March 1, 2022
Kharkiv has been the target of some of Russia’s fiercest attacks this week. The second-largest city in Ukraine, located about 30 miles from the Russian border, has a population of 1.4 million. Amid destruction, stories of hope have emerged. . . .
March 1, 2022
Noni stretched her back as she straightened from her work. She’d been putting in long hours at the café she owned trying to pay off debt incurred when the café was closed during the worst of the pandemic, but she still owed money and worried she would not be able to pay it. She thought of her son, who had been pressuring her to let him move to live with his father. Her eyes teared up as fear filled her heart. The future seemed uncertain, and she wondered what would happen to her and her family. Just then, the door
February 26, 2022
The president of a Christian institute in Kherson, Ukraine, along with his family and the college staff, have fled to a seminary in western Ukraine. Meanwhile, a church in Kherson now shelters 300 refugees.
February 22, 2022
"I lived in Ukraine for five years," Laura McKillip Wood writes. "I made some of the best friends of my life there, both American and Ukrainian. I met and married my husband, Andrew, another missionary there. . . . Needless to say, I have watched the events unfolding in Ukraine with anxious interest."
November 1, 2021
A Top 10 Prayer List for Countries Most Closed to the Gospel
November 1, 2021
By Laura McKillip Wood Amy and Terry Ruff visited a friend soon after arriving in Ghana. During that visit, the Ruffs struck up a conversation with another guest. As they got to know one another, the man told the Ruffs, “You need to meet my friend, Solomon*.” He gave Solomon’s phone number to Amy and Terry, and they called him to set up a meeting. Solomon told the couple where to drive and said he would wait for them by the side of the road. After driving several hours, the Ruffs repeatedly thought they had reached the rendezvous site, but
September 1, 2021
Ludmilla and June sat in a makeshift examination room in a small Ukrainian Baptist church where a team of medical missionaries had set up a clinic. June helped the elderly woman pull her arm from her sleeve as she listened to her story of the cancer treatment and its effects on her body. Ludmilla also had a broken shoulder and a wound at the base of her neck that the surgeon would not operate on since it might involve cancer. The oncologist did not want to treat her because she had an open wound. Ludmilla was left to manage her
September 22, 2020
By Laura McKillip Wood Anthony blinked hard. His head spun. He fingered the bottle of glue in his pocket; the effects of huffing it still lingered, dulling the memory of the night before, when a man from the neighborhood found him alone in the dark and took advantage of him. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. Nobody cared that he had nowhere safe to go, no one to feed him or provide for his needs. I’ll never be anybody, he thought. He shook his head as the dizzy numbness took over his thoughts. The Need Kenya has roughly
June 14, 2020
By Laura McKillip Wood Ignacio left the Catholic church long before he began studying at a university in Santiago, Chile. Although he was a self-proclaimed agnostic, a friend from his neighborhood invited him to El Oasis, a student group designed to provide students with a Christian community to call “home” during their college years. Ignacio loved music and discovered that an alum of his university led the band at El Oasis. Before long, Ignacio was a regular, hanging out with the other music lovers who attended. His interest in the band grew, and he asked to join it. The staff
March 15, 2020
By Laura McKillip Wood It was the 1980s, and civil war loomed on the horizon in the African nation of Liberia. Missionaries Ken and Carolyn Vogel and their children worked with Liberian medical workers at a clinic. One day, a man appeared at the clinic carrying two tiny babies. His 2-week-old twins, a girl and a boy, were fighting for their lives. His wife had fallen into a coma shortly after giving birth. Their aunt, who had a 10-month-old of her own, had been trying to nurse them, but her milk supply could not keep up with the demands of
February 22, 2020
Laura McKillip Wood Terry pounded the steering wheel and cried. It took her last ounce of restraint not to throw open the car door and march right back into the boarding school to collect her son’s things and take him home. Who cared if the mission organization she and her husband, Kevin, worked with required them to send their child to boarding school? Was it even worth it? “Please, God, just give me my son back!” she cried. In the stillness that followed, the assurance that God was working through them in their ministry settled her heart. “I loved Jesus,
January 2, 2020
By Laura McKillip Wood “When I was 14 years old, I traveled with my father to a little town in the middle of nowhere to teach one man. This man was planting a church in his house. My dad went there every month to teach him, and when I saw this, it really touched my heart. He left the city where we lived, a classroom full of students, and a big church where he ministered to go to just one person in a small town.” Jeff Fife watched his father on that trip. He saw his father’s care for that
December 25, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood Melvina’s hands shook as she dialed 911. “I found my dad on the floor! I can’t wake him up!” She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself as the operator instructed her to begin CPR. Within a few minutes, paramedics arrived, but it was too late. The heart attack was fatal. They pronounced Melvina’s father dead at the scene. In many ways, this event marked the end of Melvina Brown’s childhood: “I was 17, but his death turned me into a 30-year-old.” She made decisions about the funeral and bought a casket. She began
November 2, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood The smell of fresh bread and pastries wafted around Eugene* as he stepped through the bakery door in Banja Luka, Bosnia. Shelves of baked goods lined one wall, and people quietly spoke with the cashier as they made their purchases. Eugene noticed two young men his age standing near him. One man wore a jacket with the name of a band on it. “I like that band,” Eugene said. After chatting for a moment, Eugene sat down with David and Petar. They drank coffee and talked about their shared love of music. As they prepared to
October 1, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood I came to Christian Fellowship North soon after I moved. I was in a very difficult and dark place in my life. My relationship had just collapsed, I had moved to a new city and started a new job, leaving family and friends on the other side of the country. For the first few months I came in and out, with no energy to talk to anybody. I just talked to God. One Sunday I sat on a chair somewhere at the back of the room, immersed in my thoughts, tears pouring down my face. It
October 1, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood The 75-year-old, one of few literate Roma women in Ukraine, had read the Bible for years in Russian and Ukrainian. She spoke both languages, in addition to her own dialect of the Roma language. When translators presented to her the story of the prodigal son, newly translated into the Roma dialect, a smile spread across her face. With tears in her eyes, she said, “I have read this story many times, but this is the first time I have understood it!” This reaction underscores the importance of a new project underway that partners a Ukrainian college,
August 22, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood “We knew your father,” the old man said, “and we have heard about you for many years. We’ve been waiting for you.” Jesse’s lifelong dream had been to return to his father’s remote village, where he too had lived as a child. He had thought about his father’s people, the Jerwang, many times through the years, wondering when he would get a chance to return. But the Jerwang live in a very remote area where China, Myanmar, and Tibet share an ill-defined border area, and visiting them is difficult. To reach the villages, Jesse traveled from
July 22, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood The sun beat down on the American visitors as they made their way through dirt streets and stepped over the open sewers that lined them. Tin and wooden shanties crowded together. Whole families with five to ten members lived in one room. The smells of smoldering cooking fires, garbage, and sewage permeated the air in the slums of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. Just the week before, a 14-year-old boy, loved by many in the community, faced the guns of a corrupt police force. Shot multiple times, the boy died immediately. The visitors knew nothing
June 22, 2019
By Laura McKillip Wood (After writing our “Horizons” column for two years, Emily Drayne has decided to step away from this role due to time constraints and other responsibilities. We thank her for her good work. We welcome our new “Horizons” writer, former missionary Laura McKillip Wood. Laura’s name may be familiar to readers as she contributes regularly to The Lookout.) He closes his Bible and stretches his arms, rubs his neck, and yawns. He hears the night sounds outside his window and tucks his sermon, scribbled on a scrap of paper, into his Bible. Ambling to bed, this Ugandan
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