Daily Update – 4/17/22 – Ukraine Missions

***Christians who assembled for worship and Bible study in Ivano-Frankivsk on April 17, 2022.***

Upon my return I have been constantly busy coordinating an amazing number of actions. Charita has continued scheduling shipment…we are now booking shipment #48 in the past seven weeks! We have received phenomenal support and cooperation from the private sector throughout the USA. These 48 shipments include moves via sea, land and air. The actual cost of transportation is approximately $312,000 but the value of commodities shipped has exceeded $70 million USD!

Our actions continue in a number of locations. We have teams involved in critical missions and we have collections centers that are busily preparing loads that will be shipped. This week a container will be loaded out of north Alabama. Will Tucker, youth minister at the Chase Park Church of Christ (Huntsville) is coordinating that loading. The commodities scheduled for loading have been a wonderful project by many of the congregations in north Alabama! Hopefully we will have some photos to share after this load is completed.

Last Friday, the brethren in Searcy/Judsonia loaded a container and it is on the way.

If you want to appreciate the scope of our partners in this effort look at this list of States and nations that have joined us: AL, AR, AZ, CA, FL, IL, IN, MN, MO, MS, NY, OH, OR, RI, TN, TX, UT, WI (all have collected buckets/hygiene bags). Many other States have sent in financial donations that were critical to the transportation. In addition to our United States, other nations have joined in assisting with the relief efforts: Canada; Germany; Great Britain; Romania; Slovakia; and Ukraine (and I am sure I have overlooked some).

We continue receiving donations that are critical to our transportation efforts. THANK YOU!

Recent Reports from Ukraine

Below you will find some of the reports that I have received within the time since the last report.

Here is a note I received from a mother and her two children. They were evacuated from Kyiv and are living in Poland. The father was unable to leave Ukraine because he is military age.

Dear brother John,

I hope that you remember me, and my two little sons—Misha & Mark. My name is Sophia. I was pleasantly surprised that the Lord’s Church gave my family financial help. I am very grateful to my whole spiritual family. You are all incredible.

I was presented with new sneakers by Lord’s Church in Wroclaw and they are very light and comfortable. Church has also assisted in purchasing food for us in our time of great need.

It is a very sad and difficult time for me, but I know that God will support me. I trust him with all my heart.

With love and respect in Christ Jesus.

Ivan Skoleba and several of the men in Ivano-Frankivsk were given special permission to cross the border and purchase critically needed items and take them back into Ukraine. These commodities were purchased by funds donated. The Church in Wroclaw had contributed a number of needed items and these are also taken back into Ukraine by Ivan.

As you can read in Ivan’s post below, the Lord’s Church continues meeting and has a number of visitors who are in Ivano-Frankivsk because of being displaced by the Russian invasion and bombing. At this point the city of Ivano-Frankivsk has received little bombing and our interests have not been impacted. We are able to utilize all resources to assist those flooding western Ukraine as they flee from the Russians.

Hello Brother John, thank you very much for the prayers of the Church and your personal prayers. We were able to get Anya to Bremen, Germany where she was well received by the family of preacher Renken and Michael. They have three children, Rebecca, Paul and Johan. Anya settled down well, the Church provided her with a temporary room.

Now I’m leaving after visiting with Masha and her children. We want them to move to Wroclaw because where they are now living, there is no Church of Christ.

Let me report that the money you sent to help settle the refugees, we ordered a door to the private rooms and toilet. We also purchased beds, mattresses, and linen. We also continue working on the building by putty the rooms and then lay the tiles. This is necessary before we settle people. We plan to have all filled with people in May.

Refugees continue to arrive. Many wounded and very hungry.

We plan to return this week. Now we are buying things and taking away what the Church has collected in Wroclaw.
Ivan Skoleba (Ivano-Frankivsk, UA)

After returning from Poland, Ivan sent this message…

Thank you very much for your prayers and your spiritual and material support. We arrived from Poland on Friday evening, April 15. The road was difficult as we rode at night. The bus was old and had very bad brakes. They barely delivered all that were passengers. But the Lord is merciful and we crossed the border in time so as not to break the agreement we had with the administration.

Sveta decided to come with me to help me in my service in the Church and in helping people. Ruslan came with us and now helps the refugees a lot in the Church. Also, his father-in-law in the village asks to help plant grain so that there is bread. They have a lot of land in the village and no one to work because everyone was taken to the war.

Yesterday Russia bombed Lviv and there are consequences. Russian troops are constantly firing dozens of missiles at western Ukraine. But most of our air defenses have time to repel missiles and they explode in the air without causing much damage. Every day, troops shoot down several dozen Russian missiles fired by Russians into western Ukraine. We do not know what will happen next; what is our destiny.

