Into the Ukrainian War Zone

Welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self and this show, I have the privilege of interviewing some heroes in the faith, Pastor Mervin and Dasha Strother who are getting ready to make their third trip into the Ukraine; in, deep into the Ukraine, where the rockets are firing overhead, air raid sirens going off, reaching out to desperate people. In this interview, you're going to hear what it's like what's, happening in the Ukraine, also what you can do to help. It's an amazing interview. It's an amazing story about people that have more courage than most anybody I've ever met, so stay tuned and listen to this. It will touch your heart. Thank you for listening, God bless you 

[Music]

Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host Dr. Ray Self. Very glad you're listening to the show because this is a very important show. In my studio tonight, I have some very special guests and that is Pastor Mervin Strother and his wife, Dasha Strother. Very amazing people, they- they’re- they pastor a church called Cornerstone in Amite, Amite Louisiana- got to say it correctly. Welcome guys, glad you're here.

Pastor Mervin: Glad to be here Dr Ray, thanks for inviting us onto the show.

Dr. Ray: Yeah, and right now it's just uh, I'm very honored and privileged. And I know I just, just let me just fill in a little bit about you guys to the audience. You were missionaries for 14 years to Russia, amen?

Pastor Mervin: That's correct.

Dr. Ray: Actually where you met and raised a family of five, you know, in Russia ,you know, for 14 years. And so, you know, Russia's near and dear to your heart but also the Ukraine is very near and dear to your heart, amen? 

Dasha: That is correct.

Dr. Ray: So, what I want, what I want to talk about in the show is, you have already made two trips into the Ukraine which i think is very interesting because I've talked to several pastors who've gone into Romania and maybe to the border, but not you guys. You crossed the border and went into the war zone, into the Ukraine. Twice you've already done this and you're getting ready to make your third trip into the Ukraine and I just want to tell you honestly, I admire you, your boldness and your courage. I mean, to go into a place where missiles are flying and bombs are being dropped and I don- I saw a video of you guys where you could actually hear the explosions in the background. Pastor Mervin is talking, he said “oh excuse me, there's some explosions in the background” I'm going what? Oh my gosh, get out of there! Get out of there! But my question is you've already gone twice, you're getting ready to go the third time, why are you doing this?

Pastor Mervin: Well I believe first of all because the Ukraine I'm sure is a lot closer and more dear to our hearts than other people around here because of my background in missions and because my wife's background being born in Russia. As you said already, I was a missionary for 14 years in Russia. That's where I met my wife Dasha, we got married, had our first four kids, there; relocated back to the United States in 2006 not because we wanted to but because our kids couldn't get visas to go back after we came home on furlough for that year. And when we heard about what was going on in the Ukraine, our hearts of course were crushed. A lot of people in this part of the world in America don't realize the, the history of the Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union and they're Slavic people just like the Russians, their brothers. So this war that’s going on is, it's not like two opposing armies that are totally different but it's brother fighting brother. It would almost be like Louisiana fighting Mississippi. They have a shared, uh, history. They have a shared culture; nearly a shared language, the Ukrainian language is so close to Russian. Plus, because of the Soviet Union, almost all Ukrainians speak uh, Russian.

Pastor Mervin: And when the church planting association or church association that we're part of, the NRP, the Network of Related Pastors, were going to the Ukraine and Keith Tucci  made a trip. Ss soon as we heard about that and he told us about the need there, my wife and I said we will, you know, rise up and we will make a trip over there because we both speak the language; My wife of course being a native speaker and me from living there for 14 years, picked up the language; and the need was at the, was at the Romanian border because the refugees were uh, spilling over the border into Romania. And then going to different parts of uh, Europe and around the world and the Ukrainians coming out of the Ukraine into Romania didn't speak Romanian and the Romanians who were receiving them didn't speak Ukrainian.

Pastor Mervin: But all Ukrainians speak Russian so we're like, well we can go there and we can help at the border. So that was our original goal is to go work on the Romanian border and help receive the refugees as they came across. Help with translation pray for them, meet their needs and then before we left on the trip, uh, we were asked if we would actually go into Ukraine; and spend our time there in the Ukraine. And that was a game changer for sure. You know, just thinking about going into a war zone. But we decided and our hearts were…as we prayed…And you know a lot of people pray about decisions, and you know, especially a decision to go into a country that's under war. And, you know, they take a long time to pray about it. We prayed about it and it took us about three minutes to say yes because our take was if we wouldn't go do it, how could we ask or expect anyone else to go do it?

