Pastor Bohdan Kulitskiy and others from Bread of Life church in Ukraine deliver supplies to solders who have been fighting a war with Russia for more than four years.
When the attack on Ukraine began four years ago, the Bread of Life church in Kozelets near Kyiv had no idea what its future would hold. But the leaders of the outreach that focuses on substance abuse recovery didn’t let the fighting and constant sounds of destructive devices dropping around it deter it from continuing to be a house of change for its community.
Instead, it expanded its focus to its neighbors, opening its doors to anyone and everyone in need. It’s been a meaningful display of faith and commitment to many, including its brothers and sisters at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh who have been supporting Bread of Life church spiritually and financially since 2018.
“There’s a lot the church can learn by what they do,” said Judy Shipley, the chair of the Mission Committee at the First Church of Pittsburgh. “People in extremity do seek meaning, they seek hope, they seek community, and they are finding it through people like (Pastor) Bohdan (Kulitskiy) and his team of deacons and ministers. Four years into the war, they are still delivering food, medicine and other forms of aid to the nearby villages. They are trusted by the people and the local government to do the right thing.”
It’s been a hectic and trying four years for the Bread of Life congregation since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February of 2022. Thankfully, the church building itself has not been damaged by the ongoing war in the region, and the ministries occurring there have only increased.
“A lot has happened in four years,” Judy said. “When we talked before (in 2022), Bohdan, Inna (his wife) and their team were busy evacuating people because they didn’t know how far the Russian army was going to advance. There was a lot of panic, emergency and trips down the road. But that settled down in a few weeks and they all went home.
“While they suffer all of the drone activity overhead, they have not been a target. That has been a blessing for them. They still have all of the stress and anxiety about what’s going to happen, but most of the air traffic is heading toward Kyiv and other cities in the southeastern part of Ukraine.”
Bohdan, through a statement he sent to Judy, described what he’s seeing daily in Ukraine.
“We are going through difficult times in Ukraine, and we as a church see the greatest need of people for the Redeemer,” he wrote. “Therefore, this time – a time of war and suffering, when people lose everything: health, relatives, homes, lives – is the best time for the salvation of the soul. Never before have people been so open to the Gospel. Hundreds of thousands of people have heard the Gospel from our church alone and millions throughout Ukraine.
“Times are difficult, but this is a time of opportunities for the Kingdom of God. And our reward with the cup is also multiplied here due to the multiplication of Putin’s iniquities. God uses evil for good.”
The church has been without power since January, using generators and solar chargers to provide heat and electricity to the building during the coldest part of the winter. This hardship has added another layer of ministry to the work at Bread of Life.
“They sourced firewood; they split it, got a trailer and started delivering piles of wood to everyone who needed it for heating and fuel,” Judy said. “Whatever it takes, they’re jumping in. It’s a powerful thing.”
Attendees at Bread of Life church in Ukraine hold pieces of bread that say “Victory.” Pastor Bohdan says it’s “True bread for hunger and healing.”
The resilience of Bread of Life church has given Judy and others at First Church of Pittsburgh new energy and focus as they watch this congregation amid turmoil and tragedy do some incredible things in the past four years.
“Their church building is intact,” Judy said. “In fact, it has become a refuge spot at times, a place where people can gather to hear news. Their ministry, despite everything, has just exploded.
“This is what I think U.S. churches really need to understand: in our decline for whatever reason, we operate out of an economy of deprivation. We lament that we can’t do things the way that we used to, but here’s an example of a church that is bursting with new life. In fact, they have planted new churches in this time.”
“We start new churches not because this is our base, although it has already become so,” Bohdan wrote. “But because there, in the villages and cities where we preach and help, new groups of believers are organized, they are baptized, and we lead them.”
One of these congregations in nearby Oster caters to women who have husbands in the military fighting the war with Russia or who lost them in battle. Finding leadership to guide these new worshiping communities hasn’t been as hard as one might think thanks to the creative way of training that they use.
“Their model is to train people in the job,” Judy explained. “When they reach a certain point, they are ordained and allowed to assume supervised pastoral responsibilities for another congregation. It’s something that has become a necessity but also scales the need to reach more people in a shorter amount of time than our typical approach, which is to send people to seminary for three years and prepare them for a pastoral ministry.”
The recent war with Iran has brought back emotions for Judy of when she heard about the invasion of Ukraine. She can sympathize with those who have loved ones in the areas being hit by explosives and mourns with people who are losing everything they have.
