Monday morning the Dalraida congregation loaded a container with Family Bucket, personal hygiene bags, walkers, crutches, and walking canes. This container steamed out of Mobile’s Port and is on its way to Poland. The photo above shows the activity inside the container as personal hygiene boxes were loaded and stacked. You see Ted getting a box from Nate, Jared’s head at the bottom and Gif and Billy in the background!
Last night Charita emailed to our contacts in Ukraine a list of antibiotic products that have been donated and will be shipped via Nova Posta to those requesting in Ukraine. It is an amazing offer by a group of generous people in the northeast. One of our distribution points for years was in Kherson, Ukraine. This city has been surrounded and isolated by the “occupiers” (this is how Russian invaders are described). This morning I woke to this message from a dear friend in Kherson:
Our organization is grateful to you for the opportunity you offer to provide us with humanitarian assistance, but we are unable to accept it, as we are under occupation, and regions are closed and the occupiers do not give permission for humanitarian corridors. The situation in the city and the region is in critical need for any products and medicines. Especially for chronically ill patients.
With best wishes,
E
From Ivano-Frankivsk
Greetings, brother John!
Ivan Skoleba
Today we thanked God for your prayers and support you provide for the Lord’s Church in Ivano-Frankivsk. We had a good worship. After Church’s assembly, we visited with Olga and Michael and talked to them about salvation. We’ve known them for a long time. Misha built our church building. We invited them to Church. And in the evening, we received the dry food that Mike Lawson had mailed to us via MEEST. I will calculate all expenses and send financial report to you tomorrow.
Things are going as planned here. We would to have our first meeting in the new building on May 22. Please, pray on our behalf. May God help and protect you!
From church in Arizona
Brother Glenn Mabley (an elder at the Sun Valley congregation) sent me this update on the family buckets and personal hygiene bag collections there. I want to share his encouraging news with you.
John,
I just wanted to send a few pictures of the final collections of buckets and hygiene bags before we begin the process of loading and shipping. We put 16 bags in each box (plus a few other items). Buckets are initially stored at the Mesa church of Christ (primary storage area before loading and shipping). I would like to thank the following for helping get this humanitarian effort completed today and for helping spearhead this humanitarian effort.
– Sun Valley church of Christ (Glenn Mabley and congregation)
– Mesa church of Christ (Kevin Hubby and congregation)
– Alma School church of Christ (Keith Shepherd and congregation)
– Southwest church of Christ (Wesley Norris and congregation)
– Tonto church of Christ (Jeffery Walker and congregation)
– Gold Canyon church of Christ (Ralph Ycedo and congregation)
– Casa Grande church of Christ (Kim Myers and congregation)
A special thanks to Venton Blandin, ABC-15 News for taking the time to do the interview and helping present this information to the Valley! The response was amazing.
Our next phase is the preparation and shipping to Montgomery, AL.
Will continue to keep all updated.
Respectfully, Glenn
From Columbia, TN
The Graymere and South Gate congregations met Monday night and packed ONE-THOUSAND BUCKETS for Ukraine War Relief efforts! We are collecting items that will be loaded and shipped in the THIRD cargo container loaded from Columbia!
Montgomery, Alabama
The Dalraida congregation packed a cargo container Monday morning with family buckets, hygiene bags and other items that are needed in Ukraine. The totals of the loading were: 1,456 pieces loaded into the container with a weight of 26,141 pounds! The value of this load was $152,590.00! At the same time this container was loading we were UNLOADING a trailer truckload from Houston, TX that delivered 30 pallets of miscellaneous medical supplies! Another cargo container is scheduled to load out of Montgomery on Wednesday morning May 18, 2022!
Total Shipments to Date
We are now on shipment #200! We began in early March with the first shipment into Ukraine with War Relief and it was #135. This means SINCE MARCH WE HAVE COLLECTED, SHIPPED, DELIVERED, SIXTY-FIVE loads!! Some of these are scheduled to load and some are on the water, but the total is still amazing!
Problem of Costs
We have hit a HUGE problem. Fuel costs for delivery in-country have skyrocketed. Within Ukraine there is a fuel rationing with priority to military and hospitals. Our costs for delivery of commodities began at $400.00 a load and this week I authorized two loads at $3,900.00 each! We will be going to deal with this situation and work to secure assistance from the military in moving these loads. At this point, when people ask what is the greatest need I have to say funds for transportation. When you realize we have approximately 50 containers on the water and these are steaming into Poland’s ports and will have this huge in-country transport expense, it is not a consoling experience!
Next week Charita and I will once again deploy for Poland and other locations to deal with some issues in the shipments, meet with various contacts, and secure our network’s integrity. Pray for the success of our efforts!
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
(Montgomery, AL)
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