We have arrived in Poland! Jerry Morgan arrived yesterday. Charita and I arrived early this morning. Charita cleared passport control, but I hit a snag. I was sent on some wild goose hunting and ultimately solved the issue by creativity and cleared Polish Customs. After clearing Customs, we were met by Jerry Morgan, Taras, Andre, and Tanya. After that things became a blur of activity.
Updates on Shipping of Containers
Our first objective is to secure the direct, uninterrupted shipping for our containers arriving from the United States. These will be the containers that so many are working hard in preparing for loads in multiple locations.
Charita says we have FOURTEEN containers either on the water or scheduled for loading this week!
Tomorrow — Tuesday, March 15 — we have 2 containers loading in Columbia, TN, and Perrysburg, Ohio and one air cargo load of aspirin and baby formula being loaded in Columbus, MS. So tomorrow is a full day in the States! I also received word today from Jana at HHI that they are ready to load their first container of Family Buckets from the Nashville congregations. Charita will schedule that ASAP! There are several others who are emailing and letting us know that their collections are growing and we are nearing other loadings in other areas.
What am I to tell my daughter as to where we are going? I don’t know where we will go.
young Mother in Poland Refugee camp
Meetings & Visits in Poland
Today, only hours after arriving, we went to a number of meetings and visited one refugee center. This refugee center is a place where hundreds, if not thousands, stop and spend a few days before traveling on to their next unknown destination.
Here are a few poignant memories forever etched into my mind’s museum:
- Charita saw a group of 4-5-years-olds playing and went over to talk with them. The children quickly volunteered their personal stories of the horrors of evacuating and refugee living. One 4-year-old said “We walked and walked for a very long time and everyone was sad and mommy was crying all the time. Another 5-year-old said, “We saw fire just start from the ground after big explosion.”
- I overheard a young mother comment saying, “What am I to tell my daughter as to where we are going? I don’t know where we will go.”
- I spent some time with a mother who came in asking if she could talk with any church people. Her name was Maya and was from the Kropivnytsky. Her daughter had been unable to go to sleep for 4 days because of the trauma of being in a missile strike. Maya said she was a believe in God but did not understand why God was letting this happen unless the nation was so evil. After a period of conversation, Maya said she would not let her faith be shaken.
- Again, there was Julia, one of those helping in the medical clinics of the refugee area. Julia had posted on her social media the firsthand reports from Kharkiv where Russians had gone into bomb shelters and machine gunned everyone there or had knowledge of others seeking shelter in Church buildings and blew up the buildings with people inside. Julia said, with tears in her eyes, that the comments received were brutal—“You say there is a God but this shows there is no God. Where was God when these horrors happened.” Julia said she believed in God but felt so hopeless. Jerry had a very good answer that seemed to help Julia, “God was at the very place He was when His own son was brutalized and murdered—He was right there. And God is right here as well. God will judge these people.”
- I went downstairs into a colosseum where the refugees sleep. Hundreds of cots dotted the floor. There was no way to count all that were there.
- I saw a room distributing donated hygiene items. There was a table set up where people could come and select whatever they needed. I asked the lady behind the table what was needed most. She looked, shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well anything at all is needed. What you see here is just what our workers have brought to share with the refugees.” Our Family Buckets will greatly help!
So many questions. Too much perplexity. Too massive a population. So many tears.
At the train station tonight, I looked and saw mothers, grandmothers and children. Outside the train station a group of Polish citizens had set up a hot meal station and the line of those wanting a hot meal stretched around the block.
A very long night on the trans-Atlantic flight followed by several meetings discussing how we will best expedite shipments into Poland and Ukraine, followed by the lengthy activities at the refugee center, and then our day was capped off with a train ride from Warsaw to Lublin!
Tomorrow we are to meet with the Counselor of Ukraine’s Embassy in Gdansk. Charita and I have previously talked with him on the phone. In tomorrow’s meeting we will clarify and confirm significant points in our efforts and hopefully lay the groundwork for quick, easy shipping into Poland to help these people!
The Lord’s Church can do much in this nation as we help those we have seen in need. Thank you for your help in this effort! Please keep us in your prayers as we travel.
John Kachelman Jr.
(On a train between Warsaw and Lublin, Poland)
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