In this deeply moving conversation, John sits down for part two with Valentyn Syniy, a Ukrainian pastor, theologian, and author whose life and ministry have been profoundly shaped by the reality of war.
This interview was recorded under extraordinary circumstances. Scheduling had to account for the very real possibility of Russian airstrikes and power outages. Valentyn’s wife graciously joined the conversation to assist with translation at moments, helping ensure that everything Valentyn wanted to communicate was conveyed with clarity and care.
Together, we explore:
- What it means to live, pastor, and hold onto faith in the midst of active war
- How violence and trauma test long-held theological assumptions
- The difference between discussing war and surviving it
- Where hope, honesty, and spiritual resilience are found when everything familiar is under siege
Some stories shared in this episode may be difficult to hear, but they are necessary—and deeply human.
About the Book
Valentyn is the author of God Under Siege, a powerful and unflinching reflection on faith, suffering, and God’s presence amid the devastation of war. Drawing from lived experience rather than distant theology, the book challenges easy answers and invites readers into a more honest, grounded faith.
Get the book:
- Amazon
- Major booksellers
- Wherever books are sold
The Music For this Episode: Forrest Clay "Child of War"
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00:00 --> 00:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Before we begin, a brief listener note.
00:03 --> 00:09 [SPEAKER_00]: This episode contains firsthand accounts of war, including descriptions of violence, loss, and trauma.
00:10 --> 00:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of what you'll hear may be difficult or emotionally heavy, especially for listeners who have experienced trauma themselves.
00:17 --> 00:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Please take care while listening and feel free to pause or step away if you need to.
00:33 --> 00:34 [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
00:36 --> 00:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Deconstructionist podcast, and part two of my conversation with Valentin.
00:43 --> 00:59 [SPEAKER_00]: And part one of this conversation we sat with the reality of war, not just as an abstract idea, but as lived experience, we heard what it means to carry faith while siren sound, while power can disappear without warning, and while daily life is shaped by uncertainty and loss.
01:00 --> 01:06 [SPEAKER_00]: And we began to glimpse how war doesn't just destroy buildings in infrastructure, it presses directly on the soul.
01:06 --> 01:14 [SPEAKER_00]: In this second part of my conversation with Valentin Sinney pastor and author of God Underseed, we move even deeper into those questions.
01:15 --> 01:18 [SPEAKER_00]: What happens to Faith when suffering is not temporary, but ongoing?
01:18 --> 01:22 [SPEAKER_00]: How do you preach hope to people who are exhausted by fear?
01:22 --> 01:25 [SPEAKER_00]: What does prayer look like when outcomes feel painfully uncertain?
01:26 --> 01:37 [SPEAKER_00]: In this episode, Valentin reflects more directly on theology forged under pressure, on doubt, resilience, and the way his faith can be stripped down to its most essential elements when everything familiar is taken away.
01:37 --> 01:50 [SPEAKER_00]: As in part one, Valentin's wife joins him at moments to help translate and clarify, ensuring that nothing important is lost, especially when the questions themselves are heavy and the answer is matter deeply.
01:50 --> 01:52 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not a neat or tidy conversation.
01:53 --> 01:57 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't offer easy conclusions or polished platitudes, but it does offer honesty.
01:58 --> 02:03 [SPEAKER_00]: And it gives us a rare window into what faith looks like when it's lived not in comfort but under siege.
02:04 --> 02:12 [SPEAKER_00]: This is part two of my conversation with Valentin Zinny.
02:16 --> 02:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and talk about that a little bit, how you've, you've now lived through an extended trauma.
02:21 --> 02:32 [SPEAKER_00]: What have you learned about how trauma shapes faith both in positive ways, like depth, solidarity, compassion, and in negative ways, numbness, cynicism, burnout, and that sort of thing.
02:33 --> 02:36 [SPEAKER_01]: How do you think about it, how do you think about it?
02:36 --> 02:40 [SPEAKER_04]: I think about it, how do you think about it?
02:40 --> 02:47 [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm not going to help, but I'm talking about trauma that is going to begin with the history of history.
02:48 --> 02:49 [SPEAKER_01]: It starts helping.
02:50 --> 02:53 [SPEAKER_04]: It can be a part of our mission.
02:54 --> 02:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Trauma can be a part of our mission.
02:56 --> 03:06 [SPEAKER_04]: Trauma is a tassfera where you understand the world.
03:07 --> 03:12 [SPEAKER_01]: If you look at your trauma, you understand the area where the world is perverted.
03:12 --> 03:14 [SPEAKER_04]: or need help.
03:14 --> 03:29 [SPEAKER_04]: And if you use your gift, Holy Spirit gift and you use your trauma and your Holy Spirit gift and combine this, this will be a center of your personal missions of God.
03:29 --> 03:35 [SPEAKER_04]: Because you have unique trauma and you have unique Holy Spirit gift.
