Refugees Prepare Special Thanksgiving Feast For Texas Christians
Attendees fill their plates during the special Thanksgiving meal at the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston. (Photo by Jack Prather)
HOUSTON — A year ago, Memorial Church of Christ volunteers served Ukrainian refugee families a traditional Thanksgiving meal from Pappas Bar-B-Q, a popular Houston restaurant chain.
But this November, the newcomers to Texas — still adapting and learning a new language after fleeing Russia’s 1,000-day war on their homeland — rejected the offer of turkey, dressing and all the fixings.
“No, we’re not going to be doing that,” Oleksandr Voievoda, a 34-year-old father of two, declared in his native language during the Ukrainian Bible class that meets at the Memorial church.
Instead, Voievoda insisted, the refugees would prepare a special feast — featuring Ukrainian favorites such as stuffed dumplings known as varenyky — to show their extreme gratitude to their English-speaking brothers and sisters.
“It was so inspiring,” Yulia Merchant, the 36-year-old Russian immigrant who started Memorial’s thriving outreach to Ukrainians in early 2023, said of Voievoda’s pronouncement.
“I was so amazed how they took the initiative, how they wanted to give things,” Merchant, a nurse practitioner and mother of three young boys, said of the refugees. “Maybe they don’t have much resources. Some of them are still struggling to find jobs and try to fit in. But they all came together.”
Memorial’s Ukrainian ministry developed suddenly — and providentially, church leaders believe — after preaching minister David Duncan asked Merchant to study the Bible with Russian refugee Aleksei Kozhevnikov and his wife, Milana.
Merchant helped Kozhevnikov, who had fled Russia after speaking out against the war, delve deeper into the Scriptures.
And she jumped into action when Kozhevnikov mentioned that neighbors — Ukrainian refugees in his apartment building, about five miles from the 1,000-member church — needed help with basic necessities.
“It’s really amazing,” Duncan said. “I thought this was going to be just for one family, and now there are hundreds involved. So it’s a really, really great ministry, and God has made it so. And we’re just very thankful for that.”
Shining the light of Jesus
The outreach began with a simple goal: to help meet refugees’ physical needs — from food to furniture — while offering the possibility of a new spiritual life.
In less than two years, the effort has grown into a full-fledged ministry.
Memorial members distribute welcome boxes to a handful of new refugees each week. Each box contains household items, a Ukrainian Bible and an invitation to church.
Memorial’s 40-chair Ukrainian classroom often overflows on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, requiring more seats to be brought in.
Ukrainian women meet online on Thursday morning to study the Scriptures, and Ukrainian teens gather for a Friday night devotional at a Memorial couple’s home.
Every other week, Memorial — in partnership with the Impact Houston Church of Christ — provides groceries to 30 Ukrainian families.
More than a dozen refugees have accepted Jesus in baptism.
“And now we are seeing that they are stepping up, and they are shining the light of Jesus to our congregation,” Merchant said of the Ukrainian group. “So it is very, very inspiring.”
Christina Riggins, a 31-year-old Memorial member who immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus at age 12, is active in the Ukrainian ministry.
She organizes fellowship events for the Eastern European women, and her U.S.-born husband, Zayne Riggins, helps teach the adult classes along with Rob Merchant, Yulia’s husband.
“They like the community aspect of it a lot. They like the faith a lot,” Christina Riggins said of the Ukrainians. “It’s just wonderful. It feels like the early church in Acts 2. We get together often. We pray for one another. It’s like a little family.”
Giving back ‘just a little bit’
Voievoda, who pushed for the Ukrainians to organize the Thanksgiving meal, arrived in Texas on Aug. 22 last year with his wife, Inna, and their son Artur, now 5.
At the time, Inna was 36 weeks pregnant.
The couple’s son Mark entered the world 24 days later — on Sept. 15.
“They arrived not knowing where they were going to be and without a job,” Yulia Merchant said of the family. “They had nothing. So we were able to gather some things for the baby.”
Voievoda, who now works for a company that makes knife sharpeners, became emotional as he described his family’s experience with the church.
“It was very touching the kindness that we received,” he said in an interview interpreted by Merchant.
