A Ukrainian American pastor residing in war-torn eastern Ukraine has been released from detention more than a week after Russian forces captured him during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The wife of Dmitry Bodyu, who was reportedly abducted by Russian forces from a home in the Russian-controlled city of Melitopol on March 19, announced on Facebook Monday that her husband had been released. “Dmitry is home,” Helen Bodyu wrote. “He’s doing well. Thank you for your concern, help, prayers and love! God is good!!! Praise the Lord!”
The pastor's family had previously told media that Russian forces stormed their home, confiscated her husband's American passport along with their phones and other devices. After the abduction, the pastor hadn't been heard from for days. According to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, Bodyu emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1990 along with his family. He settled in Burleson, Texas, located near Dallas. Pastor Otis Gillaspie of Open Door Church in Burleson sponsored Bodyu and his family, enabling them to come to the U.S.
Although Bodyu and his family became American citizens, he opted to return to Ukraine along with his wife to establish several churches.
Bodyu serves as the pastor of the Word of Life Church in Melitopol. Gillaspie told the local news outlet that despite the danger he currently faces by remaining in Ukraine, Bodyu “won’t leave ... his flock” because he “feels a mandate from God to do what God has told him to do, no matter what is happening around him.
"I really feel like prayer makes a difference, and it’s made a difference in this case,” Gillaspie added. “You can’t meet him and not like him. I felt like he [captured] those who captured him.” (Chrisitan Post) |
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