The last day of this visit in Zaporozhye began early and the action kept constant throughout the entire day. The weather has cleared up and the sun was shining but there was still a cold, brisk wind blowing—gloves and a neck scarf really felt good!
The day was filled with delivering various items that we have shipped. In the photo at the top of this post is one of the deliveries we made. A wheelchair was given to a 78 year old invalid woman who has waited FIVE years for a wheelchair! In the above photo you see three of our guys in Zaporozhye—the Consignee Veterans of Chernobyl. The guy holding papers is there to pick up the wheelchair. From left to right are Alexander Anatolovich, Yuri Gennadivich (Yuri prefers to be called “George”) and Nicholi Nicholivch (Nicholi was the Commandant of the Regional Police Academy but now he is a candidate for election to the city’s Rada).
Our first visit was to one of the Children’s Hospitals in Zaporozhye. Through our shipments we have given the hospital several gurneys and a number of boxes of miscellaneous medical supplies. We were also able to present four new wheelchairs in the name of the Lord’s People! The staff were very complimentary on the quality of the items received and extremely grateful for the fact that we were willing to give these treasures to them.
After leaving the Children’s Hospital we stopped to deliver another wheelchair to Anna and Inga (whom I mentioned in a previous report). Inga is in the First Invalid category and has CP. It was good to see Anna again and she said she has been reading the trip reports and other available material.
Next on the to-do list was a visit to the Emergency Hospital. We were shown the 6 electric beds that were made available for their emergency isolation care unit. The hospital also showed us other supplies that we have sent. Again the appreciation was expressed in the kindest of words and emotions were very evident.
I told the hospital that we were glad to be partners with them and they have a significant part in the success. They provide a huge storage facility that is given without cost and they supply their electronics technicians to work on the electrical equipment. I visited with “Victor” who is the lead worker on the electrical things. Victor told me that they have been able to change the voltage required for the electric beds and now 6 of the beds are working fine. They continue working on others. Victor said the 6 beds are in the Emergency Hospital and work very well. Victor said that they had received a maternity delivery bed in one of the shipments but it had been turned so the hydraulic fluid had leaked out and now the hydraulic cylinder would not work. Hopefully I can find a replacement cylinder and put it on the next container coming to Zaporozhye.
After finishing with the Emergency Hospital visit and inspection we went back to the warehouse and loaded a van with boxes of the dried food mixes. These left today for delivery to various IDP locations such as I reported on yesterday.
While at the warehouse I was able to see the container of items that we had loaded and shipped from Judsonia, AR on September 1. It was unloaded on Tuesday. The container’s load was stored in several different rooms and each was pad locked and sealed with the Customs seal. At this time the shipment is under Customs clearance and should be released soon.
This container’s cost for shipping was paid by the Clarkson, KY congregation. Half of this container will go to Mariupol to assist the Lord’s Church with those displaced by Russia’s invasion and occupation. We had tried to get it shipped into Mariupol but no shipping company in the USA is accepting bookings for delivery in either the Donetsk Oblast or Lugansk Oblast because of Russia’s war.
In the course of the conversations the last few days it had been brought up that the coming winter months would bring illness and those in the ATO zones were in need of medicines for the winter’s illnesses. So I decided to give some money to purchase a supply of basic medicines. Today that order arrived and Alexander Vasilovich met me and he picked up the medicines and will drive into the ATO (ATO stands for “Anti-Terrorist Operations”) territory around Mariupol this Sunday to deliver them and some other things we are sending (the dried food mixes; clothing; etc).
Tomorrow (Saturday) I will leave Zaporozhye and will enjoy a 7-8 hour bus ride from Zaporozhye to Kherson! i am not sure when I will be sending my next report.
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
Zaporozhye, Ukraine
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