By Kim & Marc Wyatt, CBF Global Missions Field Personnel, Raleigh, North Carolina 

We celebrated a momentous occasion in early August. Gathering with a diaspora of Ukrainian Christians we met up in Shelter 7 at Falls Lake State Park just north of Raleigh, N.C. It was a beautiful morning, cool and not as humid as it has been. For a few sacred hours, our hearts made us think we had been transported to Ukraine. Lori had reached out to us to let us know Andrii, a former Welcome House guest, was going to be baptized. She asked us to come.  

Gathered around the park shelter were families of all ages. A fellow was cooking stew on an open fire in a large black kettle using a big wooden spoon. It smelled yummy. Women were making slaw and arranging the table for a lunch that would follow worship. Children and teens were busy doing what they do. It was beloved community. There were about 35 people gathered, mostly Ukrainian refugees and immigrants who each had a story of how they came to live in the Tar Heel State. There were many stories; some of suffering, some about incredible rescues and passionate hope for the future. Each story included something about new beginnings.  

Pastor Oleg, Lori’s husband, and her family fled Ukraine the summer of 2023. They attempted to continue their ministry while posted in Poland near the border, but it became too hard for the family. They are currently staying in the mission house of their partner church. We met the couple while attending the 3^rd Annual Welcome House Thanksgiving Meal at Ridge Road Baptist Church, Raleigh.

We can’t say enough about the love and hospitality of the church. The meal is a highlight of the year for us all. The church invites refugees we’ve served over the past year and friends of Welcome House to be their guests for an amazing Thanksgiving smorgasbord of culinary delights. Everyone brings something familiar to their culture. It’s a beautiful mosaic of people who are truly thankful to God they are here and safe in this new land. RRBC is our colleague, Laura Foushee’s home church. Laura and her husband Carson are CBF Global Missions Field Personnel posted in Japan.

Shortly after the larger war started in Ukraine, we reached out to our CBF Global Missions colleagues, Gennady and Mina Podgaisky for cultural advice. They were displaced by the war and residing in the mission house of FBC Black Mountain in North Carolina.

Serving on the Internationals North America Team we often overlap with other field personnel who are stateside and whose people group migrate to the U.S., Mexico and Canada. It truly is a world without borders.  

About that same time, we also met Olena KP, a Ukrainian immigrant who had been organizing relief efforts and sending money to her country for medical supplies. Olena learned about Welcome House and reached out to ask if we might help them serve the hundreds of refugees arriving in North Carolina through the Uniting for Ukraine resettlement program.  

Olena’s local effort called “Ukrainians in the Carolinas” was doing their best to help as many refugees as they could. It was a monumental task. Olena shared that as the numbers of Ukrainian refugees grew there was a desire for places to meet together for encouragement and fellowship. She asked if we had any churches in CBF that might be willing to share space. We reached out to Pastor Trey Davis at Ridge Road Baptist Church, Raleigh. We met together. Worked out a plan. And within a few weeks Ukrainian House, a cultural community center began to meet at RRBC.

Ukraine House became a gathering place for the diaspora. Parents wanted their children to retain their language and culture despite the chaos brought on by the war back home. They would meet on Saturdays at Ridge Road BC for dance, music, food and other cultural activities. While the children were learning, their parents would sit together for coffee and fellowship. We had been praying with Olena that God would send a Shepherd, a Ukrainian Pastor, to bring families together for Bible Study and fellowship too. It was only a few months later that God brought Pastor Oleg and Lori.  

Today was an important milestone for the small gathering of Ukrainian Believers. It marked the first baptism of the young church. There are many more firsts to come for our friends. We didn’t understand a single word that was said today during worship. But we knew exactly what was spoken. This has been our experience the past 28 years as we’ve welcomed strangers traveling the refugee highway.  

‘Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’ Acts 2:46-47