Pastor Rigsby Shares How Ukrainians' Faith Sustains Him and Fellow Countrymen as Russia Wages its Land and Spiritual War
- Kathryn van der Pol
- Aug 10
- 13 min read
“To this day, I don't know what that was, but that wasn't a dream. I said, ‘Okay, wow! I guess I got to get a plane ticket to go to Poland. And when I get to Poland, I'll turn east and go east, and I'll find Ukraine over there somewhere.’” Bill Rigsby
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
And stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer and
bread for the hungry.
It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
And it will prosper everywhere I send it.”
Isaiah 55:10-11.
Last Monday, I published the first interview with two beloved citizens of Brenham, Bill Rigsby and Ann McCulloch. We spoke for nearly three hours regarding their experiences in Ukraine. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s there for you to enjoy. This week is the next episode of the series, more in depth with Bill. Grab your coffee and sit back. You are about to be transported to the frightening and heavenly world of spiritual warfare in the land that is Ukraine.
First, here are a few facts for you to know.
Ukraine is a very old country. In fact, the Rus, also known as the East Slavic people, settled Kiev (Ukraine’s capital) around the 9th century. They adopted Christianity in 988 AD, spurring cultural advancement in law, trade, art (such as the mosaics in St. Sophia Cathedral), and literature. One of their oldest chronicles, “The Tale of Bygone Years” quotes Prince Oleg the Prophet who says regarding Kiev, “Let it be the mother of all Rus’s cities.”
In contrast, Moscow was officially founded in 1147 as a fort. Christianity was brought to the land we know as Russia by the people that governed Ukraine, and the Christian faith was well-established in Russia by the time of Moscow’s fortified settlement.
I only mention this because Americans have been greatly misled about Ukraine’s history. I asked Bill about this. Bill believes passionately that this basic history is something that Americans need to know. He said, “What America needs to know is the whole narrative that Russia tries to spin, namely that ‘Ukraine is ancient Russian lands.’ That’s absolutely hogwash. That's a rewriting of historic reality.
“Kiev as a city and as a kingdom existed hundreds of years before Russia even existed. Russia was born out of Kiev, not the other way around. And that is the truth that Russia is very intent to flip.
Then Bill recalled the interview that Tucker Carlson did in the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin in February of 2024.
Bill said, “I’ve been a huge Tucker fan my whole life. I’ve listened to him and had respected most of what he had to say. But on this he is just doing Satan's work. Yes, he went to the Kremlin for a so-called interview where he just allowed, Putin in an open, uncontested platform to speak his lies and fabrications to the American public without being questioned or contested in any way as a journalist should do.”
This is what I mean by spiritual warfare. Bill continues.
“You know Putin gave Tucker a little box of documents. He says, ‘Here, if you want to read the documents that prove that Ukraine is Russian, these documents show that Ukraine requested military assistance from Russia back around 1700. And we've translated them into Russian so that you can translate that.’
“Well, okay, if those documents are from ancient Russian lands, why aren't those documents written in Russian?” Bill laughed.
Just to further Bill’s point, Putin twists another key fact which I just presented to you. In that interview, Putin stated that East Slavic tribe first created Novgorod, not Kiev, as their political and cultural center. Putin lied smoothly and blatantly. To Bill’s point, Tucker did not prepare or know enough to challenge him.
This lie reminds me of something that J.R. Nyquist, an expert on Soviet geopolitical strategy once said, “The Russians will tell you about 95% of the truth. So, journalists will check their statements, and they seem accurate. They will fact check a few more, again verifying their accuracy. Then, they will stop, thinking that since 75% to 80% checked out great, there is no reason to keep checking. They will miss the 5% which is “the lie.” And usually “the lie” flips the entire narrative.
This is how Satan works as well.
One more thing to know before we dive into Bill’s story is that In terms of size, geography and borders, Ukraine is about fifteen percent smaller than Texas (including the Russian occupied areas). Russia, by contrast, is the largest country in the world covering eleven time zones.
Southern Ukraine ends on the coast of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Russia hugs its eastern border where it wages its “special military operation.” As of this writing, Russia controls roughly 19% of Ukraine. This includes the Crimea and portions of the Donbas region that Ukraine lost in 2014. To the north is Belarus, an ally of Russia that has over 400,000 troops[1] with an equivalent amount of equipment in preparation for a joint military exercise with Russia called Zapad 2025 coming this September. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, and Moldova stack on top of each other facing Ukraine’s western border. All but Moldova are NATO members.
As a sidenote, it is worth noting that NATO member Poland also shares a border with Russia, an enclave called Kaliningrad. The Russians refer to Kaliningrad as their “fortress” or “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” It is a tiny landmass, completely encircled by NATO members Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. You may hear of Kaliningrad in the news in the coming days. It is heavily fortified by Russian military bases equipped with runways, planes, and equipment. (See the end note for a link to a discussion of the recent build ups.)