Dr. Ray: Dasha, I have to ask you this question. So I know I saw a video of you talking about the air raid siren. So you're in, you're in the Ukraine and you hear the air raid sirens going off. I mean, what was the city- in your view, what was the situation like? What was it like, you know…you know, in, in the war zone? What, what did you see? What was it like?

Dasha: Well uh, it was it was different. The first time we heard it was during the day so we were surrounded by people and they told us that it's just the normal thing, there is nowhere to hide, you-

Dr. Ray: So the air raid warnings were normal.

Dasha: Yes, it was normal for them.

Dr. Ray: No place to go to hide.

Dasha: Yes, that's what they told us. They said don't be, uh, actually before we cross the border I was uh, speaking with one refugee and he told me don't be completely disregarding that. Uh, that because there is a potential danger. But don't be uh, panicking because there is no way to hide anyway. And uh, I, I guess during the day it was okay when we heard it the first time; we were surrounded by pastors we were talking to them and they kind of, kind of calmed us down I guess. But uh, when we were woken up by it at night it was a little bit different because it was dark outside, no lights, everything was uh, everybody was asleep and all of a sudden that noise comes from the outside. We didn't know what to do and we woke up and we looked at each other we're like what do we do. We looked out of the window there is no light because they have the curfew so no light at all outside and we're like what do we do? We, do we get dressed, do we go outside, do we hide, do we…what…And then we're like well, they said we can't do anything, there is no way to hide so we just prayed and went back to sleep.

Dr. Ray: That's, that's so amazing, just…So you got an air raid siren which means jets are coming over that could be bombing, or rockets are coming in, you're just praying. Oh well, pray and go to sleep. Well, my question too is what's, what's it like for the Ukrainian people, what are they experiencing, what's, what's the situation for the Ukrainian people? I've heard, you've told me some stories but what's the situation like for the Ukraine? What do we need to know about the Ukrainian people? What, what are the Ukrainians, what are they experiencing?

Pastor Mervin: Could I back up just for a second in this story that we were talking uh, uh about the air raids sirens when we first got there in the country? So we had just crossed the border. We, we worked on the border for a couple of days and we might can talk about that here in a minute; but we walked across the border, we met our driver who was a Ukrainian. He was uh, downtrodden for sure. He was tired, he was emotionally tired, he drives us into Chernivtsi, the city where we were going, and we stopped to help unload a truck and it was at a dress shop that a pastor's daughter owned and they made dresses and sold them all over the world but it did…

Dasha: Wedding dresses.

Pastor Mervin: Yes wedding dresses but at this time there were no weddings in Russia at all.

Dasha: In the Ukraine.

Pastor Mervin: In the Ukraine, I'm sorry, because their thought was while people are dying how are we going to celebrate and have weddings? And people could get married but there were no wedding celebrations at that time and as we're sitting there talking to them, that's when the first air raid siren went off meaning that there was some kind of activity in the air. It could have been a drone, it could have been anything. We weren't deep in a war zone at that time, we were in the Ukraine. On the next trip and we could talk about that a little later if you want. We went into the war zone but something the pastors said, you asked what it's like for the Ukrainian people, the pastors sat there and as the air raids sirens went off everyone tensed up for sure and the pastor told us as, as Dasha said, that there's nowhere to go if anything happens. And they said something that just touched my heart. And we hear stuff like this and it usually comes from people who really don't mean it in the moment, but they said “if we live, we live for the Lord and if we die, we die for the Lord”. 

Dr. Ray: Wow. Wow. So they're living with the stress of air raid, possible- so the siren goes off, that means okay there's a drone, there's a jet, there's a missile, there, there's something. But the Ukrainian- I know you, you told me earlier all the schools are closed so the kids, you know, that's a very difficult situation for the children. There's food shortages, I would imagine power shortages, there's a, a lot of shortages and, and there's a lot of refugees. I know you told a story about a man bringing his family to the border of Romania, then he has to say goodbye and go back and fight. Just dropped his family off and then go to the front line and fight. And they're all picking up arms and fighting but, so the situation for the everyday Ukrainian civilians is very, very, very difficult. A lot of them are refugees living inside of churches, correct? 

Dasha: Correct.

Dr. Ray: And then, but there's a, there's a lot of effort going to help their suffering. 

