“This weapon gives life, hope, changes life, gives happiness,” says a Ukrainian soldier while pointing to a New Testament provided by BTJ. Then he shows his automatic rifle and continues, “this weapon takes life and brings pain and heaviness. May God protect us from it!”

A year ago, BTJ funded and produced almost 36,000 New Testaments in the modern Ukrainian language and our partners delivered them to where they were most needed: military hospitals, the frontlines of combat, and cities under artillery shell fire. Racing against time, bringing the precious Word to people and hoping it will reach them before bombs do; seeing people receive their copies of the Bread of Life along with packs of basic supplies and food were heartwarming moments. We’ve received videos of tireless Christians driving their minivans through Kharkiv and setting up humanitarian points – even when the city was under artillery fire.

Thanks to you, the BTJ supporters, we were able to manufacture the Bibles in solid hard cover and in two designs: “civilian blue” and “camouflage”, all of which disappeared quickly, as the need was great. Now, a year later, we are still receiving pictures and testimonies from people who are clinging to God despite the war horrors and hardships, and still sharing the good news of Jesus in times of despair.

In our line of ministry it is not usual to be able to safely share so much feedback from Bible distributions, but this time is different. Ukraine is not a closed country where the Bible would be a main target for the authorities, so we have the liberty of reporting on the heavenly news from this war-torn country.

Civilian or soldier, Ukrainian or Russian, all need the grace of our Lord to get their lives together and persevere. Thanks to some small miracles we were able to supply the Ukrainian soldiers with the Scriptures and we pray that there is someone on the other side of that conflict, working on bringing the precious words of Jesus to the Russian soldiers. Once we were all there; lost, covered in sin, hopeless and, as we were found, we can now understand the spiritual needs of those involved in this war, and we can all pray and work to reach the ones who are still in the darkness of sin.

“Before the bombs do…”