Ukrainian land is relatively flat and considered the best farmland in the world. It’s rich humus packed black soil is six feet deep in some areas, supporting high crop yields with less need for fertilizers than other black soils in other countries. It is the leading producer in Europe of wheat, corn, barley, sunflower seeds, and other grains—often called the “breadbasket of Europe.”
Bill, Ann, and the documentary A Faith Under Siege would state that Ukraine is also the spiritual breadbasket of the continent or to put it another way: the Bible belt of Europe.
Last week I wrote about Bill’s religious experience when a surprise visitor gave him a message to go to Ukraine. The same messenger appeared in his bedroom twice, once before he fell asleep and a second time just before daylight. He gave Bill this instruction: “Bill, I am talking to you. I want you to go to Ukraine. I want you to serve and encourage my people. You have people there because they’re my people. You have family there because they're my family.”
Bill did not know a soul in Ukraine. Even though he had traveled to more than 100 countries, he had never been to Ukraine or Poland. “To this day, I don't know what that was, but that wasn't a dream. I said, ‘Okay, wow! I guess I got to get a plane ticket to go to Poland. And when I get to Poland, I'll turn east and go east, and I'll find Ukraine over there somewhere.’”
Bill listened. That very day, he bought a ticket to Krakow, the old historic capital of Poland.
In the two weeks leading to his departure, he prepared. He dehydrated food, some of it coming from his deer hunting adventures. He packed an entire suitcase with individual meals. He had no idea at the time how much they would appreciate it one day.
He emailed everyone he knew about his trip. Of some, he requested funds. Almost immediately, he received large and small donations that more than covered his travel expenses and would allow him to rent a vehicle, purchase more medical supplies, food, equipment, and water.
But the one thing he needed most, he did not receive until it was nearly too late.
Who was the Ukrainian or Ukrainians that he was going to help and encourage?
On the day he left for Krakow, he still did not have one single Ukrainian connection.
Driving down Highway 290, Bill exited at the Beltway to Bush Intercontinental, when he receives a notification on his “What’s Up” app.
It’s a woman.
She’s Ukrainian.
She lives in Krakow.
They were five degrees separated.
At this point during the interview, Bill lifts up his five fingers. Pointing to the thumb, he says, “This is me and the pinky is her; she was a friend of a friend of a friend of mine. And that friend of mine was a friend from Singapore twenty years ago.”
Ann and I just sat there in amazement. Ann said, “Hold up, Bill. Kathryn, that’s God connecting the dots. You have to put that out there in your article. The lesson is that you need to get going before the Lord tells you the next step.”
That’s called acting on faith.
So, I ask Bill, “What did the woman say?”
She says, “I understand you want to meet a Ukrainian. I am one. What can I do for you?” Bill learns that she and her husband had left Ukraine a year and a half earlier to start a Ukrainian church in Krakow.
So Bill tells her he is going to be in Krakow in 18 hours.
Nineteen hours later, Bill was in her apartment. The Lord had answered and provided. They put Bill up in their home, and he slept on their couch.
Now the real work begins. Keep in mind, this is happening on the sixteenth day of the war in March 2022.
Using the Ukrainian protestant church van, Bill finds refugees from Ukraine near the border and drives them into Krakow. It takes several hours because of the border crossings. Once in Krakow, Ukrainians would fan out into other parts of Europe. Various agencies had provided busses for the Ukrainians to escape. The buses would have signs: Milan, London, Frankfurt, etc., and the refugees would choose a destination and board the bus.
As Bill was astonished to learn, these Ukrainians were not broken-hearted refugees; they possessed the most unbelievable faith.
“Kathryn, put your pen down,” Bill says, “I want to tell you the story of the very first family that I as a driver registered in Poland.
“In March of 2022, I went to the border. The very first group I picked up was a family of five. It was a grandma, her two daughters who were 40ish. Each daughter had a teenager. One teen was 20 years old, and the other was 14 or 15 years old. Both daughters had husbands whose names were Victor and Victor. They were in Kiev fighting. This family had just come out of there. They just came across the border, and they had to go to Krakow, catch the bus about 36 hours later to go to Holland. They had never been to Krakow. They didn’t know which bus they needed or where it was. They didn’t know how to do that at all. So, I picked them up. I am driving them two and a half hours from the border to Krakow.
“And I asked them, ‘Do you have a place to stay in Krakow? You have to stay the night someplace.’
‘No, we don't,” the grandma says.
“Well, I'm a pastor. I'm associated with the church. In that church, we have a basement that's been equipped for refugees. It's a safe place. It's a great place to stay. You can worship there,” says Bill.
Bill’s contacts had already ascertained these were evangelical Christians, so he adds, “Maybe if you're in contact with your husband, you can send them a text and let them know that you're in Poland, and you're with a pastor. You're going to a church in Krakow, and I am going to make sure you are safe.”
Bill continues, “I will come back in 36 hours personally and pick you up and take you to the bus station and get you on the right bus.”
So the ladies, instead of just texting their husbands, make a video call. Victor and Victor are side by side in a bunker somewhere around Kiev, and they're getting hammered right at that moment.