Dasha: That is correct and it uh, it doesn't really matter. I mean, it does matter where the people are but the stress is everywhere, so whether people are in the war zone with no power, no water, no food, they just don't have anywhere to go and they're uh, scared that uh, they don't know whether it's gonna be Russian government and Russian soldiers coming in or whether they're gonna still be part of Ukraine; or whether they are away from the war zone and the stress is still there because then they have to make sure that the refugees are taken care of, that uh, they are able to help provide food and shelter and all other stuff; and also they don't know that right now it is peaceful but uh, in the next moment it can all change.

Like, we were recording one uh, message uh, actually greeting, to send to uh, our churches here in America while we were there. And we, um, knew that uh, if we film or take pictures in front of military objects it was illegal uh, at that time. So we picked the place where there was really no uh, military or important objects. It was just uh, you know, little houses on the hill, uh, in the middle of uh, pretty much nowhere. So we're standing there uh, recording the greeting message to the uh, churches and uh. First a car passed by us and they uh, stopped…

Pastor Mervin: they slowed down.

Dasha: Slowed down, uh, came almost to a complete stop. Kind of rolled the windows down, listened and watched and drove off. Then uh, the lady walked by with the groceries in her hands with the bags, she also kind of slowed down, stopped uh, then uh went on her way and then she came back and she started asking us questions. She's like “what are you doing here?” And we explained to her what we were doing and she actually uh, was almost screaming…

Pastor Mervin: Right, she wasn't just asking us questions, she was almost in hysterics.

Dasha: Yes, it was, she was very, very tense because uh, she said “don't you know that you're not supposed to uh, do that?”

Pastor Mervin: There's a war going on. 

Dasha: Because there is war going on. And we said well we are aware that we're not supposed to do any of that in front of any military object or any government object that uh, you know, we know of. And she's like oh, oh well if you're gonna post this the Russians are gonna find out that there is still peace in this place and they're gonna come and bomb us.

Dr. Ray: Oh, wow.

Dasha: And it was so tense uh, that I uh, we had to uh, apologize to her and tell her that this is not our intention for the Russians to find out and that we just uh, you know, here to help them. We're not here to stir the trouble and we apologized and promise that we're not gonna post any pictures or anything like that, that could potentially be harmful to them.

Dr. Ray: Let me ask you a question, so she said if the Russians find out that there's a peaceful region, they're going to bomb it?

Dasha: Yes…

Dr. Ray: So the Russians don't want peace, they, they, in other words if they found out there's an area that has been undisturbed, the Russians are going to bomb it.

Pastor Mervin: Well not, not necessarily. She was afraid of that. Not necessarily that would happen.

Dasha: It was just more to answer your question what uh, is the situation there? The people are very tense

Dr. Ray: I gotcha.

Dasha: So no matter that they are living in the peaceful, so far, area, the tension is so high and um…

Dr. Ray: Speaking out of fear and straight life.

Dasha: Yes.

Dr. Ray: Okay.

Pastor Mervin: You know, and a lot of the people there have come in from the uh, Don Boston, the war eras, they've evacuated there to Chernivtsibecause there's a lot of people who don't want to leave the country. I mean, who wants to leave their home and everything? 

Dasha: Or cannot.

Pastor Mervin: Or cannot leave the country. And the reason that a lot of the men would drive their families to the Romanian border and let them off is because there's a law in the country that men between the ages of 18 and 60 cannot leave the country because it's a wartime, so they want to get their families to safety and they bring their families, drop them off, watch their wife and children walk across the border and then they turn around and drive back to the city that they came from to actively fight or wait to be called to fight.

Dr. Ray: Wow. so every man between 18 and 60 can be called on or drafted so to speak, to fight.

Pastor Mervin: Absolutely.

Dasha: Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Ray: Eighteen To sixt- 

Pastor Mervin: To sixty.

Dasha: Yes, yes. The only exceptions are people who have children with disabilities or have three or more children. 

Dr. Ray: So if you don't have a child with a disability, three more children, and you're a 59 year old man, you…

Dasha: You cannot leave the country.

Dr. Ray:...because you will be called, or you can be called…

Dasha and Dr. Ray: …to fight. 

Dr. Ray: Golly.

