This week we are working in a day-camp for refugee moms and their kids. I’m taking the night train on Sunday, going early to help build a playground for the kids. The trains coming out are filled with moms and children, but Sunday night it’s likely to be empty. I’m going East.

Millions of people still in Ukraine have no home. More than eight million now.  People who do not want to leave Ukraine, but who don’t have a home to go back to.

In this refugee center, after breakfast, hundreds of homeless people, mainly elderly, sit all morning waiting for lunch.  Nobody has any place to go … so they just sit and wait.

The great majority of the homeless people are children, widows and elderly.

These kids are lined up waiting for breakfast.

Homeless kids playing on inflatable slide in a refugee camp.

Children, moms and grandmothers fill the refugee camps. The big question is … What are we going to do with them in a couple of months when winter returns to Ukraine ??

The nation’s social services, schools, aid to the poor, medical care etc. are totally overwhelmed.

I’m taking the train to Cluj and then we drive on into South Central Ukraine.

We are working in Ukraine this week, to get a playground ready out in the countryside where they are going to have a summer camp for refugee kids. 

We’ve got 4 days before the kids arrive, Lord willing the paint will be dry!

Your support has done a lot of really good things.

Thanks so much for your generosity everyone.

.

Blessings,

Allen & Katy

I just got home from South Central Ukraine. Here are brand new pictures from this week’s trips.

We drove a couple of loads of food and supplies to a church that is on the front lines of the refugee crisis. Supplies like blankets, pillows, First Aid supplies, Bibles, and stuffed animals for the kids.

The war and destruction are far from over, 11,000 people crossed just the Hungarian border on Saturday!

Remember … 90% of the refugees are moms and children! The refugees keep coming because the bombs keep falling.

.

Katy and I leave on Wednesday to drive another load of food and supplies. This time we are going to refugees in Lviv, just south of the border of Belarus.

The internally displaced people flee westward and southward.

This war is doing long term damage to people and families that is going to take a long, long time to heal.

.

In some cities in central and western Ukraine, the public utilities are so strained that the water comes out in a brown trickle. The church we resupplied this week, in South Central Ukraine makes regular trips into to the war areas. The food and supplies we bring feeds about 100 refugees they house and also goes on to be distributed in the East.

The church people unloading our van make really quick work of it. Rapidly our load is stacked in the back of the sanctuary beside the sound system.

In a converted restaurant behind the church, and apartments nearby, Pastor Sasha and his church house about 90 refugees. They will be pretty much living there for the foreseeable future. There is nothing left where they came from. Their towns and neighborhoods have been flattened.

There’s a sort of Hodge podge ‘playground’ behind the church where moms can take the children out to get some fresh air and play on a pair of trampolines the church has set up.

We are working with some others who want to put in some more playground equipment for them.

(We’ll keep you updated as this progresses)

.

Please don’t tire of praying for Ukraine, people here need hope and prayer.

Your giving has allowed us to be Christ’s hands and feet to many people!

People are still dying and bombs are still falling but thanks to your generosity we have been able to reach them and assure them that they are not forgotten !

What you are giving is greatly appreciated !

.

Blessings

Allen & Katy

We are responding to a need for large numbers of tourniquets in Ukraine

About half of all of all preventable deaths can be avoided with a small tourniquet. A kit that you can carry in your pocket and administer by your self with one hand.

A relatively small wound to an artery can cause rapid death. We are trying to send as many tourniquet kits and pressure bandage kits as possible into Ukraine.

People on the ground are carrying them on into restricted zones where they are saving lives every day.

This simple item that fits in a pocket can save someone’s life

Secondly, we are sourcing Pressure Bandages, for the ongoing care of people with wounds that need ongoing direct pressure after the wound has been stabilized and in some other situations.

Both tourniquets and pressure bandages are in short supply, especially in rural areas. With the government so overwhelmed with the survival of the country, churches and NGO’s are stepping up to meet the need.

How and when a tourniquet can save a life

Like anything medical, if 3 people are talking you will have four or five opinions.

But in the simplest of understandings:

Tourniquets save lives …

• when a person is alone and gets hurt.
• where bleeding cannot be stopped by direct pressure.
• when there is no such thing as an ambulance or EMT to come help you (as in Ukraine)
• If bleeding cannot be stopped with immediate and simultaneous application of direct pressure and elevation.
• If direct pressure cannot be sustained for whatever reason, even if it is working. (ie. an injured person has no other recourse but to walk for help etc.)

