We are touched by the love and care that different people have shown to us from different places. When we had just begun hosting refugees in our facility, the indifferent Rivnians, the members of some volunteer organizations and churches who were bringing food, clothing, and essentials, started coming to us. Private cars and trucks with all kinds of assistance from Lviv, Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Sarny, and Rivne, pulled up to our building.
Working through their weekends, volunteers got behind the wheel and brought help from Spain, Poland, Germany, and Lithuania. One church even donated a trailer, so that we could deliver all the humanitarian aid that was collected.
The people who were hastily taken from the combat zones needed literally everything: food, change of linen, clothing, bedding, towels, and mattresses. There was actually a man who managed to put on only one shoe as he rushed out of his place. People needed hygiene products, medicines (for blood pressure, flu or common cold), and mothers with babies needed baby care items. We are grateful to God for every heart that He urged on to be willing to take care of our guests who had to come here against their will. Someone brought potatoes, someone baked cakes, the first mattresses, and blankets people also brought to the church directly from their own homes. We also set up on the property of the mission in Rivne the shoe and clothing distribution center for all who needed it.
We also organized the settlement and feeding of refugees at the campground in Zalissya. We would like to express our special thanks to all those who have invested in providing these people with food. We are no less grateful to some people from peaceful countries who have managed to motivate many of their countrymen and organize a real campaign of support for Ukraine. The Lord knows your names and your ministry to Him.
Our drivers soon joined the ministry in the evacuation of people from the hotspots. First, it was Irpin, Kyiv region, then Chernihiv. On the way to this city, drivers for the first time began to wear bulletproof vests. It was necessary for such trips. We had to spend a lot of money on fuel, as well as gas cans that our drivers had to take with them because in many places there was a shortage of fuel. We are grateful to everyone who helped with the repair of old minivans and the purchase of additional vehicles for this ministry because each extra seat literally saved one more life. Regardless of our modest possibilities, God has done everything in such a way that we were able to evacuate over 900 people from the combat zones with the help of our brave drivers and brothers and sisters.
Thank God that after a while, the frontline moved away from the Rivne region, and then we had to take a break from doing evacuation trips. So, the first two relief centers for refugees were established in the village of Kryukivshchyna near Kyiv and in Kamyanske near the Dnieper. We transported humanitarian aid there, but on the way back we took displaced people. Refugees from different cities gathered in Kamyanske: first, it was Zaporizhzhia and Berdyansk, where they could get people from Mariupol, and then – Kramatorsk and Kreminna.
Distribution of humanitarian aid in Kamyanske, Dnipropetrovsk region
After the liberation of Kyiv region from occupiers and the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, we began to deliver humanitarian aid there. People no longer wanted to be evacuated, they dreamed of reconstructing of their homes, but they were in dire need of food and basic necessities, because all the shops and warehouses there were destroyed, burned or looted. We also joined in sending food to Kharkiv, the cities and villages of Kharkiv region.
Unloading of humanitarian aid in Kharkiv
Distribution of humanitarian aid to the needy in Kharkiv region
Unloading and delivery of assistance in the affected city of Chernihiv
Delivery of aid to the village of Katyuzhanka, Kyiv district
Delivery of aid to the city of Irpin and the village of Kryukivshchyna, Kyiv district
The aid was brought to Okhtyrka, Sumy region
Assistance was uploaded in Bucha and Gostomel, Kyiv region
In cooperation with local churches, we delivered relief that distributed by church ministers to the needy. We also packaged the food packages in Rivne, in which we put oil, flour, cereals, pasta, 3-4 canned food, meat stew, sugar, cookies, chocolate, and tea.
In the facility of our mission in Rivne, during the first two months of the war, brothers and sisters were there on duty around the clock, responsible not only for feeding and hosting the victims, but also for carefully collecting, storing and delivering humanitarian aid to those who need it most. We were addressed by several volunteer organizations, which we helped with the unloading of humanitarian aid, its temporary storage and subsequent delivery to the regional hospital and orphanage.
Of course, the greatest joy was being able to help or save someone’s life, and vice versa – the greatest sorrow was to hear pleas for help from places where it was impossible to reach civilians due to the danger.
It is becoming clear that Ukraine will still need significant and long-term assistance even after the end of the war, as people have suffered enormous losses. Many lost their jobs, housing, and all their property. It is especially difficult to start everything from scratch for the frail and the elderly, those with small children, widows and orphans. That is why we are sincerely grateful to you, dear friends, for all the support you lovingly collect and pass on to the victims in Ukraine. May the Lord bless you abundantly and give you a hundredfold!
