{"id":10657,"date":"2024-10-28T05:05:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T10:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kachelman.com\/ukraine\/blog\/?p=10657"},"modified":"2025-03-01T11:06:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T17:06:34","slug":"fall-trip-report-18-final-report-from-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kachelman.com\/ukraine\/blog\/2024\/10\/28\/fall-trip-report-18-final-report-from-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Trip Report #18 | Final Report from Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Featured Photo: This is the Church of Christ in Warsaw, Poland assembling on the Lord\u2019s Day in worship and edification!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be my final report from the European side of the Atlantic Ocean. The trip has been a success in many ways and I have been able to make contacts and strategically plan amazing actions for the future of the Lord\u2019s Church in Ukraine. As I leave Ukraine, Gary Jerkins and Ron Swang have arrived and they are involved in the development phase of a behavioral center that will focus on rehabilitation from the war traumas especially suffered by children and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday I was invited to preach at the Church of Christ in Warsaw, Poland. The congregation is composed of Ukrainian refugees but there is one Polish brother (Robert) who attends. When the second invasion occurred, I had travelled to Poland to meet with various contacts about operations. At that time, I worshipped with this congregation. At that time brother Lukasz Kondracki was the located preacher. He and his family were preparing to move to Huntsville, AL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the war\u2019s intensity worsening the refugee flow became greater. Brethren from all over Ukraine came to Warsaw and soon this congregation had increased in numbers. Today I met brethren from all over the nation. II will long remember that one family came to me and thanked us for helping Ukraine. They had lived in Mariupol but fled when Russia devastated the city. They were not members of the Lord\u2019s Church. They came to Warsaw and became acquainted with Vladmir Paziy who brought them to the Church. They were taught the gospel and obeyed it! They now assemble regularly and work energetically in the congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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One of the most interesting conversations I had was with a brother named \u201cPeter.\u201d He told me he was from Kharkov and when Russia invaded, he moved out. Peter told me he had been in the USSR military for 27 years but after aging out of the military he moved to Kharkiv. He told me several interesting narratives about his service in the USSR military\u2014he was sent to Czechoslovakia in 1968\u2019s \u201cPrague Spring<\/a>,\u201d as the Warsaw Pact quelled the uprising (those old enough should recall this event!). Peter was in East Germany in 1961 when the \u201cWall<\/a>\u201d construction was begun. Peter was present for some of the most critical moments of the Cold War era. He said the USSR military moved him to many different countries and many actions. But now he is in his 80s and says he had found the greatest service ever imagined in the Lord\u2019s Church. I noticed that he carries an armload of notebooks and these are used to write down points from the lessons he hears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was so good to see many faces that I have not seen in years. Yuri Taran<\/span> <\/strong>from Zaporizhia was there and is doing a great job.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It was good to be with Vlad Paziy<\/span><\/strong> again. Vlad is a good friend and an energetic servant of the Lord. He remarked that we have been partners in the work for 20 years, but it does not seem that long! I appreciate Vlad\u2019s desire for evangelism and for the local Church to be involved in reaching out to others. Vlad\u2019s eagerness is in dramatic contrast to another I know who once remarked \u201cwe do not need strangers here because we have our own group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THANK YOU<\/span><\/strong> for your support and donations that have made this mission trip possible. THANK YOU<\/span><\/strong> for your continued donations that help us ship tons and tons of benevolence commodities to those in desperate need!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John L. Kachelman, Jr, Ukraine Missions, Dalraida Church of Christ, P. O. Box 3085, Montgomery, AL 36109 <\/p>\n\n\n\n