Delivery of hope: Bibles arrive in war-torn Ukraine

During the summer, some 168,000 Bibles and other Scripture-based books have been delivered to war-torn Ukraine.

Bibles have been in increasing demand since the war broke out. Living surrounded by death has caused people to ask questions about life, said Anatoliy Raychynets, deputy general secretary of the Ukrainian Bible Society.

‘I have personally delivered several thousands of Bibles from hand to hand,’ said Anatoliy. ‘It is light in the darkness.’

Amongst the recent delivery were 34,000 compact Bibles in Ukrainian, 7,000 New Testaments and 57,000 booklets entitled Beyond Disaster which enable people to look at the trauma they’ve experienced through the light of the Bible.

‘These are excellent for people on the move, who can’t take much with them,’ said Anatoliy. Being able to give away small copies of the Bible is important when 14 million Ukrainians are internally displaced by the war.

Since the war began, the Bible Society of Ukraine has been delivering bread, first aid and copies of the Bible, but stocks soon ran low as demand outstripped supply.

Anatoliy explained how the Bible speaks into daily life. ‘Daily life is heavy,’ he said. ‘You feel so tired. But, together with churches, we’re doing our best to bring light to the darkness. The darkness is very deep. I want to express gratefulness for all the support.’

You have helped to make this possible, as your generosity has seen more than £1 million raised for Bibles for people in and fleeing Ukraine.

This has meant that since the war began, some 655,700 Bibles and other Scriptures such as New Testaments in Ukrainian and Russian have been delivered to people fleeing the conflict.

They have so far been delivered to Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, as well as to Ukrainian refugees here in the UK.

Bible Society’s Oldi Morava said, ‘We are incredibly touched by the generosity of our supporters and the unwavering commitment of our colleagues in Ukraine, who have made this delivery of Bibles to the people of Ukraine possible, and in so doing, bring words of hope to people living in unbelievable circumstances.’