In the Midst of War, A Woman Returns to Ukraine for Baptism
Viktoriia Markovska studied the Bible from Lebanon through a year of chemotherapy, as the people who helped connect her worked through war.
Jeanne DamasioUkraineSep 9, 2026, 5:49 PM
While Viktoriia Markovska lived in Lebanon and underwent cancer treatment, she received Hope Channel Ukraine videos from an old acquaintance. A phone call later, the request had already reached Lutsk.
Markovska’s illness had been discovered during a visit to Ukraine to see her mother, who had come through stage four cancer. When her own scans showed stage three cancer with metastases, she recalled, “A long road of struggle began. Endless consultations, difficult procedures, exhausting courses of chemotherapy, periods of hope and disappointment, waiting for results, and later a serious operation.” Markovska had believed in God for years, but a sense of her own sinfulness made her afraid to come close to Him. During that period, she prayed that the God who saved her mother would now save her.
A few days later, Markovska met an acquaintance she hadn’t seen in more than 15 years. He sent her several Hope Channel Ukraine videos, and she watched them immediately. “Without a doubt, it was God’s call,” she remembered. When she called the channel’s hotline, a woman promised to find someone who could study the Bible with her. Some time later, while passing through Lutsk, Markovska found the contact information for Oleksandr Slobodskyi, a pastor in the city. She told him about the call she had made from Lebanon.
Slobodskyi confirmed the request for Bible studies had already reached him in her name.
Bible studies connect Lebanon and Lutsk
For the next year, Markovska studied two Bible courses with Slobodskyi. The lessons continued through chemotherapy, including days when, by her account, she did not have enough strength to get out of bed. Markovska recalled her doctors were surprised by how her body responded. “Studying the Bible became a turning point in my life,” she explained. “It brought peace, hope, and a deep sense of God’s love.”
She asked to be added to the Lutsk congregation’s group chat and began supporting church projects from Lebanon. Markovska later used her vacation days to return to the city, where she was baptized. She described the decision simply: “I wanted to thank God for His care, His love, and the miracles of healing.”
Eleven weeks before her baptism, Russia launched 741 aerial weapons across Ukraine, including 13 missiles and 728 drones, a record at the time. Ukraine’s Air Force identified Lutsk as the main target of the attack.
The videos that connected Markovska with Hope Channel were produced in Ukraine, and the call that followed connected her with a pastor in Lutsk. Behind both was a media ministry continuing to work through explosions, disrupted transport, and damaged infrastructure.
Hope Channel Ukraine continues operating through the war
Volodymyr Mykhed, of Hope Channel Ukraine in Kyiv, described nights when team members and their families slept in apartment hallways or bomb shelters. His three-year-old daughter sometimes wakes to explosions and runs to her parents’ bed. Save the Children, an international children’s rights organization, reports that about half of Ukraine’s air raid alerts occur between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.
“Then, at 6 or 7 AM after a night like that, the team gets up and heads to the studio to go live on air, bringing a message of hope and encouragement to those who are exhausted and losing heart,” Volodymyr explained. During alerts, Kyiv’s metro runs only on underground sections, cutting service across the Dnipro River and complicating travel between the two sides of the city. Getting to work can take more than an hour and a half, he noted.
Last winter, he recalled, some team members spent weeks in apartments at 10 to 12 degrees Celsius, or 50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit, after attacks damaged heating infrastructure. The United Nations documented at least 74 strikes on combined heat and power plants and other heating infrastructure across Ukraine between December 2025 and May 2026. Volodymyr also described experienced staff members relocating or leaving for the front. “The hardest moments are the phone calls notifying us of the death of loved ones, friends, or colleagues,” he said.
Then another morning comes.
At six or seven, they get up and go to work for people like Viktoriia Markovska.
Photos: Hope Media Group Ukraine