Pastor Mervin: I would like to add also, if I can, to the question why we do this. It's uh, it's a gospel issue. We're apolitical and it's not that you know, Russia is the bad guy, Ukrainians are the good guys. Russia is the aggressor in this, but it's a biblical thing because the bible says take care of widows and orphans in their distress. And a lot of these, the, these women and children, the husband might physically still be alive but they're separated and they need help and I would like to also say that if the tables were turned, and the Ukraine was the aggressor and Russia was under attack, uh, under attack, we would be just as involved helping the Russian people because it's a gospel issue.

Dr. Ray: So, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's truth, that is wonderful truth. So what, what's going on? I know that uh, you there's a- I know you, working in the NRP which is Network of Related Pastors, I'm, I'm actually a part of that network is as well, is uh, you're helping to feed refugees, helping the churches house refugees, and which is really difficult because you have these, all these families coming in to live in these, to live in these churches and the churches don't have the facilities to support them and plus, there's the problem of food. And also, you're telling me you guys are helping to drive food, to take food by truck into areas that have no food. So there's a lot going on in the way of assistance.

Pastor Mervin: That's right. Our first trip that we went on, our, our main goal by going into the Ukraine wa- was just to kind of see what was going on and how we could assist, and… Dr. Ray, we were absolutely amazed at the Ukrainian churches and what they were doing. They had all been turned into distribution centers, not just the churches, but people in the church who had warehouses or mechanic shops, every place was turned into a distribution center or they were housing and refugees. And the church where we were at in Chernivtsi, they were sending out about 30,000 pounds, or no, 30,000 kilos I think. So almost 60,000 pounds of food a day. They would receive it into their building, plus they had refugees living in their building, and, and, and they would bag all this food up. They weighed every single item, they knew exactly the, you know, down to the gram almost, how much food they were sending out and where it was going to. And it was, a lot of the people that had come from those regions who were driving the, the, the trucks to go back in there to bring the supplies because they knew the roads; and not only did they know the roads, they knew the back roads that they could get into the cities on because a lot of the main roads they couldn't get through because of the Russians.

Dr. Ray: Wow.

Dasha: And what was uh, the most amazing that the whole operation, it looked like it was so well organized and wa- so, well, just uh, accounted for and everything. It's, it looked uh like it was running for years like that. But uh, when we were there the first time, the war was only 30, 40 day,s so they had only a month to convert their church into this big distribution center and uh, organize this work and it was so well organized it was very impressive.

Pastor Mervin: And one thing that, one thing you don't realize, you hear about oh, well, a church is housing, you know, 75 refugees or a hundred, however many. And uh, but those churches have to be equipped for that. I mean, you have to have enough toilets, you have to have enough showers, you have to have washers and dryers. So while we were there, we were able to actually purchase some of these items for the churches to keep remodeling their buildings to where they could house the refugees more adequately.

Dr. Ray: Wow, that's amazing. And so, and the churches are also um, distributing, you know, a huge amount of food, driving it to the, to the lines; so how, how do they come by this food and, and what, what can a listener, somebody listening to me, how can we help here in America? And how can we support people like you going into the region? Not only, I mean, it's not so much about, you know, helping to pay for, for your trip but how can we support these churches that are sacrificing so much, housing refugees and feeding people and getting food and, you know, what can we do? What can we- it's, my listeners, I mean, whoever hears this podcast, what can we do to help?

Pastor Mervin: Well, the first answer to the question, the first thing you ask, where does the food come from?

Dr. Ray: Yeah.

Pastor Mervin: At that time a lot of the food was coming from Europe. And it was coming across the border and U- uh, in Romania a lot of people were donating the food, a lot of organizations and that's just where we were. The, the Ukrainian border is, is like 300 miles. Long. I think, just with, with, with Romania or something, but it borders a lot of countries, Poland, so there were a lot of points where food was coming in but most of it was coming from Europe, and there was still some food that was available in the Ukraine in different areas so of course they were taking advantage of that and, and using that. But the best way to get involved is anybody can pray. First of all, pray. We know that the people need prayer. The second way is to donate. There's a website, it's called nrpukraine.com. nrpukraine.com. You can give financial gifts there and you can know 100% that 100% of what you give is going to help the refugees there. Everything's going towards food, everything's going to help the refugees. When we travel to the Ukraine, our travel expense doesn't come out of that money, it comes from somewhere else. 100% of that money goes into the effort to help the uh, refugees. 