03:36 --> 03:43 [SPEAKER_04]: And if you're this uniqueness, you can live in rifles, your mission.
03:43 --> 03:47 [SPEAKER_00]: One of your later chapters in the book is titled Theology Afterbuka.
03:48 --> 03:50 [SPEAKER_00]: What does the Afterbuka mean to you?
03:51 --> 03:59 [SPEAKER_00]: And how is it different from the Theology you taught before?
03:59 --> 04:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Which way is the city where a lot of Ukrainians were killed?
04:03 --> 04:14 [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and the Ukrainians, in fact, got a lot of the type of grave in Sweden and the other way.
04:14 --> 04:21 [SPEAKER_01]: And a place like for Israel people, like a Svensom or other kind of concentration camp.
04:21 --> 04:27 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a place where a big evil took place.
04:28 --> 04:37 [SPEAKER_01]: where Ukrainians were praying to God and asking God where he was.
04:37 --> 04:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Several people after this thing, after what happened in Bucha,
04:54 --> 05:23 [SPEAKER_01]: We can get healing in God that this world is broken and we can look for peace only in God and at the same time we see that more people started coming to the church during the war.
05:23 --> 05:32 [SPEAKER_01]: When we talk about storm, where can we find the most quiet place during the storm at the bottom of the ocean?
05:32 --> 05:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Because on the top there are always waves.
05:37 --> 05:41 [SPEAKER_01]: And then we can go to the more quiet it is.
05:41 --> 05:51 [SPEAKER_04]: And when we talk about such things as...
05:51 --> 06:03 [SPEAKER_01]: First meaning is a depths of pain, and maybe in other cultures it's the same kind of image.
06:03 --> 06:16 [SPEAKER_01]: The other hand the words depth can also describe our relations with God, how deep they are.
06:16 --> 06:37 [SPEAKER_04]: And if you have a better time, if you have a better time, if you have a better time, you will have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, you will have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, you will have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time, and if you have a better time,
06:37 --> 06:44 [SPEAKER_01]: the closer you are going to to this quiet place and further away from the storm.
06:44 --> 06:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
06:45 --> 06:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Talk about when Kirsten was liberated and you eventually were able to see viaband and campus again.
06:52 --> 06:55 [SPEAKER_00]: What emotions did you experience walking those grounds?
06:55 --> 06:58 [SPEAKER_00]: And how did that moment reshape your sense of calling?
06:58 --> 06:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Swosen again?
06:59 --> 07:01 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a difficult day for me.
07:02 --> 07:13 [SPEAKER_04]: With the help of the Russian government, we decided to move to the territory of this area, and more importantly, I'm waiting for it.
07:13 --> 07:22 [SPEAKER_01]: On the one hand, the fact that Russians destroyed our campus was a said and an expected thing.
07:23 --> 07:27 [SPEAKER_04]: As my colleague, Krali Biblio, I believe in a person who went to the World War II.
07:27 --> 07:35 [SPEAKER_01]: On the other hand, I found out that this Russian soldier who was a believer.
07:35 --> 07:41 [SPEAKER_04]: And he, your child, had been paralysed by people after working in the same time.
07:41 --> 07:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he's military crime.
07:43 --> 07:45 [SPEAKER_04]: Ballista and Chambana, which are pretty much the same.
07:45 --> 07:53 [SPEAKER_01]: So I realized later that the ones that we get from fellow Christians are from non-believers.
07:53 --> 07:54 [SPEAKER_04]: We're called mass.
07:55 --> 08:02 [SPEAKER_04]: We are like a diamond.
08:02 --> 08:06 [SPEAKER_01]: But if you take a diamond and try to cut another diamond, you will get a cut.
08:07 --> 08:19 [SPEAKER_01]: So in the crime that we experienced from Russian soldiers, even Jelko Kishan, or even Jelko Krishchen, so it was much worse.
08:19 --> 08:25 [SPEAKER_01]: and what have we got from non-believers.
08:25 --> 08:29 [SPEAKER_01]: The second thing that I understood when I was at our campus.
08:30 --> 08:35 [SPEAKER_04]: The way I provided to our student, I've been told that the interest of the student is not a part of our mission.
08:35 --> 08:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Teaching a class on leadership.
08:37 --> 08:38 [SPEAKER_01]: I told my students that...
08:39 --> 08:41 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a frustration.
08:41 --> 08:44 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a frustration, doesn't it?
08:44 --> 08:46 [SPEAKER_04]: It's our mission.
08:46 --> 08:48 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't have to be a part of our mission.
08:48 --> 08:50 [SPEAKER_01]: That is just a resource.
08:50 --> 08:55 [SPEAKER_01]: But when we lost this resource, we kept ministering.
08:55 --> 08:57 [SPEAKER_04]: No, this resource was very сложно.
08:57 --> 08:58 [SPEAKER_01]: But it was difficult.