“We wanted to give back just a little bit of the huge amount of great things that they’ve done for us,” he said of the Thanksgiving meal.
A full Ukrainian menu
As Voievoda spoke, about 100 Americans and Ukrainians lined up Sunday afternoon in Memorial’s family life center to fill their plates.
Homemade varenyky — dumplings filled with meats, potatoes, mushrooms and cherries — filled a long buffet table, along with various breads, vinaigrette salads, borscht and “sweet tubes,” pastries made with condensed milk.
Aleksandra Hmyria, a refugee who has started a baking business, made a festive cake for the occasion.
Amid the war, she relocated to Houston with her husband, Pavlo Hadzhviev, and daughter, Milana, now 4.
“Everything is good,” said Hymyria, speaking in English, a language she’s still mastering. “All the time it’s like a good nervous because we have more work here — learning English, understanding everything with the school for my daughter and the work for my husband. We thank God that we every day smile.”
Houston native Melissa Ramon has spent her whole life in this diverse Texas metropolis of 2.3 million, where roughly three out of 10 residents are foreign-born.
The Ukrainians’ Thanksgiving gesture made the Memorial member, who has volunteered in the refugee community for two decades, joyful.
“It’s just a wonderful experience,” Ramon said before eating, “to be able to watch them come from a very bad situation to a better life here in Houston.”
Memorial deacon Jake Dyniewski, a native Texan with Polish family roots, expressed similar sentiments.
“Absolutely, it’s special,” Dyniewski said after enjoying the Ukrainian feast.
The father of two has attended the Ukrainian Bible class and interacted with the refugees through Memorial’s benevolence program, which he helps lead.
“To me, this is an opportunity for camaraderie and community,” he said of the Thanksgiving meal. “This is an opportunity to break down those barriers and walls that sometimes we build for ourselves. Just to sit with fellow believers is a tremendous blessing.”
God’s plan for the refugees
Ukrainian refugee Liza Sharii-Yukabovska, 37, serves as an interpreter for YMCA International Services. She speaks six languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Ukrainian.
Sharii-Yukabovska, mother of 15-year-old Sophie, connected with the Memorial church while looking for work.
“It’s hard to be a refugee,” Sharii-Yukabovska said. “Even if you are brilliant in your country, nobody knows you. And then I heard occasionally about the Church of Christ and the Ukrainian ministry they created here, and they organized a job fair, and I came there.”
After connecting with the church, she volunteered last year and again this year at Bible camp.
The Memorial church took a group of 120, including 40 Ukrainians, to Camp Bandina in South Texas this summer, youth and family minister Mike Avery said.
Avery choked back tears as he recounted Collin Elk, worship minister at Houston’s Westbury Church of Christ, leading campers in verses of “It Is Well With My Soul” — first in English, then in Spanish and finally in Ukrainian.
Elk had spent weeks learning how to sing the hymn in Ukrainian.
At this summer’s camp, Sharii-Yukabovska, who was born into an Orthodox family, decided to be baptized. Avery immersed her for the remission of sins.
“I wanted to be closer to God, and I wanted to be fully buried in water,” she said. “And I wanted to follow Jesus and have the Holy Spirit in my life.”
During Duncan’s Sunday sermons, Sharii-Yukabovska provides live interpretation for her fellow Ukrainians. The church invested in mobile earphone technology to make that process easier.
Like Voievoda, Sharii-Yukabovska embraced the special Thanksgiving feast as a way to show her appreciation for Memorial members.
“I believe that — like God had a plan for his Son to offer us salvation — he had a plan for us to come here,” she said of the church. “So I want to show them that we are really grateful for the people, for everything that they are doing for us and for God being a part of them.”
Even while counting her blessings, she — like fellow refugees — prays for loved ones still in Ukraine and even for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We pray every day for peace and for people who are there,” Sharii-Yukabovska said. “At camp, many children asked, ‘Should we forgive Putin?’ And that is a most difficult question. How can you have love and forgiveness for people who kill, like, the whole nation?
“But,” she added, “one of the counselors said that we need to pray every day so that God puts love in Putin’s heart.”
This piece is republished from The Christian Chronicle.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for ReligionUnplugged.com and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.