Feb. 26—James M. and Laurie G. Sliz said God sent them to Ukraine a decade ago, and that’s where they found themselves this week as Russian president Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of the country.
With the country now in turmoil, the couple, steadfast in their faith, has paid no heed to the urgent requests of President Joseph R. Biden for Americans to leave Ukraine.
The Slizes’ main mission in Ukraine focuses on an aspect of the youth of the country, who will need even more assistance, they said.
Mr. and Mrs. Sliz, residents of Adams Center, have, since late 2011, lived most of the year in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, in the far western part of the country, on the border of Slovakia. Three years ago, the couple switched their U.S. visits from summer months to a break during Christmas.
Mr. Sliz responded to questions from a Times reporter through a social media app.
“God led us here and he has not changed the charge,” Mr. Sliz wrote. “We trust in Him much more than the U.S. State Department.”
For the past 10 years, the Slizes have lived in a house for girls who have aged out of orphanages. In 2011, when accepting the task, the couple said that many of the girls in that situation have no job skills or family and often fall prey to a world commanded by the drug trade or sex slavery. The Slizes decided on their personal mission after watching a slide show about what life is like for such girls in Ukraine.
The Slizes said they were not sent to the country by any organization or church, although they are members of Honeyville Baptist Church, 13210 Fuller Road, Adams Center. They have “only a couple of minor monetary supporters.”
“Here (the home for aged-out orphans) and other places we help Ukrainians accomplish their vision of building the Kingdom of God,” Mr. Sliz wrote. “This includes the Roma community with children feeding programs, providing food for heating and cooking, and finding jobs.”
The Romani is an ethnic group of traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India. According to minorityrights.org, “the Roma population as a whole are believed to be the most marginalized minority group in the country. This exclusion feeds into a vicious cycle that has afflicted Roma communities in Ukraine for generations, with a long history of persecution, oppression, exploitation and assimilation under a succession of regimes.”
“We help with a number of efforts to provide food, clothing and household needs to city people as well as mountain people,” Mr. Sliz wrote.
The girls at their home, Mr. Sliz explained, range in age from 18 to 32.
“There is no age limit, but most of the girls leave after a few years by marriage, or (become) just secure enough to move,” he said.
However, they now have two siblings, ages 3 and 4, at the home who are “under government-administered foster care.”
“We are also very involved with orphanages,” Mr. Sliz wrote. “There are almost 30 of them in Zakarpatska Oblast.”
Zakarpatska Oblast is the administrative province in western Ukraine where the couple resides. It’s the only Ukrainian administrative division that borders four countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
Mr. Sliz said that at church last Sunday, a sermon, based on the Epistle of James, was especially striking for him: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
“God wants us to develop his character in us,” Mr. Sliz wrote. “So how can we forsake these children who have been forsaken so many times? We have a wonderful opportunity to experience and demonstrate God’s love.”
Therefore, the couple said they will remain in Ukraine until the country’s government revokes their visas.
“We are confident of the will of the Ukrainian people to fight for their country,” Mr. Sliz wrote. “It’s a disgrace that the U.S. has done so little to honor the Budapest Accord of 1994!”
According to the nonprofit public policy organization Brookings Institution, “in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the United States, Russia and Britain committed ‘to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine'” and “to refrain from the threat or use of force’ against the country.”
“Appeasing a bully never works, whether they are 7 or 70,” Mr. Sliz said.
The couple anticipates a flood of orphans from the east into the orphanages of their area.
Contributions can be sent to Mr. and Mrs. Sliz through Honeyville Baptist Church, 13210 Fuller Road, Adams Center, NY 13606.
For 10 years, before the couple began the mission in Ukraine, Mr. Sliz grilled and sold chicken in Adams Center to fund the mission. In 2011, he estimated more than 10,000 chicken halves had been sold over the course of the decade. But the barbecues would continue.
“In the 25 years of barbecues in Adams, I personally twisted over 100,000 chicken legs,” Mr. Sliz wrote.
He added: “And no carpal tunnel for me. God is good!”
