Estonia is not a familiar country or destination for most folks in the United States. I had the opportunity to visit it for the fourth time this past summer when my husband Russell and I helped at Christian Camp Gideon, which is located one and a half hours from the capital city of Tallinn.

Estonia is one of the three Baltic states (along with Latvia and Lithuania) located on the Gulf of Finland. All three were a part of the Soviet Union for 50 years beginning when Stalin seized control just before World War II until 1991 when communism ended. Because of that occupation, Russian and Estonian are the primary languages.

During my two-week visit in Estonia, I met numerous Ukrainians who had fled their country because of the war with Russia. Every story is different, as are people’s hopes for the future.

Anastasia (Nastya) Miroshnychenko and her son, Yegor, 18, who both help at camp, left Ukraine in March of 2022. They lived in the town of Dnipro. Nastya said, “It was a very, very difficult decision to leave Ukraine. People poured into their church because houses were being bombed. There was no food, and we had nothing and no one to help us.”

She couldn’t believe that in a few months they would lose their home.

“Conditions became so dangerous that we needed to move.”

A friend offered to take them to Germany, where they shared an apartment with three others. Nastya took her savings to pay for food. Then Nastya’s mother moved to France at the invitation of a friend and invited Nastya and son Yegor to come and live with her, which they did for two-and-a-half months.

After that, they moved to Estonia as they had friends at Christian Camp Gideon where they lived for three months. Nastya then went back to France and Yegor moved to Sweden, where he found a family who agreed to house and feed him for one year, which he said “was amazing.”

Nastya’s husband Sergei had to remain in Ukraine as he is under 60. Yegor said he last saw his father two years ago. Every summer, Nastya visits her husband in Ukraine for two weeks and then returns to France, where she works in a school.

What was the hardest part of the last three years? Nastya said, “The realization that they needed to separate the family, it was hard for everyone.” Yegor said, “Leaving Ukraine, leaving my family and friends and home.” Yegor can’t return to Ukraine, or he will be enlisted in the army.

What is their greatest wish?

“That the war had never started,” Nastya said. Yegor agreed.

Nastya plans to return to Ukraine after the war, but Yegor does not. He finished high school in Sweden and wants to attend a university and possibly study economics.

“My future is uncertain,” he said.

“We have a big faith, and we hope that Ukraine will win the war, and we pray for the time to come soon,” Nastya said.

THE VELICKOS

Viktor and Ludmilla Velicko lived in Mariupol, Ukraine, northwest of Kyiv, the city which has endured the most bombing. They left their country in February 2022. First, the airport near them was bombed and they became worried they would be killed if they remained. They decided it was too dangerous to stay anywhere in Ukraine and decided to go to Estonia, where they had family and friends. They asked Pastor Artur Pold, camp director and Methodist pastor, if they could move to Christian Camp Gideon and he said, “Of course.”

Ludmilla became the camp chef, and Viktor works as a bus driver and helps with camp maintenance. They have no desire to return to Ukraine and are comfortable in Estonia where they have an apartment given to them by the Estonian government.

“We have no friends or family left in Ukraine because all of them have left and now live in America or Poland,” Ludmilla said.

What is their greatest hope?

“That the war will end,” Viktor said.

Do they miss Ukraine?

“Of course. The best fruit is found in Ukraine. But we are too old to go back,” Viktor said.

Ludmilla says she doesn’t miss Ukraine, she loves Estonia and is happy there.

In Ukraine, they had no vacations because they couldn’t afford it, while in Estonia traveling is possible.

“Life is better here,” they said. “We are very thankful for Pastor Artur who helped us. We love Estonia and we love Pastor Artur.”

ARINA BAHDASAROVA

Arina Bahdasarova is a 15-year-old who serves as an interpreter at Christian Camp Gideon and lived with her family in Kyiv, Ukraine. When the bombing got close to them, her father decided the family needed to leave.

“We had to leave so quickly we weren’t able to bring much with us,” she said.

Arina, her parents and brother now live in an apartment in Narva, which is not far from the camp. Her parents run a restaurant where her father is a chef.

Arina and her younger brother will attend school in Estonia, and her parents want her to attend college somewhere other than Ukraine.

Arina’s parents hope to return to Ukraine when the war is over, but they are afraid that their home was destroyed in the bombing.

These are the stories of Ukrainians who had to make the difficult decision to leave their homeland. All of them hope that peace is not far off and that the horror of war soon will end. They have survived death and destruction and pray that the future will bring an end to this sad chapter in their country’s history.

The Rev. Kathryn Adams, originally from Cleveland, and the Rev. Russ Adams, originally from Warren, live in Canfield. In her 40-year ministry, 18 were spent as the Protestant Campus Minister at Youngstown State University. Russ spent 28 years as pastor of the Western Reserve United Methodist Church in Canfield. Kathryn Adams is a correspondent for The Vindicator and Tribune Chronicle newspapers.