In Ukraine, the risk of life threatening injury is everywhere !

For additional reading/information

Here is a link to a good article about the use of tourniquets in first aid.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/tourniquet-for-first-aid-kit-4107507

Here is a link to a good article about the difference and use of Pressure bandages.

https://www.healthline.com/health/pressure-bandage

For most ‘Soccer moms’, the phrase ‘rescuing the team’ might mean showing up with pizza and Cokes after practice. For one team in Ukraine it meant much much more !!

These moms basically showed up, grabbed the team, and, fled the country !!

They didn’t pack … they didn’t plan. They just grabbed the kids and ran.

A couple from our Szolnok church found a soccer team that had escaped from Ukraine. 18 moms with their 25 hungry kids !! Some had only the clothes they were wearing. One little boy didn’t even have shoes !!

And as you can imagine, with half a million refugees crossing into Hungary, the relief system is stretched pretty thin! It only provides the basics. Pretty much a bowl of soup, a slice of bread, and a mat on the floor.

We don’t know all the circumstances, every family group has a story, but the simple facts are, the moms and children were in grave danger, and that none of the fathers came to Hungary because they are all soldiers.

The fathers wanted their families out of there so the kids would not be harmed by the fighting, and so that the Russians would not be able to use the families to blackmail their fathers if they were captured.

Sometimes hiding in basements, they went from shelter to shelter along the way.

These kids are pretty traumatized and their moms are very broken. Some have seen their homes blown up. They are crying for their dads. Some were unable to speak when they got here,

Some members of this group are at risk. Kriszti and Norbi, a young family that grew up in the church in Szolnok are the point people for the soccer team families. Katy and I are still busy with relief supplies going into Ukraine, a weekly Ukrainian language worship service happening in Bonyhad, emergency medical supplies that are being sourced and driven into Ukraine, etc.

Norbi and Kriszti are going over every day to help the Soccer moms. Yesterday they took over 50 pounds of fruit to the families.

They bring over food, snacks, specific items they cannot buy and clothes from the church. Now that the refugees have settled into a student housing dormitory, the kids are doing online school every morning and soccer practice every afternoon at 2:30.

It’s so vital to get the kids involved in something where they will interact and respond.

In this case, Soccer was the obvious common denominator, so we’re getting them equipped with balls and a gym where they can work out and play with local Hungarian teams. It’s so important for them emotionally for them to be able to run, play and practice together. The only things they have left from their lives are their teammates, siblings, and moms !!

A note from Kriszti:

“Hi, we were at (the) school today. 7 children do not have a soccer ball. We want to buy them (balls so they) can train with them. We were able to meet Ukrainian refugee mothers and their children. They are very afraid of the public. They did not say exactly why they were afraid. But one of the moms has a husband in a higher military position.” Kriszti and Norbi

The church bought enough soccer balls so that every kid has one to work out with. Even the really little kids have rubber soccer balls so that they can work out too.

In the student dormitory, meals are brought to them every day. They do have a common kitchen with a small stove, hot pot, and fridge. But being there with nothing, and having to ask for everything has been very hard for the moms. Sometimes they feel embarrassed and ashamed. They were hard-working families in Ukraine who had money and a normal life. (Kriszti and Norbi went shopping for the mom who left so suddenly that her little boy didn’t even have shoes.)

Slowly we’ve gained their trust and they are allowing us to help more on personal levels. Dianna is a social worker who speaks Ukrainian and she has helped us a lot. We told them that God would not leave them alone in trouble. Only now after a couple of weeks, we’ve found out that one little boy on the Soccer team needs special medical care. He’s diabetic and yesterday I ordered things he needs from Germany that aren’t available in Hungary. He still has two weeks left before he runs out but our order will give him another two weeks. There are several steps for him to get thru the paperwork necessary to be covered by the Hungarian medical system. Of course, the mom has no money. There are no banks or cash machines when you are hiding in basements and running from the shelling. And Ukrainian money has no value anymore even if she had any.

