a few days after we brought the food the stores were closed. There’s nobody in the streets. Children don’t attend school. In the first day of the battles, the bishop in Slavyansk evacuated the children of his congregation from of the city. In Kiev today, all Christian guest houses are overcrowded. People take refugees into their homes. My heart breaks at the thought of what might happen to the Jews there.

Yesterday, we visited the war veterans. One lady said: “The army that liberated us from the concentration camps now came to attack us!” Panic is raging among the seniors resulting in heart attacks and stress. Both phones just kept ringing from 7 in the morning till late at night. People decided to make Aliyah that is to move to Israel.

In 2007 an American pastor in Kiev, Phillip Barnett, published a prophetic word received from the Lord that war troubles from Russia are ahead for Ukraine and that tanks will enter Eastern Provinces and that Ukraine will be split into 3 parts. Here is a portion of that message: “When the war against Israel will start, the Ukrainian government will make a deal with the Russian government and this will allow Russian troops to enter Eastern Ukraine and to approach the borders of the Dnieper River along with parts of the Ukrainian army and there will be severe anti-Semitism. Many Jews in Eastern and even Western Ukraine will be arrested and executed. God showed me that there will be many “Babi Yars” in Lugansk and Donetsk with many Jews being arrested and killed while the Russian army will march through Eastern Ukraine. In Genesis 12:3 God said to Abraham that He would bless those who bless the Jews and will curse those that curse the Jews. In 2007 many ministers (myself included) were skeptical about this prophecy but today this prophecy sounds as a serious warning.”

Several weeks ago the Lord continued to speak to him and said that Jews in the East of Ukraine need to urgently leave these hot spots beyond the border of Dnieper River. My husband and I met with Pastor Phillip a couple of days ago and together we studied Ezekiel 38-39, Isaiah 24 and the book of Revelation. Then we prayed. He said that if needed he is ready to open the doors of his church but there are not enough sleeping places. The thought of creating safe shelters keeps haunting me. Today we pray for additional means of transportation and how - and more importantly- where in Israel can these old folks go to? I anticipate a lot of work coming our way in the next months. Thank God for all who pray for the dispersed children of God. We ask you for your prayers for safe transport and wisdom in our activities and for God’s provision and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Nataliya Krishanovsky, Aliyah field worker for Christians for Israel

Because of the serious situation in Ukraine the Aliyah seminars are crowded. In them the potential Olim are informed about the process of Aliyah. Photographs: C4I

A family ready to leave for Israel Photo: C4I

Olim at the airport, left Nataliya Krishanovsky

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