“World attention and media attention has gone on from Ukraine to the war in Gaza and now the war in Iran, and rightfully so,” she said. “These are all parts of the world that we really need to know about and find a response for. But in the meantime, it’s important for us as a church to let the Ukrainians know we have not forgotten them.”
First Church of Pittsburgh also supports a school in the West Bank. The school near Bethlehem that educates Palestinian children who are Christian and Muslim has had to close amid the new fighting in that area, furthering flashbacks for Judy to what occurred four years ago.
“So many elements about this are familiar when you compare what’s happening in Iran to what is happening in Ukraine,” she said. “People who are unfairly targeted, people who are having their culture erased, people who are being told that their language, their arts, their freedoms don’t matter in this larger picture of regime. I do feel very deeply about what’s going on.”
First Church’s support of Bread of Life church is continuing as well. The congregation has sent about $50,000 to Ukraine in the four years since the war started there. That generosity has also strengthened relationships for First Church in its home city.
“We keep telling the story, and it has led to some really great connections in Pittsburgh with those who are also caring for people in Ukraine,” Judy said. “Pittsburgh has a very large Ukrainian community.”
People at First Church can be found attending food festivals and cultural events of local Orthodox churches. The congregation has also hosted events for the Ukrainian Cultural and Humanitarian Institute, which supports a Ukrainian artist who runs art therapy camps for children and veterans who have been traumatized by the war. That artist visited Pittsburgh in the fall, and First Church had a memorable Sunday morning with her.
“She came to talk about her ministry, and she brought samples of children’s art that she provided for donations,” Judy said. “It was a huge awareness-raising event. It was wonderful to see the outpouring in our congregation that morning both dollar-wise and interest, realizing that the effects of war are going to continue for decades.”
Bohdan visited Pittsburgh in 2023 in what Judy described as a “really enormous undertaking,” considering all that was and continues to go on in Ukraine. During his 10-day stay in the States, Bohdan preached at First Church and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and experienced the culture in the Steel City with his wife and son.
“We tried to give them as many church experiences as we could besides the normal touristy sight-seeing kind of things,” Judy recalled. “That was really important in allowing many more people besides the few of us who knew Bohdan and Inna to get to know them and spend time with them. It was a wonderful visit, and they were very appreciative of it.”
Judy Shipley, the chair of the Mission Committee at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, received the Medal of Service to the State from the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Bohdan was instrumental in Judy receiving a Medal of Service to the State from the Office of the President of Ukraine (Volodymyr Zelenskyy) in the fall. It’s a military honor that can also be given to civilians who contributed to the security and wellbeing of the country.
“It’s really a reflection of First Church’s commitment, this steadfast support for Ukraine,” Judy said modestly. “It’s an honor that I receive on behalf of First Presbyterian Church. It is very humbling to know the little bit we’ve done has meant something.
“I know people who have done so much more. I look at this and I just know it is shared with so many others who have given everything.”
Judy and others from the church hope to one day make a trip to Kozelets, but with what is and has occurred in that region, a timetable for when that could happen is unknown. However, communication continues to be constant between the First Church of Pittsburgh and the Bread of Life church.
“They know we’re here,” Judy said. “The biggest lesson for people like us who are not living in conflict zones is to continually reach out and say that we’re here and that we remember them.
“I would say our communication has slowed down a little bit in the last year or so simply because, how many times do you repeat how awful things are, how stressed you are and how tired you are? We kind of go with simple things – maybe a picture of a child doing something funny or recalling a memory that we share. Just little things to take them away for a flash of an instant from what they’re doing to just ‘being’ as people connected to others through Christ.”
Despite the obstacles, First Church has continued its commitments to its Ukrainian brothers and sisters overseas, something that has only strengthened the bond within the Pittsburgh congregation.
“This is what a robust missions program can do in a congregation, even one that is seeing decline in numbers, even one that has a historic building in need of a lot of care, even in a church that sees our neighborhood as a place for deep ministry,” Judy said. “It just seems like God is calling us to hold all of these things. I believe that God continues to bless us in our local ministry because we have not neglected the global perspective.
“At this point, it’s not so much about what we can give financially, it’s about being present with them, sharing life with them, witnessing what they do and telling their story. I think that’s a powerful model. We realize more and more that we are in need of others. We know we are helping them, but they are helping us as well.”
Pastor Bohdan Kulitskiy poses for a photo with his wife Inna and son Tima during their visit to Pittsburgh in 2023.