A note from Kriszti:

“(One) mom and her 3 year old baby boy … asked for the little boy, a vest instead of the ball. She wanted to go home (homesick for Ukraine) today. Unfortunately, her husband (soldier) was (moved up) to Mariupol in the evening. She is very sad now, she cried. We tried to comfort her. She helps (the other) moms a lot. She’s been with them all day and interpreting. Her parents no longer live. She has no one but her husband. She is very sad now. We could talk a little bit about faith, hope, and trusting God. A couple of days later she was crying but very happy. She is returning to Ukraine. She doesn’t know what will happen there but we are praying for her and she is very happy about that.” Kriszti and Norbi

Please pray for Alona, her husband, and her little one.

Now that they are starting to trust us, they have started sharing the trauma and the desperation of what they have been thru. Before we were sort of just ‘staff’ at yet another refugee camp, now little by little we’re becoming ‘friends’, people they trust as they are starting to settle into a little bit of normal life. In that context, we’ve been able to share about God’s love for them. The interpreter cried and said that they are touched.

A note from Kriszti:

“She was very happy, crying. She returned to Ukraine today. She doesn’t know exactly what will happen at home. We will pray for her, she was very grateful for that.” Kriszti and Norbi

This is the reality of what we’re in the middle of here. Please pray with us for ways to help people work through the shock and pain of what they are experiencing. We are reaching out to them without any preconditions or requirements. Just being there with them tells them ‘you are not alone’. As a church, we are ministering to their needs as best we can !!

Thanks so much for helping us be the “Hands and Feet” of Christ here in Hungary !! If you give so much as a cup of cold water, or medicine, … soccer balls, … a bag of chips, … a vest, … some bananas … !!

Love and blessings to you all !!

Allen & Katy, Directors, Harvest International Ministries, Eastern Edge Team

There is a small, unimportant border crossing on the Tisza river at a town called Tiszabécs.  The Tisza river is the border between Hungary and Ukraine. 

The only thing that makes it notable now is that there is a flow of desperate people, fleeing from a brutal war, who are escaping across the river into Hungary.

Tiszabécs has a lot of poor people. People who understand what it means to have nothing. 

It’s amazing how the common everyday people in this small town are responding to the plight of the refugees coming out of Ukraine.

We drove 6 hours from Southern Hungary to bring about 2000 pounds of food, clothing, medicine and tents up to these border areas.

As I walked into the compound of the local church where we were offloading food, it was a hubbub of activity.

Along the sideyard of the church, men were hooking up lighting in a couple of ‘FEMA’ style portable housing modules full of mattresses. There were a couple more small cottages with mattresses all over their floors.

A Generator was running and power cords went everywhere.  Lots of kids were running around playing.  I met the Vice President of a biker club there.  He and a very middle-class family man were working together stringing extension cords. 

Refugees were sitting on beds in some of the rooms. Other places there were only people’s bags sitting by beds.

Walking back farther I reached the outdoor kitchen.  A group of ladies under the direction of a very capable leader were cooking chopped cabbage and green spices over a barrel stove fire. 

They had a dishpan of chopped cabbage cooking on the cut out top of a barrel.  A wood fire was burning in the barrel underneath.

Other ladies brought up a large plastic baby bathtub full of freshly peeled and cut up potatoes to cook.

Once both are cooked, they will be mixed and cooked down into soup with a big smoked ham hock to make a simple dinner for an expected 200 people. 

When evening comes, trains and busses on the Ukrainian side will drop a couple hundred people off to be processed through the border. 

People who have been running for days.  Traveling catch as catch can.  These people will be hungry and the church ladies made enough for everyone to eat and have seconds.

It’s a very simple kitchen, run by some very poor people who have very big hearts.

They have taken the little they have and are offering it to people who have nothing.  Just a few days ago, many of the refugees probably had much more than these people in Tiszabécs.  Nobody cares about that now. Disaster and war have brought everybody together.

The people of Tiszabécs have mobilized the little they have to be the first line of defense against hunger and homelessness on the south bank of the Tisza river, in northern Hungary!

Your gifts and prayers are so important! Thanks so much for being a vital part of everything that we are doing over here!!

Blessings,

Allen & Katy Lake, Directors, Harvest Eastern Edge

To read more go to:

https://harvesteasternedge.com/news/

Then look under “Recent Posts”