The Big Exodus

It all started innocently enough. On Saturday night, we were hosting a little birthday party at our apartment for some of our senior couples. I had made a cherry cheesecake and a big apple pie. The Merkley's brought ice cream, the Southwick's brought drinks and the Blau's brought extra chairs. When we are living so far away from home and family, we tend to look for any opportunity to make life a little easier. 

As I was saying, it all started innocently enough. Halfway through the pie and ice cream, the Southwick's received a call. Then the call went to the Blau's. The grim look and apparent shock was followed by the announcement that we must evacuate. This new directive from church headquarters signaled the evacuation of both the Kyiv/Moldova and the Dnipro missions by Wednesday. The topic of casual party conversations changed rather abruptly. The question on everyone's mind was, "Where will we go?" The party soon ended as all involved needed to go home and make some decisions about a lot of things. We were directed to keep the information to ourselves for a day or two until arrangements could be more stabilized. 

How did this happen? It wasn't a total surprise as the mission had been preparing documents and other data, just in case, for each missionary over that past 3 weeks. I guess we just put that knowledge on the back burner hoping it would just go away. Now it was real.

But wait, there's more. Later that evening, The Blau's received a call from the mission office with a plea for help. The mission was bringing in all the missionaries (not in Moldova) to Kyiv. They were told to pack everything, close their apartments and travel to Kyiv the next day for an important meeting at the chapel (the mission office is in the same building). The request for help was for the senior couples to provide a dinner for 60+ missionaries Sunday night (the next day). Remember, this is late Saturday night. We met at the Blau's (next door over from us) and figured out a menu and divided up responsibilities. A group went to the Metro Cash & Carry store that night and bought the food at midnight.

We attended church the next morning and discovered that even the embassy people in our branch did not know about the plan to evacuate the mission. There had been a statement from the U.S. State Department the day before about evacuating the families of embassy personnel, but that was all.

Later on, we met at the church to begin the dinner preparations. There were chicken thighs to bake, rice to cook, salads to make and a dozen other things to make ready for everyone. The dinner was miraculously on time and so very delicious. These senior couples really know how to step up to a challenge.

Once everyone was fed, we all filed into the chapel for a fireside. Everyone was chatty and the mood was electric. The meeting started and after some preliminary talks, President Stratov took his turn at the pulpit. I must insert at this point for background. Ivan Stratov was one of the first two missionaries who came to Ukraine in 1990. Here's a link to read more on that. Ivan Stratov  At some point in his talk, he began to announce the new assignments for his missionaries. Picture, if you will, back in the 1800's. The church is young and excitement is high as men are called on missions to all parts of the world. More often than not, they received their call right from the pulpit with sometimes no warning or expectation. Here, we were witnessing a scene reminiscent of those early years. As their names were read and their new assignments given, you could hear audible gasps of surprise, congratulatory slaps on the back and then muffled sobs. Tears freely fell as beloved companions would soon be separated. When it was over, you saw this tall and stately man standing 6' 8", shed tears of sadness as he would soon lose all but a few of his 60 missionaries to other missions. It was heartbreaking to witness, but oh what a glorious way in which they all made room in their hearts to respond to these most unusual circumstances. Looking back, I felt much like how Oliver Cowdery described his experiences with the Prophet Joseph - "These were days never to be forgotten".  I will never forget this most extraordinary scene.

The very next day, as part of our preparations to leave, all missionaries had to have a COVID test before boarding a plane. At the appointed hour, we showed up and were tested and the results were sent to us that evening. We spent the day packing and repacking to make sure each bag was not over the weight limit. We had to find a way to dispose of all the food we had. Our friend and supervisor, Sasha, came over that night and he said he would come and distribute it to some needy members. 

On Tuesday, we hired an Uber. The driver looked at our many bags and almost gave up thinking he couldn't get all of them and us into his car. He persevered and made it work and we rode the 45 minutes to Boryspil airport. When we arrived, there were already about 18 missionaries in line to check their bags. They had been there since 1:30 AM. They hadn't received the word that the 6:00 AM flight was delayed 5 hours. Still, they were happy and responsive. It's always fun to travel with that age group. They can turn a dreary day into sunshine. Several of them ended up on our flight to Frankfurt. Also on our flight were the Roti's, the temple president and matron. They were headed home to the Atlanta area where he would preside from there. They were so sad to leave.

It happened so fast, it's like we woke up from a dream. We miss Ukraine and her people. We felt like crying when we were packing, wishing we could stay there a bit longer. The Lord has plans for Ukraine and we pray for her people every day.

We were royally greeted in Frankfurt, taken to lunch, set up in a hotel with meals delivered for the first 3 nights here. The couples that serve here are so kind and gracious. We were actually given a car to drive. We live in a small village called Friedrichsdorf. It's where the temple is. How cool is that?

How to close this chapter of our lives is a difficult task. I prefer to leave the page with a bookmark so that someday I can finish it.