Today was the Sunday service and there were more than twenty people assembled in our one-room. Today, Tatiana and Lena, refugees, came to our meeting for the first time. Scary stories are told about the atrocities and bullying of Russians. It’s just a horror what Russians are doing to civilians. We gave them Bibles in Russian. They are learning to speak Ukrainian but we all understand each other.

On Monday, Tanya said that the container was being transported from Poland to Lviv and distributed there by organizations. We agreed with her that we would come to Lviv with my brothers and help unload the cargo and transport it to Ivano-Frankivsk on our own. We continue to help refugees, preach to them about salvation in Christ and the need for repentance and baptism for salvation.

Volodya Paziy and his men were also present at the assembly. We talked with Volodya about our joint ministry. He would like to teach Bible lessons on Thursdays. You know that he is a good teacher of the Bible. This will be good for his Russian-speaking Christians and for ours as well, who want to know the Bible better. What do you think about it?

As for the container, we want to get it, but the process of delivery from Poland, I do not know if I can handle my own transport. We have a truck and a person is ready to go there to pick up the cargo. Of course, now Ukraine is in dire need of humanitarian aid. I will do everything I can for this.

Regarding the building, we continue to work to complete the ground floor for the reception of refugees. Tomorrow we will bring the doors that have already been made for our rooms. Also after tomorrow we will work on the shower cabins. We have finished the ceiling in the hallway and rooms. We moved on to plastering the walls and we will put tiles on the floor in the toilet and rooms. There are not enough workers as almost all of them were taken to the army.

Sasha came with Volodymyr Paziy, he says he can do with putty and drywall. Tomorrow we will see what he can do and maybe he will work to speed up the work. We also ordered the beds to be made, bought linen and we had utensils that you handed over in a humanitarian cargo.

There is still money for work that you transferred. As the housing part is prepared and painted, I will invite representatives of the social service and they will ask the administration to give us permission without waiting in line to operate the premises. Prices have not yet changed for furniture, only for building materials rose by 15%. I gave you a letter with prices for what we want to buy. I can’t count everything for a penny because the situation is unstable. It became difficult with the materials because the center and the east of Ukraine stopped producing building materials. As much as I can save, we do it ourselves, but I also need to pay the boys, because they need food and feed their families.

The information about Masha and her children is as follows: in order for her to move to Wroclaw, she needs an apartment or a house and this is hard to find in Wroclaw. My concern is more for her spiritual condition. She needs to be with the children in Christ’s Church. She is spiritually exhausted alone among unbelievers. This is the situation at the moment.

Tomorrow I will have a meeting with Anatoliy Romanovich, we want to hand over food and things to the administration and the military with the administration. Our brothers and sisters in Poland helped with food and I also bought food for refugees in Ukraine. We have already given a lot to families.

Please continue to pray for us. We love you. Our congratulations to your family and the Church. Greetings from our family to the Church.

Sincere thanks to the American brothers and sisters for their help!
Ivan Skoleba (Ivano-Frankivsk, UA)

Here is a brief update from Denis Sopelnik:

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today Ukraine is living the most difficult period in its new history – the war for independence, democracy and peace. We are being bombed and killed two months in a row, hundreds of people lost their homes, jobs and food. Water is in shortage again, in 21st century! However, we stay strong and fight back. We are ready to fight for the peaceful skies as long as we have any strength left in us.

It’s extremely difficult to find the right words to describe the atrocities that the Russian soldiers committed in Ukrainian cities and villages. They kill, rape and rob innocent people. We beg God every day to stop this madness and everyday the willingness to resist the enemy increases in Ukrainian people. During the last month and a half, a lot us joined volunteers of different kinds and many congregations in Ukraine actively help the needy.

We try to serve everyone who has problems and tribulations. During the time period we evacuated over 1,000 people from different parts of the country that were under strikes, we distributed pounds of food among the people who hadn’t have anything to eat hiding from missiles’ landing in their cities. I don’t even count the medications and personal hygiene items. Many times I caught myself pondering on why it was happening, but every time after these thought I realized that everything is in God’s hands. So many people having received the help from the Church were so surprised and thankful. They didn’t expect anybody helping them out in love and genuine care. In moments like these you understand how crucially important it was to stand in the Truth and be the messenger of Christ. I know that some congregations opened their church buildings to the refugees. People were helped out, had the Bible studies and eventually were baptized. As of now, we are working on converting our church building in Bela Tserkva into something similar. We are making all the necessary preparations.

I received many messages with the words of encouragement. People also help us financially, sometimes even strangers. I am grateful for every penny, every cent that you sacrificed for Ukraine. There’s too much pain, destruction and suffering. Unbelievable amount of grief. We try so very hard to help those who are in extreme need. And we’re looking at many years of rebuilding our country and our economy. It will take a lot of efforts and a lot of resources.

I ask you to keep praying for Ukraine and peace in our country. I am very grateful for the church and for each of you.

Your brother,
Dennis Sopelnik