I Don’t Even Want to Use My Name Anymore
When the fighting began in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, Andrii knew he needed to move his whole family away from the threat of war. He knew it wouldn’t be the first time his family’s lives would be threatened because they are Jewish.
In the 1970s, Andrii’s lost relatives fled the former Soviet Union to Israel because of the growing discrimination against the Jews. “We burned all the letters with their addresses because we were afraid it could cause some trouble for us if we chose to stay in the Soviet Union,” says Andrii.
Now Andrii wants to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) so he can reunite with his lost relatives and finally piece together his family’s troubled history. “It’s the history of our family – we have to know,” Andrii says. “I’m eager to find our relatives in Israel.”
Andrii also believes that by living in Israel, he and his family will return to their Jewish roots and grow in faith, hope, and commitment to God something that has been difficult to do in Ukraine because of anti-Semitism.
“We all want to return to our historical homeland,” says Andrii. “I don't even want to use my name anymore. From now on I’ll use my Hebrew name, which is also the name of my grandfather. That's the name I’ll be using as I start a new life in Israel.”
When you support The Fellowship’s On Wings of Eagles ministry, you help rescue families like Andrii who have to live in daily fear of anti-Semitism.
Please prayerfully consider helping with a Freedom Flight today and help fulfill biblical prophecy, as foretold in the book of Isaiah: “I will beckon to the nations … they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips” (Isaiah 49:22).