Dasha: And every penny is needed because it's not only food but like you said that they use vans to deliver that food because uh, the big trucks they could not go through as easily as the little uh, the small cargo vans because uh, they are too big, too noticeable. So the smaller vehicles, but uh, people need fuel and the uh, vans uh, they, because they run so much and they carry this heavy cargo, they break a lot so every penny goes into this effort, whether it is buying the food, supplying the food or delivering the food.

Pastor Mervin: Yeah. Can I share just about our second trip?

22:37

Dr. Ray: Yeah.

Pastor Mervin: Yeah, well my second trip, my wife didn't go with me that time. I went with Pastor Keith Tucci, who's the main overseer of the NRP, our church association. Our mission that time was to go all the way across the Ukraine with a truckload of food. To go over there to deliver the food but not just to deliver the food. They didn't need us to deliver the food, they could have done that themselves. But we went with them just to see what was going on or how we might could form more strategic partnerships with some of the churches in that area so we could keep empowering them to do what they're doing.

So we woke up about five o'clock in the morning, it was before dark. Somebody picked us up at the hotel in Chernivtsi where we were. We went to the church; it was before dark, I mean, it was before light, loaded the van with food all kind of individual bags of food. Uh, loaded up gas. They were putting diesel in the van from big tanks because you can't just stop anywhere and get diesel because they don't have it because most of the diesel in the country is reserved for the military. So we brought big tanks of diesel with us in the vans and we took off on a 17-hour trip across the Ukraine. And the first probably 10 hours was, you know, just a regular trip. We're riding and you know, we're talking. And then we started getting into where there was destruction and you know, you would see where the road was messed up you see buildings that were bombed out and once we got on the other side of Kyiv, it started getting, you know, more and intensifying. 

We went to uh Bucha. Maybe you've heard of Bucha on the news because that's where all the atrocities happened by the Russian army. They brought us to Bucha and we saw just, just buildings bombed out. Whole neighborhoods just totally under attack. And we stopped somewhere and spent the night and they didn't have lights where we spent the night. They had lights but they weren't turning them on. It was almost like a secret operation. We got in there we rented the rooms, we spent the night, we got up early the next morning, we left and leaving the hotel, you're going through these, I don't even know what they call them, barricades. It's like we're zigzagging so nobody could run cars or trucks or tanks through there and it was about another hour and we got to the church in Kharkov where we were going. 

And there were a thousand people at least in line waiting for the food that we were bringing so the first thing we did, we went into the church and there was a prayer meeting. There was the team that was there that's been working, uh, at the church and we had praise and worship and they were singing, they were rejoicing in the Lord; and understand, these are people that are under constant attack. But they had the joy of the Lord and they were praying, they were believing the best, and we went outside and we started distributing the food and we noticed the building directly across from the church was about destroyed. And then we noticed that there were big bullet holes and, and, and uh, holes all in the church building and they told us that not too long before that, they were distributing food and a Russian rocket came sideways through there and hit their church building and destroyed the building next to them and they brought us inside to see the damage in their church building. 

But these people were still full of the joy of the Lord, and they were serving and not only were they serving, they were preaching the gospel. A thousand people were lined up to receive the food, they had a small makeshift praise and worship team out there where they were singing the, you know, singing unto the Lord and they were preaching to everybody that came through. And it was just uh, touching to, to see those people who live under constant attack and, and, and then they put us in a car and they drove us about 30 minutes to the other side of town where buildings and whole neighborhoods were destroyed. 20, 20, 25 story apartment buildings. Totally destroyed by rocket fire and we weren't too far from the front at that point. We could hear the artillery and we can feel the ground shaking at that point and I was just amazed at the destruction and this wasn't uh, military installations that had been attacked; it was miles of apartment buildings; it was rubble everywhere.

Dr. Ray: Wow. That, that's amazing. You know, it just touches my heart. In the midst of all this destruction, more in danger, there's these people praising God.

Pastor Mervin: And full of the joy of the Lord. 

Dr. Ray: And full of of the joy. Consider it all joy. You know, sometimes you just think man, we need that spirit here in America.

Pastor Mervin: Yeah.

