Ukraine Update #5
Pastor Ben Sterciuc has returned to Romania and Ukraine, and before he did we made sure he had extra funds on hand to meet urgent needs. In this video Ben speaks with pastor Sorin in Cernauti, Ukraine. ACTION provided ten generators, that Sorin distributed to church-based refugee centers.
Another urgent need funded by your generous support is this pallet of Bibles, headed into Ukraine with food and relief supplies.
Ian and Monica Elliott have returned from their three weeks of service on the border between Ukraine and Romania. They will be giving a ministry presentation at our office this week and I will make the video available in a future email. Please be in prayer for an ACTION missionary who is planning to travel to Poland for an extended time of ministry to refugees.
Through the Elliotts and Pastor Ben we have partnered with the Emaus Impact Center in Romania. This photo is from about ten days ago when 40 refugees arrived at the shelter in the middle of the night. At that time a new corridor had opened for refugees to leave the war zone. Please pray that many other cities under siege will be allowed to release those who want leave for safety.
It was my supreme privilege to use some of your donations for a coordinated project with a few other ministries to take food into Zaporizhzhia, near the besieged city of Mariupol. But that was only half the plan. For the return trip they picked up as many refugees as would fit, and took those dear people to the safety of Romania.
One of the team leaders of this venture wrote, "The rescue mission to Zaporizhzhia was successful, praise God. As we were leaving the city, we saw in our rear-view mirror that a missile struck near the suburb where our team had been serving. We continue to pray for God’s peace and protection over innocent civilians.
"We delivered 20 tons of humanitarian supplies to members of a church in Zaporizhia, who are risking their lives to get food into Mariupol. Food is taken in through in small bags, and passed from one person to another, and sometimes left under debris for people in hiding to retrieve at a suitable time. One man who was doing this has been missing for several days and sadly presumed dead.
"The supplies that we delivered were of critical need, but not nearly enough to address this escalating conflict. I feel cut to the heart to have seen so many traumatized and exhausted women and children who have had no other choice but to flee their homes with their entire lives contained in a bag. The greatest frustration was the limited number of people that we could help. The situation in Mariupol is truly horrific, and our concern is that a little over 150,000 people are still trapped there and going hungry."
Less dramatic, perhaps, but just as needed is ACTION's role of "filling in the gaps" for multi-agency relief work. There have been two projects, for example, where one agency had a truck and drivers, and other agencies had pallets of food or medical supplies to donate, but someone was needed to pay for gasoline to send the truck on an 1800 kilometer round trip for delivery. On your behalf I am glad to be the "gas man" and keep the tanks filled so that urgently-needed supplies make it into Ukraine.