Today is the beginning of my 2015 Fall trip to Ukraine. I departed from Little Rock, AR this afternoon and hope to arrive in Kyiv tomorrow with all of my luggage and ready to hit the ground running.
During this trip, I am scheduled to visit and speak in the following cities and villages: Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Kramatorsk, Kherson, and Zhitomyr. In addition to visiting and encouraging our brethren, I will be following up on container shipments and distributions that we have made in an effort to alleviate the suffering of Ukrainians because of Russia’s invasion and occupation that has now entered the second year.
Thus far in 2015 the Lord’s Church has shipped 30 containers with nearly 600,000 pounds of benevolent/relief commodities valued at more than $3,7 million — costly us only $81,400. We still have 4 more containers scheduled to load this year. The cost-to-value shipping ratio is truly amazing, but even more amazing is the impact that the Lord’s Church is having in Ukraine and in other locations where we are sending these containers!
This trip will highlight many of those that are impacted and hopefully will help you see how the benevolent spirit of the Lord’s Church not only helps those in need but also opens doors of opportunities to teach them the truth and lead them to hearing the Word of God, belief, repentance, confession, and baptism for the remission of their sins. Many have heard and obeyed because of the avenues opened by these benevolent shipments, and many faithful Christians have been helped and encouraged because of this work as well.
We have only been able to do these things because of the wonderful compassion and commitment and sacrifice of the Lord’s people to the biblical pattern of evangelism beginning from our benevolence! THANK YOU!
Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I travel and I will do my best to keep you updated on my trip and all the wonderful things that the Lord continues to do in Ukraine.
John Kachelman