Dr. Ray: I just, you know, could we do that? I mean, could we as Americans praise God in the middle of bombings and rocket fire and… that is touching, that is amazing and um…

Pastor Mervin: You know, well, one thing if I could share, the pastor there at the church we were at, he was given a testimony while we were there and he said “you see all of this destruction?”, he said, “but thank god not one person in our church has perished”. Well we got home and about a week later, he sends me a video. It's, it's, it's him and his assistant and they're standing in front of five graves. And they've just buried five sisters from the church who were walking down the road and were hit by a rocket and they perished. And he said these words in the video, he said “We always said thank God that no one from our church has died,” he said, “but we can no longer say that because we just buried our sisters, they perished”.

Dr. Ray: “oh, my goodness”

Pastor Mervin: And their concern was for the lost. They said “our sisters knew the Lord, so we know where they are but what about the people that are dying who don't know the lord?”

Dr. Ray: Wow, so it is a gospel thing. And that is the gospel of Christ. What amazing- I mean, I just, to me, I'm a very compassionate guy and just listening to this, I'm just imagining what you saw because I saw some of the videos, you know, what you saw and just the suffering and the stress and the anguish and how people can still praise God in the midst of all that. Our God is so good in the midst of that and just God bless y'all for what you're doing. And I want to pray with you before, before we get off this podcast. I want to pray with you guys, you've got another trip…

Pastor Mervin: Yeah.

Dr. Ray: …another trip coming up here…

Pastor Mervin: …in a few weeks

Dr. Ray: …in a few weeks. And listen, listeners, this is not a, a show trying to, to raise funds. What I want to do in the show is I just think we need to be more aware of what's happening; you know, in our world. What's happening in the Ukraine and the suffering in the Ukraine but also praises. Praises of God. I mean, glory, God's glory, is still being experienced in the midst of all this stuff. It's just an amazing…happenings in our world today. And um, I think you said something, Dasha, earlier tonight to me about how nobody wins this war. You remember? Dasha: Yeah.

Dr. Ray: What was it you, you were talking to me, you were talking to me about that…

Dasha: Probably that um, there is no winner anymore. That uh, it's a lose-lose situation because this is not uh, about the power struggle or anything, it's about the people. And uh, what makes this conflict a lot worse that like Mervin said earlier that it is not like two complete strangers, uh, that got in a fight with each other. This is a family because this is brother against brother. Russia and Ukraine are brothers. And this is more like a nasty divorce that's happening right now and uh, the people that suffer, they are the ones that are losing everything so it's a loss, loss no matter what. 

Pastor Mervin: No matter what happens, what's happening right now, nobody wins; everybody loses. 

Dr. Ray: Yea,h it's about people.

Dasha: It is…

Dr. Ray: I know sometimes the news, they make it into this political thing, you know, Russia is doing this, Ukraine's doing this, this army's doing this, this army's doing that, we're supporting here, you know, the Communists are supporting here; but, in the end, it's people.

Pastor Mervin: It is…

Dasha: That’s right.

Dr. Ray: It's p-, it's all about people and people who are suffering needlessly.

Pastor Mervin: It is, and Dr. Ray, we focus on the Ukraine and what's going on in the Ukraine right now, rightly so; we could do another whole podcast on what Russians are experiencing. 

Dr. Ray: Yeah.

Pastor Mervin: Inside of Russia right now and how this is changing their life and what's happening to them.

Dr. Ray: Yeah. 

Dasha: And it doesn't mean that we're against Russia when we're helping Ukraine. We're not helping any political, uh, party or any uh, uh, government or anything, we're helping the people that are suffering. The people that lost their homes, the people that lost their loved ones, the people that uh, don't know whether they're gonna be able to ever return. It's uh, here in Louisiana we have hurricanes every single year and uh, when the hurricane is coming, you know, brace yourself. Prepare yourself. In a few days, a few weeks, everything will be returning back to normal. These people have been uh, in that brace yourself mode for months already, long months…

Pastor Mervin: Six months. 

Dasha: …and they don’t know when it is gonna end. And if it's gonna end, and if it ever will be returning to normal.

Dr. Ray: That's, that's very, that's very well said. Well I'd like to do two things, I, I want to, I mentioned again if you want to help financially which again, as Pastor Mervin said, the money goes all to the, to the, or to the refugees. This is not to pay salaries, this is for, for money, for food, for fuel to get the vans operating so the vans can deliver uh, and remember they have to use vans because trucks are too obvious, the Russians would maybe strike from, from above so they have to use these vans to get into the war zones to feed the people. And so your donation goes right to this and, and to help churches house these, these refugees and so on. And that is uh, one, one way to give is to… it'sn,  nrp

Pastor Mervin: ukraine.com.

