Transformed by the Gospel, [Mia Mikhaluk] and her newly converted husband, Nick, founded International Partnerships in 1997, a ministry committed to carrying out the Great Commission by bringing people to Christ and helping them to grow spiritually. Since its beginning, they have helped plant over 24 churches in Ukraine and other countries.
Growing up an atheist in a Ukrainian family, Maia Mikhaluk accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior in 1992 through a ministry outreach at the University of Foreign Languages in Gorlovka, Donetsk region.
Transformed by the Gospel, she and her newly converted husband, Nick, founded International Partnerships in 1997, a ministry committed to carrying out the Great Commission by bringing people to Christ and helping them to grow spiritually. Since its beginning, they have helped plant over 24 churches in Ukraine and other countries.
Since Russia’s all-out assault against Ukraine began, Maia has daily been documenting events via Facebook posts, keeping friends and the world updated and current on her, her family, and her church during wartime.
Through her writing, readers are gaining insight into daily life in the midst of war, along with a glimpse of what true thankfulness looks like in the most difficult of times.
Counting Blessings Amid Shortages
Amid wartime shortages, Maia explains, “The attitude of gratefulness affects the quality of one’s life more than the availability of luxuries and comforts. I can speak for myself – I feel more gratitude since the war started than I did in the days when life was going the way I wanted.”
She notes how all of us miss out on a lot when we live lives of entitlement, where we take everything for granted, complaining about the smallest inconveniences. Maia recognizes how many of us might be comfortable physically but empty on the inside.
Daily, she is learning it’s possible to do without a lot of things that she use to think were important to her contentment, explaining how war is a very sobering experience, revealing what is truly valuable to us and what we can live without.
“I can’t claim we have reached what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4:11-13, but we are closer to it than we were before the war,” writes Maia.
Through her writing, she encourages readers not to wait to lose a lot to start appreciating what God has given us. “Start counting your blessings,” encourages Maia, “and you will be amazed at how wonderful your life is!”
”I hope this is not sounding too preachy,” she writes but “Just try it, look around yourself this very moment! I bet you will count more than 100 things to be grateful for. Allow yourself the pleasure of being grateful for all the blessings! It will make your day!”
Gratefulness for the Church Becoming What It Should Be
As the war tries to keep Ukrainians in constant fear, Maia is grateful for the people in their churches. She sees them placing their hope and trust in God while continuing to support and encourage each other, looking for ways to serve people in need, praying steadfastly, and helping those in need in practical ways, describing, “The prayers are fervent, and the worship is an outpouring of the heart.”
Her posts give a firsthand look into how her church is getting through this time by being together and focusing on helping others, which she believes is the best cure for worrying thoughts about the war.
“We are not in denial,” writes Maia, “we don’t even forget about current threats, but when we are busy working together, we focus our energy on something constructive, something that has a purpose beyond our own well-being, something that will bring relief to at least a few suffering people.”
As she explains, “Before the war, we used to have potluck meals at special celebration times. Since the war started, every Sunday became a celebration of another week of life, and we have been sharing Sunday meals for months now in our church. One Sunday we celebrated Harvest day. This year after months of trials we are harvesting stronger faith, stronger community, and stronger commitment to serve others outside of the church.”
During these wartime days, Maia believes their church is becoming more of what church should be – trusting God more, praying harder, caring for each other, and eagerly looking for opportunities to serve those who need help.
Thankful for the Brightness of Faith and Hope
As Russia works to destroy Ukrainian power sources, regular blackouts are now a part of daily life. With the darkness, Maia writes, “We are thinking a lot these days about the literal and figurative meanings of Light and Darkness. This fight has been going on for months, and we have been experiencing it not only physically but spiritually as well.”
Maia describes how with these ongoing blackouts, Ukrainians are experiencing a literal darkness, seeing how oppressive, disorienting, and discouraging it may feel, yet seeing, too, how easily the darkness is broken by even the smallest candle flame.
As she points out, “When it feels the worst, the darkest, you look up, and you see the brightness of stars (which you could never see under the city lights before), and you look inside, and you see the brightness of faith and hope. Light can devour the darkness, but darkness cannot consume the light.”
Maia believes although the darkness is trying to swallow them, it fails. As T.S. Eliot wrote, “the darkness declares the glory of light.”
Even with the encroaching darkness, “We know God is in control. We know Light will overcome the Darkness. We know we are not alone,” assures Maia.
Holding Onto Faith, Hope, Love, and Joy During Wartime
Although the enemy is stealing from their country every day, Maia points out that they can’t steal faith, hope, and love, describing how the war can’t steal their faith in God or the hope they have, knowing for sure Light always wins over Darkness.
"They can’t steal the love we have – for God, for each other, for our country!” explains Maia. “They can’t steal the joy we have when we spend time with our families and friends, when we hold our babies, when we hear the news of our army liberating more and more villages and towns; when we see sunshine on another morning after a long night full of air raids.”
So Grateful for God's Favor, Mercy, and Grace
During a recent online gathering of Christian leaders around the world, Maia’s heart was moved to tears as the group sang “Sufficient for Today” in worship.
Hearing the song for the first time during a very tense, non-stop day of air raids and missile strike concerns, she felt she couldn’t have expressed better the summary of what she has been going through during the attacks:
“In the joy and in the sorrow
I find You just the same
And behind my darkest mornings
There's a peace I can't explain
I'm so grateful for Your favor
Your mercy and Your grace
'Cause they go on forever
They're sufficient for today”
Maia writes, "After days, weeks, months of this horrible war that upended all our lives, ‘when sorrows like sea billows roll,’ we can cry our hearts out to God: ‘it is well with my soul!’ Even in the midst of war that has no end in sight, ‘peace like a river attends our souls.’”
Check out more of Maia's story here.
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Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/zabelin
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
