Report #4 – March 17, 2022

“Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for all your help.”

News from Montgomery, AL

Yesterday, Jerry Cook and Rachel Mayes from the Westgate Church of Christ in Dothan, AL brought 181 packed buckets and a big tub full of other supplies as well. At some point today or tomorrow there will be a story on https://www.claytimesjournal.com/ about the local officials packing buckets to send to us.

Today’s Actions

Today was filled with loading trucks, unloading containers we shipped from the USA, visiting refugee centers in several places. I continue to be amazed at the overwhelming response of those in Poland as they embrace Ukrainians who have fled from the evil attacking their land. Today, I was joined with some very special guys from Sweden, the USA and Norway who have vowed to watch my back. These are dear friends and possess amazing skills. You will see some of the photos below. One is called “Samuel” and he towers over the rest of us. One is called “Dog food” because of a unique situation in his life. Amazing guys and hard workers!

We travelled to the Poland-Ukraine border today to visit several refugee centers. One of the centers is located in a Jewish cultural center. At the beginning of the war, over 300 persons per day passed through this center. Today we unloaded a truck that was loaded in Lublin into two smaller vehicles going to Vinnytsia and Ternopil. The usual process is that we send larger trucks as far as possible then these are unloaded into smaller trucks which go as far as possible then they are unloaded into smaller vehicles. The delivery is perilous and the drivers are always asking for prayers.

The delivery of the larger shipments of medicines and med supplies are unloaded by the military and then escorted to the closest frontline medical units.

At one of the refugee centers we stopped and were permitted to take photos outside of the building. Inside there were bed cots row to row and even on the bleachers there were bedding spots. Outside I met a group from Holland who had come to cook hot meals. The food is supplied by our Maria. The cook is actually an award-winning Chef who wanted to come and show support for Ukrainians. In one of the photos you can see the huge smoker brought to feed the refugees. This group is about to move to Warsaw and cook there. All food was free and it was delicious.

Distribution News

Hi John,

I hope you’re doing well in these trying times, From updates on your site, I know you and Charita working very hard on collecting and sending donations to struggling refugees in Ukraine and Poland. I wanted to provide you with an update from my Kyiv contacts – they finally had the container released and started to distribute the supplies. They are staying in Kyiv.

Videos and photos of the distribution: http://www.intassist.org/2022/03/15/start-of-distribution-of-medical-supplies

Two letters from the recipients:

Charitable Foundation ‘Recovery Time’ expresses its deep respect and gratitude for the donation of free international humanitarian aid, which was donated by Churches of Christ International Relief/LIFE RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL Inc. USA. We provide humanitarian aid by volunteers from Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and Khmelnytsky Regions, risking their lives to deliver it to all who need it. We truly thank the head of the Ukrainian Missions, Dalraida Church of Christ John L. Kachelman for your support, thank you for being with us in these times! Chairman of the Board O.A. Kozachyn

We express our gratitude for the humanitarian aid – medical beds, walkers, children’s toys, medical materials. We deliver to the regions of Ukraine, to all who need it: hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages. Thank you very much for your help. 

Volunteer Hanna

News of our efforts continue to spread! Some excerpts from today’s morning email:

My hometown Zalischyky is located about 300 km from the Ukrainian Polish Border. The population of my town is about 9000 people and we have accepted about 4000 as of two weeks ago those who have been displayed from all over Ukraine into our hometown. Our town was only able to provide aid for only 1000 of those people so we are very behind on supplies but we are still trying to make our best to make it as livable and as comfortable and a safe for anybody that we can help.

In our apartment along it is about a 700 ft.² apartment which is two bedrooms one bathroom we are currently hosting 10 people. And another apartment we are currently hosting 17 people 11 of them being children.

My family has two warehouses in that town that were ones manufacturing windows and doors and we have decided since the war started again to turn those into shelters for those who have no family who have nowhere to go and simply have nowhere to stay. 

The most needed stuff right now are hygiene a medicine any bedding like blankets pillows, towels, clothes for adults and kids, diapers, food and water, if you have small appliances for kitchens, those would be a blessing as well. Some of the rooms and the warehouses we are turning into small kitchens and showers so that the people can shower and have their personal space and then other rooms will be turned and some of them are already turned into living space where we will put families on or there’s some rooms that are just large enough to just have multiple families.

If you have any toys any box any activities for the kids we appreciate those as well as we’re trying our best to make it as less traumatized as we can to those kids and especially their parents who have been through so much and they just need a break for five minutes so anything to entertain a child that would be great as well.

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for all your help.

We continue to receive emails from sister congregations looking to see how they can help.

Jonathan Snell passed your name on to me from information that he had received from Janice Bingham at Harding. I would like to speak to you to see if the Sherrod Avenue Church of Christ in Florence, Alabama might be able to take part in the efforts at the Dalraida Church of Christ?

Please feel free to call any time after 3 PM. I look forward to hearing from you.

Becky Terry

As a reminder, the information to join with us at Dalraida in our Ukraine War Relief can be found at www.dalraida.org/helpukraine. We are happy for others to join in putting together family buckets and hygiene bags that we can ship to refugees from Ukraine.

And Finally

Mike Lawson has been a busy beaver in contacting officials, contacting possible donors, and scheduling interviews in print, on the radio and on TV. Today he sent me word that he has scheduled a Zoom interview for me with WBIR while I am in Poland next week. Confirming this interview was a note saying:

Mike,

I cannot thank you enough for this opportunity — as well as everything else you are doing, both here and overseas. I cannot wait to hear from John!

Here is the information for our Zoom meeting on Monday: Time: Mar 21, 2022 07:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada).”

John Durham has arrived in Romania and is ready to be our boots-on-the-ground there.

Made it to Romania without any problems! The hotel is within walking distance from the airport.  Tomorrow we’ll travel to Cluj and meet up with David Gibson from Jonesboro, AK, get oriented and hit the ground running!

John Durham

Please continue to keep us in your prayers! Thank you for all your support and love.

John L. Kachelman, Jr.
(Lublin, Poland)