A passionate pastor and his people

Editor’s note: In Neale Bayly’s summer series, “Solo Moto“, he recounts his life-changing 5-week motorcycle trip around Ukraine in 2023. That trip changed his life in profound ways, and sent Neale off in new directions with his Wellspring International Outreach foundation. In this story, Neale introduces Pastor Sergey Lysak and his congregation, sheltering and supplying their fellow Ukrainians amidst the death and destruction on the front lines.

When God told Sergey Lysak to prepare for war on February 21, 2022, no one took him seriously. As Putin massed troops along the Ukrainian border, most people thought it was nothing more than a military exercise. Sergey knew war was coming though, and that he needed to be ready. Stockpiling food, money and other resources, Sergey brought his team to the family home in Hostomel. He knew fuel and transport would be needed, then made sure cars were fueled and people had cash.

He told everyone to be ready.

At 4.a.m on February 24, his world violently erupted in an explosion of death and destruction, with thousands of people fleeing their homes for the underground train stations in an attempt to survive. Sergey received another message. He had been right, and even amidst the shock of the invasion, the danger from falling missiles and the noise, confusion and panic all around, God spoke to him again.

A people coming together, sustained by their faith.

Sergey and the team started taking food and supplies to a local Metro Station. Then another, eventually ending up supporting twelve Metro Stations as his fellow Ukrainians fleeing the advancing Russians sought safety underground. Later he saw another need and started sourcing sleeping bags. In those early days of the war, Sergey and team did whatever they could to support those who couldn’t help themselves. In total more than sixteen trucks, each carrying twenty tons of food, rolled across the border from Sergey’s contacts around Europe. Mercifully the team was able to feed the people, forced underground into hiding with little more than the clothes on their backs.

On April 3, God spoke to Sergey again, so he loaded up his van and headed into Bucha against the advice of his family and friends. The Russians were pulling out, the streets were filled with dead bodies and many of the roads were heavily mined. Travel was extremely dangerous. When Sergey first arrived in Bucha, he was unable to speak. As he recalls, sometime after that first visit he gave one of the first reports to the outside world on an Australian radio station.

It was impossible to hold back his tears.

Sergey knew the stress his wife was under at home, but needed to be there amidst the suffering. Everywhere people were hungry, and an old man ran into the street yelling, “Are the Russian’s gone? I need food.” Sergey met a lady just sitting and shaking. She had lived on one egg a day since the occupation and was close to starving. Another lady, who survived by hiding some carrots, told him how her husband didn’t make it. He had given her what little food he had so she could live.

They are not coming to church: they are the church.

At this writing, I’m standing in the back of Sergey’s church in Hostomel. It’s not just a church. It’s a safe house for people to stay warm when the Russians take out the power grid. The floor has a special heating system that can burn wood, and it’s able to hold one hundred beds for those who need a warm place to stay and a hot meal. There is a kitchen and handicapped bathroom to meet the community’s needs. Even though at this moment they are not quite finished.

Listening to this man speak, I feel the ground underneath me become unstable. Everything I’ve used in my life to make sense of my existence is gone, and I’m transported to a place where I feel his pain tear through every fiber of my being. I listen to this beautiful, humble man speak from a heart as big as Ukraine.

All I know is I’m in the presence of greatness.

With Sergey navigating through the destruction the invaders have wrought upon simple, innocent civilians in Bucha and Irpin, he realized, “Putin taught us to live in a new way, to keep going.” Learning of children killed, sons and daughters killed, God gave him a new message, “This is a time of restoration.” Gazing at a kitchen that had been destroyed, Sergey decided on the spot to restore it and this is what started the next phase.

Pastor Sergey leading his people by word and example.

By now, people were recognizing the van they were traveling in, and an old lady asked for a ride to her house. She had been hiding with a friend during the occupation. On arrival, she saw her house destroyed and started crying, “Mother, look what they have done to our home.” The team decided to stay and restore the house the best they could.

Sergey knew he needed to find a solution.

He found a modular home company. “We had no money but we had to keep digging, and little by little we found what we needed and bought the lady a modular home.” They have built 230 so far. Sergey is quick to point out to the audience that neither he, nor anyone on his team, is a “super guy.” He tells us they are all just simple Ukrainians doing what they can to help. What he doesn’t say that I learn later is, his teenage son Misha has set up a small business and earned $4,000 since the war began. He donated it all to buy a modular home. The apple clearly doesn’t fall far from the tree. Sergey then spends some time thanking everyone in Europe and America who have helped them achieve this amazing feat.

This is what I call, “pure and undefiled religion.”

Next he moves into future mode, expressing his desire to finish their church and make it a center for disabled veterans to come for rehabilitation during the day. Sergey needs to source prosthetic limbs, needs another one hundred houses in Kharkiv and more in Kherson. Then he prays that none of the missiles launched today will kill any children, and we are treated to some local musicians playing what I imagine are Ukrainian hymns and songs.

When the talks and music are over, we move outside as Sergey hoists a Ukrainian flag with some solemn words. There are tents set up for children’s activities and all ages are represented for the ceremony to celebrate the new church building. I move back to take photographs and watch a community gather together, led by a man whose words, I hope, for a brief time wash away the stains of their suffering. Allowing the chance to live outside the walls of hate, fear and anger as he leads them in prayer.

“God is love and we need to love people.”

It’s not possible to do more than shake Sergey’s hand when the ceremony is over and thank him for inviting me to visit. I have to ride back to Kyiv, where I am staying, so I bid him farewell. What I didn’t know was that within a few months I would be able to spend time with him in the USA. He came to a fundraising event put on by some new friends here in North Carolina and I would enter into a lasting friendship now with Sergey and his team.

Neale

To learn more about Neale’s work, click on this Wellspring International Outreach link: