Mennonite women in Ukraine show mercy to neighbours

To help meet needs in their community, women from Kutuzovka Mennonite Church have organized a “mercy group”. The 10-member group volunteers time each week to visit local people who are elderly, sick or bedridden.

At the MCC-supported Dolina Home for the Elderly in southeastern Ukraine, MCC worker Rebecca Spurrier visits resident Nadyezhda Serdyuk. Clutching Spurrier’s hand, Serdyuk says she is sad because her sight and energy are failing. “When we’re with God,” Spurrier replies, “you’ll see everything. And we’ll sing and dance.” Photo: Matt Lester

The mercy group is a “place where faith in Christ can be put into action,” according to participant Lyuba Chernyetz, who also says volunteering has helped her realize the joys of serving. “I never knew I could be fulfilled by helping other people,” she says. Chernyetz, 46, joined the church in 2000.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker Rebecca Spurrier helped the mercy group form last year. Now the women meet biweekly to discuss their activities. They keep a running list of community members who could benefit from a cheerful visit or helping hand, and they make sure each person on the list gets regular visits. Recently the group began visiting patients in a psychiatric hospital in nearby Molochansk.

On an afternoon in June, Chernyetz dropped in on 9-year-old Oleg, the grandson of a woman she used to visit. Oleg had lived with his grandmother until last winter. When she died from an illness. Oleg was sent to a children’s home, but recently his father returned to the area and the two now live together. Chernyetz invited Oleg to a church-run summer day camp.

She then visited a middle-aged woman named Lida who has been partially paralyzed for four years and can rarely leave her third-floor apartment.

Like the other mercy group members, Chernyetz does not own a car. She most often walks or hitchhikes in order to visit people’s homes. She lives on a small farm in the village of Dolina but hopes to someday study at a Bible college.

Each Tuesday the mercy group goes to Dolina Home for the Elderly to chat, sing and pray with residents there.

Dolina and Kutuzovka are located in an area of southeastern Ukraine once called Molotschna Colony. Mennonite immigrants from Prussia founded the colony and its dozens of villages at the start of the 19th century and lived there until World War II. It was the largest Mennonite colony in the Russian Empire. During that time, Dolina village was called Schoenau and Kutuzovka was called Petershagen.

The Kutuzovka Mennonite church was first built in 1892 but was later closed by Soviet authorities and used for grain storage. Church work began here again in 1998, and the building was restored in 1999.

Spurrier, of Dillsburg, Pa., is working with school, church and other community efforts in the area.

—Maria Linder-Hess, MCC Communications