Pastor From Ukraine Speaks at Bethlehem Apostolic Temple in Wheeling

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Pastor Oleksandr "Alex" Ilash asked the audience sitting in front of him Sunday evening at Bethlehem Apostolic Temple if any of them had been to his home country of Ukraine. They hadn't.

Yet even though they hadn't and were still so concerned about what was going on there is something that comforts Ilash and his wife.

"You've never been to Ukraine," he said, "but, at the same time, you're very much concerned about people you have never seen, about a country you have never visited before. And you're concerned to help and you're concerned in your prayers. And this is very valuable for us."

Ilash made a stop at Bethlehem Apostolic Temple as a guest of Suff. Bishop Darrell Cummings, the church's senior pastor. Ilash has been touring the midwest to tell the story of his church, the Well of Living Water Church in Izmail, Ukraine. Izmail sits on the Danube River near the Ukraine-Romania border in southwest Ukraine.

Ukrainians have been in active warfare with Russian forces since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. Ilash's church has been caring for refugees from that war, feeding hundreds each day and giving supplies to thousands.

Ilash talked to the audience about what his church provides to those who have lost much - in some cases everything, he said - in the war. The church has handed out groceries and hygiene products, and diapers for children. It has supplied bandages and tourniquets to Ukranian soldiers.

In that ministry, Ilash said he has seen what he could only describe as divine intervention. He was out delivering food one day and someone had told him to go to a home, that there might be someone in need of help. He already had a bunch of stops to make, but he said he felt that God was telling him to knock on the door.

There, a 3-year-old girl answered and took him to an elderly woman. He said he told her, "I don't know if you need this, but here are some groceries if you need them."

"When I said this, she started crying," Ilash said. "She said, 'Alex, I can't believe this, because I've prayed to God for two weeks now somehow to help me with the groceries.'"

As harrowing as things are in Ukraine, Ilash said he's confident that God is at work. And his message Sunday was one he considered universal, as important to Ukrainian refugees as it is to the residents of Wheeling.

"I got here from Ukraine to tell someone tonight that God knows exactly where you are, he knows exactly what you're going through," he said. "He knows exactly how to help you and, listen, He's never late."