American ministry leader describes classrooms beneath Zaporizhzhia as the war approaches its fifth winter
As children across the U.S. settle into a new school year, Ukrainian children near the frontline in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, are returning to very different classrooms—underground bomb shelters and basements designed to protect them from deadly drone and missile attacks. Above them, the war rages on. Below ground, teachers try to preserve something resembling an ordinary school day.
Eric Mock, senior vice president at Illinois-based Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), recently returned from Zaporizhzhia, where he witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of the war, now approaching its fifth winter.
Founded in 1934, Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) helps “forgotten” orphans, widows, and families in Ukraine, Russia, the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel—sharing the life-transforming Gospel and caring for their physical needs. SGA supports an extensive grassroots network of local evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across this vast region.