A fall Report
In a huge country with millions of hungry people displaced by war, churches are racing against time to save the lives of shocked and desperate moms, children, and grandparents. The able bodied men are at the front.
Thank you so much for your prayers, your care and your giving !! You are really making a difference !!
Ukraine is huge. The largest country in Europe. Driving between projects and food distribution sites we often spend 9 to 13 hours driving each way.
Here’s a photo journal of some sites we have been serving.
Above: Newly freed Ukrainians lining up to receive much-needed bags of food.
The big quantities go out in trucks, even semi-trucks.
As we get to the local level Pastors cram their cars or a borrowed van full and distribute it.
Truck loads of food and fuel …
As Ukraine liberates more and more areas, hundreds of thousands of people need help.
In the west of Ukraine, we have been helping refugees who have accumulated in Lviv, Beregszaz, Chernivtsi, and Mukachevо. We work together with churches and missionary friends there. They have the personnel to handle distribution, we can provide truckloads of food.
From there we send supplies north to feeding sites toward Kyiv & Kharkiv. We can buy truckloads of food on the wholesale market in Munkacsavo and send it north with co-workers.
Even before Russia’s specific attack on public utilities, so many refugees were living in Mukachevо that the city struggled to keep the water running … and that was when electricity was on.
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In Odessa, we are strengthening a pastor from Kharkiv who has a lot of people working up and down the front.
His church in Kharkiv experienced a strong revival and has become a mother church in the area. Unfortunately, it was north of the city, even closer to the Russian border and pretty much everything has been flattened up there by 8 months of artillery barrages.
The joy of Cooking … (or being able too !!)
Another big area we are trying to address is getting some basic cooking equipment for the most vulnerable. As supplies are distributed north from Odessa, up the ‘line of contact’, to newly liberated areas, the situation is unbelievably bad. The houses, basic as they were, have been looted if not destroyed. Russian soldiers looted everything of value. Kitchens, heating, the porcelain plumbing fixtures … everything. We are funding the distribution of small propane cookers of various sizes.
Different size stoves for different family units. It’s such a difference to be able to make a little hot food and tea for your kids !! So much of what is available is dry goods like pasta, rice, lentils, and flour.
After we left Odessa, missiles started coming in…
These were the Iranian-made drones, pre-programmed but with no active guidance system. They just hit randomly within a general, zipcode-sized area.
They are not useful for much outside of terrorism, but they carry 100 pounds of high explosives.
Sadly, they destroy buildings, and vehicles and they kill people.
The war continues and there is no relief for the people living there.
Sandbags and Bomb shelters
This is where shocked and traumatized families get to share their stories with counselors who are giving them food and clothing.
Refugee moms come just to get a little food and some clothes for their children, and they find that it’s a place of peace in the storm.
They realize that this is a place where they can stop for a while and re-group. The sandbags protect from shrapnel in case a missile strike evades the air defense and the sirens don’t go off.
There is a bomb shelter set up in the basement under the food distribution site.
If a raid happens, everybody can run downstairs. There is water, beds and a generator for power.
There in the bomb shelter was a teenage young man wrapped up in a blanket, totally unresponsive as we walked through.
He has not moved or spoken for 3 or 4 days the pastor told me. I’ve seen the same thing in other shelters. Mental and emotional trauma is so great that even after people get out of the war zone, sometimes they cannot even speak or interact with people. A PTSD reaction to the horrors of war that they have been through.
20 Ducks to the rescue !!
The other day I arrived at a church in Beregszaz that feeds as many as 300 people every day. The ladies were cooking away in the kitchen, tables were being set up in the sanctuary for the noon influx of people. The pastor was running late (I was not surprised) and then he called …
“Allen, Sorry, my wife and I were butchering 20 ducks somebody gave us !! I’ll be there as soon as I can !!”
Everybody is doing what they can. All over the country people are pulling together working to do something.
So, this is what we are doing.
Housing and heating will be very problematic over the winter, but the government will have to handle that sort of issue. It will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Revival in Ukraine is ongoing
Everyone is praying and many people are turning to Jesus. We channel all our resources through the pastors, and they are working night and day, feeding people, praying with people and counseling them.
The churches have stepped up and taken the lead in helping. Even when the believers themselves have fled from their own homes, they are feeding the hungry, and helping the needy. This labor of love on the part of the believers has not gone unnoticed. It’s going to lead many people to faith in the Lord !!
Special thanks to so many of you who have been partnering with us!!
We are blessed to be able to be here ‘At such a time as this’. To get to reach out and help thousands of Ukrainian people.
Please keep praying … we really appreciate you guys !!
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Blessings to you all !!
Allen and Katy Lake
Directors, Harvest Eastern Edge