ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The Bill of Rights has been a large part of America’s heritage from the nation’s roots in the late 18th century, and one for the freedoms stated in the First Amendment gives Americans the freedom of religion.
This is a freedom not seen in many countries across the globe, and recently, a Liberal pastor preached at a conference in one of those countries.
New Beginnings Church Lead Pastor Phillip Dow visited the war-torn Ukraine earlier this year, and prior to arriving in that country, he flew into Warsaw, Poland.
The purpose of Dow’s trip was to preach at a conference for directors of the drug rehabilitation ministry Team Challenge in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city.
“All the directors from Ukraine came into this campground,” he said. “My job was to encourage them and inspire them. I was the preacher. They had other people who were doing the official teaching. I was just there to preach the night services.”
Prior to his most recent trip, Dow had traveled multiple times with his father-in-law, who works for Team Challenge, to places around the world, including Thailand and Rwanda. He said a call from his father-in-law is what took him to the Ukraine recently.
“They’re in the middle of this war in Ukraine, and he asked if I’d be willing to travel,” he said. “I felt it was something the Lord was speaking to me about.”
Despite the ongoing war, Dow said many of the locals in the Ukraine still seemed to be in calm spirits during his visit.
“At one point, we drove by a place that had been attacked by drones over night, and it was still on fire,” he said. “The smoke was still pouring out of the factory. Everyone in the van who wasn’t American, people who were Ukrainian, they acted like it was just a normal thing, no big deal.”
Dow said many of the Ukrainians he traveled with advised him not to worry about seeing the sight of fire and locations having being attacked due to the war.
“I asked a couple of people, ‘What’s the mood like?’” he said. “They said, ‘We’re just going about our daily lives, and if the air raid signal goes, we go hide, but otherwise, we just do our normal thing.’”
Dow said the most shocking part of his visit was seeing a bombed out factory, and his adventures continued as he made his way out of the European country.
“There were a couple of nervous points,” he said. “Because I was a military-age male, they looked at me really closely. I wasn’t 100 percent sure I’d get out a couple of times. It was good. The American passport fixes a lot of problems.”
In addition to Thailand, Ukraine and Rwanda, Dow has also been on mission trips to Mexico, India and Brazil, and this was his fourth visit to Ukraine. However, this was his first time visiting the country amidst war conditions.
Even some of the calmer moments of the trip, Dow said, caused some worry on his part.
“We were in a coffee shop one morning for breakfast, and they had a drone in a glass case on the counter,” he said. “I asked them, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘That’s a drone you can buy. You can donate to help us buy more drones to attack the Russians.’ It was a very different experience from living here in America.”
In Liberal, Dow’s family, including his wife, Michelle, were concerned about his time in Ukraine, but he said Michelle seemed to handle the situation well.
“When her dad called me and invited me to go, she was a little nervous, but we just came to the conclusion if Jesus has called us to do something, He’s going to take care of it,” she said. “While she was nervous, I think she was okay, but I also didn’t tell her all the stories until after I came back. Then I told her everything. Anytime I’d talk to her while I was there, I would say, ‘It’s all fine. It’s all good. Everything’s good.’”
Though he enjoyed his time in Ukraine, Dow said he would not advise travelers to visit the country, and he said this is not necessarily due to the dangerous war conditions currently in place.
“It’s hard to get in and out of Ukraine,” he said. “It’s a great place to visit, tremendous historical value, but let’s give them a few months to sort this thing out of Russia. I wouldn’t recommend any tourism to Ukraine right now.”
Naturally, Dow is happy to be back to the much calmer conditions of Southwest Kansas.
“It’s great to get up and not have to worry about what got bombed and is the road still functional,” he said. “I can get on a plane and not have to worry about anything.”
Along with the freedom of religion, Dow said he gained a much higher value of his overall freedom from the trip, particularly when it came to the differences between how military is recruited in the U.S. and Ukraine.
“In Ukraine, the story I was told by some of the guys who were there is their draft is basically you can be pulled over on the side of the road by the military at a checkpoint and be told you’re now going to serve at the front line, no notification of your family,” he said. “You’re in the army now. Go join. I’m so thankful to live in America where that’s not a thing. You aren’t just pulled into the military. We have a volunteer military, and that’s great.”
Matthew 28:19, often called “The Great Commission,” calls Christians to “go into all the world and make disciples.” Dow said he is thankful for the opportunities he and others get to help fulfill this mission.
“I’m thankful God calls missionaries to go to hard places, and we get to support them here at our church,” he said.