08:58 --> 09:00 [SPEAKER_04]: We lost 40% of our budget.
09:01 --> 09:02 [SPEAKER_01]: We lost 40% of our budget.
09:03 --> 09:09 [SPEAKER_04]: We lost 40% of our budget.
09:09 --> 09:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Because we had businesses, we were a self-supporting organization, and we got 40% of our income from the self-support.
09:20 --> 09:25 [SPEAKER_01]: And so we realized that without resources, it was difficult to fulfill our mission.
09:26 --> 09:28 [SPEAKER_01]: These are two conclusions that I got.
09:28 --> 09:39 [SPEAKER_00]: that flows right into my next question which is for listeners right now who want to move beyond thoughts and prayers which is one of my least favorite things that American stew thoughts and prayers.
09:40 --> 09:57 [SPEAKER_00]: What are we, what are some concrete ways that they can stand with Ukrainian churches, seminaries and communities like yours right now?
09:58 --> 10:10 [SPEAKER_01]: At some point of this since the war started, and then I realized that we live in the open universe.
10:10 --> 10:39 [SPEAKER_01]: and God can change tomorrow, and he's waiting for us tomorrow, and we need to pray a very deep and clear prayer, so that, let's go back to the state of Zalajnim, so that God could meet us tomorrow and change this tomorrow.
10:40 --> 10:47 [SPEAKER_01]: And the second thing is that you can support us financially that we are able to restore our campus.
10:47 --> 10:57 [SPEAKER_01]: We have a link in the books, in my books, whether to you can get connected with us, or you can get connected with us through TCI Foundation.
10:57 --> 11:02 [SPEAKER_01]: This foundation was started when the worst started.
11:02 --> 11:05 [SPEAKER_01]: We do want to restore our destroyed campus.
11:18 --> 11:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, and I will ensure that those links are both in the show notes, so I highly encourage folks listening to go and support, obviously through your prayers, but also through financial means for those that can do so, and to also continue to press our Congress representatives or congressional representatives to keep the pressure on.
11:39 --> 11:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, the last question for you is, if you could leave our audience with one sentence about God that feels true to you after invasion, a displacement and loss, what would that be?
11:57 --> 12:08 [SPEAKER_01]: One thing I want to say that people around us get broken, sometimes people are stronger than they think about themselves.
12:09 --> 12:14 [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes they are weaker than we think about them.
12:14 --> 12:19 [SPEAKER_01]: And when a human is broken it's very difficult to fix him.
12:20 --> 12:27 [SPEAKER_01]: It's more expensive than to mend a car or...
12:27 --> 12:30 [SPEAKER_04]: But my advice for people to forget about their own business.
12:31 --> 12:44 [SPEAKER_01]: That's why my request and my wish is that please take care of your loved ones, about your children, your parents, and people who go to the church with you.
12:45 --> 12:50 [SPEAKER_01]: These are the people that are precious to us besides God.
12:50 --> 13:12 [SPEAKER_00]: again, thank you so much for coming on, you know, we just pray that that you guys remain safe and that the war comes to a quick conclusion and again, folks go out and grab the book serving God under siege, how we wore transformed a Ukrainian community again, a follow the links in the show notes, so we can support and again, thank you so much.
13:12 --> 13:19 [SPEAKER_00]: I know this is these are trying times and we even had to adjust the interview time just to make
13:19 --> 13:21 [SPEAKER_00]: So again, thank you so much.
13:21 --> 13:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Stay safe and again, God bless.
13:24 --> 13:43 [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
13:49 --> 14:14 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm around a little grocery And your daddy wore a heart of white Saving my And the tension was higher You're so fierce
14:18 --> 14:33 [SPEAKER_03]: As the tear from hair, I'm rain down.
14:33 --> 14:44 [SPEAKER_03]: Just the only hope for you tonight is a piece that you'll find on the other side.
14:47 --> 15:16 [SPEAKER_03]: While we can heal your grave But the world we rather watch you slowly die Child, you are so much more A child of war
15:19 --> 15:43 [SPEAKER_03]: We're glaring how to say goodbye to a light You were playing in the school yard When you heard the thunder from a ball So close by
15:46 --> 16:15 [SPEAKER_03]: You've felt there are needs There was blood in the street As a damper from a rain down Childing only
16:18 --> 16:45 [SPEAKER_03]: He's a piece that you find on the other side Resilient you while you can hear your cries But the world we've never thought you'd still be dying Child, you are so much more Child, no
16:54 --> 17:08 [SPEAKER_03]: You don't understand Does God have a plan?
17:26 --> 17:48 [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe there's all the way But your body is too real Can't you breathe?
17:48 --> 17:55 [SPEAKER_03]: Try the only hope for you tonight Is to find your mind
17:56 --> 18:20 [SPEAKER_03]: You're the other side, no more bombs to drown her all out by Find me safe and covered up in the light Child, you are so much more