Dr. Ray: nrpukraine.com. Again uh, Pastor Mervin and Dasha pastor Cornerstone Church in Amite City, Louisiana, an incredible spirit-filled church of God, one, some of the most loving people I've ever experienced and if you're in the Amite area, Louisiana area, you've got to check out Cornerstone Church, amen?

Pastor Mervin: Amen.

Dr. Ray: It's, it's, it's a rocking church and it's a church full of the Holy Spirit. So how about this, let's just close, uh, with, with prayer, um, for the, why don't you guys pray for the, if you'd like, if you would pray for the, for the Ukraine. And I want to pray for you.

Pastor Mervin: Sure.

Dr. Ray: How about that?

Pastor Mervin: Sure. Well let's pray. Father we come to you right now in the name of Jesus. Father, we lift up the people of the Ukraine right now. Father God, we ask first of all that your peace and your comfort would surround them, Lord. Father, in times like this we pray that those who don't know you would come to know you, Lord. In the name of Jesus. Father, we pray for the churches right now. Father, that are so faithfully serving day in and day out. We pray that you strengthen them, that you protect them, that you empower them. And we thank you, Father, for the privilege of partnering with these precious people by sowing funds into their lives to empower them to continue the work that they're doing. And we just thank you for being able at times to be physically present among them to minister to them, such a precious people. Touch them, keep them, provide their every need, in Jesus name, amen.

Dr. Ray: And Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we just come to you and ask you to put a protective covering, the name and the power and the authority of Jesus Christ, over Merivn and Dasha as, as you send them as your ambassadors into the Ukraine. Father, I ask you to put your anointing upon them for this occasion. I ask, Father, for traveling mercies. I ask, Father, for, for the supernatural power of God to flow through them. I ask, Father, not only for your protection, but for your wisdom, Father, exactly…take them to the, where you want them to be, show them what you want them to see and give them the authority and the wisdom to do what you have called them to do in the Ukraine. So Father, we, we proclaim blessings over Mervin and Dasha Strother and we ask you to protect them, anoint them, guard them, and lead them by your Holy Spirit as they journey into a dangerous area all for your glory and for your credit in Jesus name. Amen. 

Pastor Mervin: Amen.

Dr. Ray: Thank you so much for, for being on the show. Thanks a lot, Pastor Mervin, Pastor Dasha, thank you…

Pastor Mervin: Thank you.

Dasha: Thank you for having us.

Dr. Ray:...and uh, this is a great show. We have a lot to talk about. Uh, I tell you what, let's do this. We'll do another show after you come back. Another report. 

Pastor Mervin: Let's do it.

Dr. Ray: I can't wait to hear what God's going to do in this trip coming up just in a few weeks and again, um, this is Dr. Ray Self. You've been listening to Self Talk. Thank you so much and God bless you and good evening and good night. Amen and amen.

 [Music]

Thank you for listening to today's show. I don't know about you but this really touched my heart. If you want to make a difference and make a donation to help the people who are suffering in the Ukraine, go to nrpukraine.com. nrpukraine.com. Also, the link is in the show description. 

And also, I have some offers for you. We have a course that we're offering you, Foundations of Spiritual Warfare. If you want to know how to defeat the devil, how to do spiritual warfare, how to cast out demons, how to, how to operate in discernment, how to the differen- differentiate between witchcraft and divination and the power demons, uh, strongholds, principalities, all this kind of stuff. This is Foundations of Spiritual Warfare. You make a donation for 35 dollars and we send you the courses, actually six or eight lessons that, hour lessons you get to listen to in your own leisure.

Also check out the podcast website and that is icmcollege.org/selftalk. icmcollege.org/self-talk. And of course, you know my baby International College of Ministry, a Holy Spirit-filled seminary, and we're enrolling 24 hours a day. We run, we're like a river; we never stop moving; we're constantly enrolling. You can take your courses any time you want. Some people say when's your semester start? We never stop. We're running continually. You set your own schedule and if you want to get a college degree, a Holy Spirit-filled college degree, get equipped for your call. Go to icmcollege.org and enroll. Just enroll. We're affordable, we have scholarships if you cannot afford it, get equipped. Thousands have done it. It's a powerful Holy Spirit-filled school that will train you and equip you for what God's created you to do. This is Dr. Ray Self. Thank you so much for listening today. I appreciate you, love you much, bye-bye.