Dear Friends and Partners,
Thank you for your continuing prayers; they are much appreciated. I cannot stress enough that things are critical in Kharkiv and across Ukraine. I was in a meeting with 31 other large ministry leaders across Poland, Germany, United States, and they are overwhelmed with the demands upon them. There are now about 10 million + displaced Ukrainians. 50% of Kharkiv is displaced (over 700,000 people) and two of our ministry partners (pastor Sergei and pastor Peter) who are essential in helping us distribute food and supplies – their houses were destroyed over the weekend by missiles. I will talk about them in our April prayer letter.
The bombs continue to go off in our city of Kharkiv daily, but it is now so common that it barely makes the news cycle. The city is becoming a heap of rubble. It is the second worst hit city, behind Mariupol, which is currently in the news cycle. The mayor of Kharkiv made an announcement last Tuesday that over 700+ builds have been damaged or destroyed, not including how many have been hit since then.
In a report from UNICEF spokesman James Elder, reported that there are 55 children that have fled Ukraine every minute (that is almost one child per second). My assumption is that number continues to grow, since I received that information 6 days ago.
We have continued to send thousands and thousands of dollars to Ukraine again this week to buy food, water, medicine, and supplies. To see how quickly things change, one of our ministry partners said, “We had a full room stocked with food. We were unsure if we needed you to send money this week and by the next day, all the food and supplies were gone and we need you to send money now, please.” Of course, we sent them money immediately!
The problem now is that the money is going out much quicker than it is coming into the ministry. We will be meeting as a board on April 2nd. Please pray that we have wisdom on how to go forward!
Here is the update on our ministry partners:
• Good News Church of Kharkiv: Continues to feed thousands of people. They have also bought supplies and mattresses, since people are sleeping in the bomb shelters. They have also been able to feed the orphan and disabled children and reported to me that the government is moving them to Switzerland and Germany. This weekend a retirement home housing 400 elderly was hit by Russian bombs and they are now trying to help feed them too, so we are sending more money today (3/21). On 3/18, huge bombs went off near their bomb shelters, which scared them alot;
• Holy Trinity Church of Kharkiv: Providing medicine for hundreds of people in the Kharkiv suburb of Saltavka, which is a highly dense population of apartment buildings ( a pre-war population of 500,000 people in a couple square miles). This area has been heavily hit by the Russian military. Due to the population, their food is being depleted daily. Pastor Peter’s apartment was destroyed over the weekend;
• New Life Church of Kharkiv: They continue to help feed and help transport hundreds of people out of Kharkiv and Chuguev (about 25 minutes south of Kharkiv);
• Living Hope Baptist Church of Kharkiv: They continue to help feeding hundreds of people. The pastor said that his church has doubled in size overnight and people are seeking help from every direction. Pastor Sergei’s home was destroyed by a missile on Saturday;
• Pentecostal Union: They continue to make 600-700 loaves of bread daily and distributing it to the poor, while also providing biblical pamphlets to help encourage them spiritually too;
• We will have the president of our partner Romanian ministry give us an update on how they are preparing for the refugees;
• KYIV: We have sent money to 12 families and various ministries. More details to come later.
• Rehab Facility: The rehab facility where we have been working for years continues to function, but now they are also feeding 450 people in nearby villages where many people from Kharkiv have fled away from. They are also feeding 100 people in their location. We have begun sending money to help this area too;
• Colorado Government: We have had no new updates with the government this week, since this is something that may go into effect months from now. There is still no expediting of refugees to America;
• Media: I completed a TV interview with FOX news Colorado Springs on 3/17/22 with the hope of bringing more awareness. Our website guy died of COVID last year. We have hired a new individual who will be updating our website and including a new blog with all the war updates. This should be updated within two weeks or less;
• Medi-Share, a Christian medical bill sharing ministry has agreed to allow their employees in Colorado Springs volunteer for Slavic Christian Ministries up to three work days in helping us with administrative work. We are so thankful for this ministry;
How Can you help?
Please advocate to your church on our behalf. See if you can set up a meeting for me to speak to your pastor or mission leader. I would love to speak with them, share what we are doing and see how your church may be able to help not just now, but over the long term.
Please continue to help us save the Ukrainian people by becoming a regular/recurring donor. If you are willing to become or recurring donor (or keep giving one occasion through one-time donations), please go here:
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