“You know that they're under bombardment. It’s ugly,” says Bill. It was a dramatic scene. But she's talking to him in in in Ukrainian or in Russian. Bill starts using Google Translate to eavesdrop on their conversation to see what they're saying. And Victor is telling his wife, “You be careful because there's lots of sharks. And how do you know he's a pastor? And how do you know he's really taking you to a church?”
So Bill asks to speak to Victor. “I said some words into Google Translate that could tell him, “Look, don't worry. I am a pastor, and here's what we're going to do.” Well, at that moment, their position got hit. Boom! The boom came into the video call, right then.
Bill says, “I don't know what exactly happened, still to this day. But I know they got hit, and the image that froze on the screen led us to the conclusion that they had been wiped out. It’s unexplainable.”
In that dramatic terrifying moment everyone saw their dad, their sons, their husband get blown up on a live video call. So Bill pulled over. They talked. Bill says, ‘Look where we're going, there’s other Ukrainian women that can give you support and help you.’”
It took Bill another hour of driving to reach the church where he dropped them off. He continues the story.
“Thirty-six hours later, I go back as promised. I pick them up, and when I pick them up, they’re joyful! They're happy! They're dressed just like it's Sunday morning. They look like they're ready to go to church, but it’s not a Sunday, but I mean, they are in their Sunday best. Looking good. All of them; all five of them.
“And that was paradoxical to me. I was expecting to see sad faces, a family depressed and moping. No! Quite the opposite. Man, they were solid. And I said to her, ‘Ma’am, you look very pleasant today. How very joyful you look!’
“And she just leaned into me. She says, ‘You know, the Jews probably didn't like getting carted off in Babylonian exile but look at everything that they did in the Persian Empire. God used them in a powerful way. So, I don't know if we'll ever see Victor or Victor again, but if they're gone, we will see them in heaven one day. And they will have arrived there doing their duty.’
“And now her eyes get really big, and she wears this big smile. She said, ‘And now we have a responsibility to go to the dark continent of Europe and be His Light. And isn't it an honor to be used by God that way?’”
Bill could hardly believe what he was hearing and seeing. The hope and joy on their faces touched him deeply.
Arriving at the bus stop, Bill asked the women to write down their names and phone numbers so they could stay in touch. He put the paper in his backpack. But something happened and the contact information vanished. “I don't have it anymore. I lost it within just a few days. And that was the very first group of people that I drove in and brought out.”
Their joyful sense of Christian purpose was the first manifestation that God made Bill witness. He allowed Bill to participate in that experience. Bill theorizes why this was the first experience, and why he wasn’t allowed to reconnect with them.
“You know why, Kathryn? Because that night in Brenham when he called me, when I was laying in my bed, I said one thing that I'm ashamed of that I didn't tell you before. I'd had gone into Poland forty years ago, back under the Soviet rule. I went there to consider a job offer. There was no way I was taking that job in that dark, spiritually dark, oppressive, atheistic Soviet country. Like, no way.
“So I had that memory in my mind. And well, that's what I thought Ukraine was going to be like, too.
“So when the visitor said, ‘I want you to serve and encourage my people.’ This is what I said.
’Forgive me for saying this. How am I going to go into a dark, godless place like that, full of godless people who are wandering from one dark, godless place into another dark, godless place. How am I going to go there and find the one person that is your person? Nah. That couldn't have been You talking to me.’
“Yet my very first interaction with Ukrainians were with the people at the church in Krakow, but they weren't refugees. They were already there and established Christians, right? But that family I brought from the border was the very first one. It's almost as if God just said, ‘Oh yeah, let me show you the kind of people I have in Ukraine!’
“That rocked my world.”
“So what do I want your readers to know? I want people to know that Ukraine, the true Ukrainian Evangelical church…. I'm talking about the Evangelicals, that all of them have faith like that. All of them. They are the brightest Kingdom treasure I have ever met in my life in any country, anywhere. They are young. They are the kids. These people are in their 20s and 30s. This is the crowd that make up the vast majority of the evangelical church. They're like first-generation Christians. They remind me of Billy Graham or Jonathan Edwards. They are amazingly gracious and kind. They're human treasures and they are kingdom treasures.”
Truly, the fight in Ukraine is a spiritual battle waged between good and evil.
Stay tuned for Part 3 and details on the next showing of A Faith Under Siege
Endnote
[1] Lee Wheelbarger interviews with Jeff Nyquist and Johnny Anderson. Lee Wheelbarger was the chief technologist in the U.S. Army. Retired, he studies satellite maps looking to understand Russia's military capability and where their forces are situated. In this interview, he discusses Kaliningrad and Belarus with Jeff Nyquist, a geo-political strategist especially on Russian and Chinese strategic goals. Johnny Anderson is also retired U.S. military, currently living in Germany. https://rumble.com/v6wmfv2-live-with-jeff-johnny-and-lee.html?e9s=src_v1_eh_cs
