The Above Photo: Nurses and staff and the hospital in Yaremche, Ukraine received scrubs from a container we shipped from Houston, TX in August 2018. They expressed the greatest appreciation for our providing these.
Each day’s report comes as I try to decide what events, photos and stories to include. It is never an easy task and often is done late at night when brain and body are exhausted and yearning to melt into the mattress of the sleeper sofa! Tonight, I send just one photo clearly summarizing the day’s activities.
This photo is an orphan who lives in a village with his grandmother. The village is located in the Dnepropetrovsk Oblast in a small village called Novogregorifka. I have visited this village and have preached there. There are no paved streets. The population of the village shares the concerns that all do—how can we stretch our food supplies and why doesn’t the government help the villages, are paramount issues discussed on the village’s pathways. There is great concern as they hear that an old lady’s cow has stopped giving milk and the old lady is in great grief (when is the last time YOUR greatest concern was that your cow had stopped giving milk?). Adding to the concerns of everyday village life are the large numbers of those who have been moved here because Russia’s invasion and occupation has destroyed their homes in the east. Some arrive newly widowed as their husbands were killed by Russian military. Others come as orphans because Russian bombs had blown up their homes and killed their parents.
These IDPs are relocated looking dazed and disoriented. They clutch whatever possessions they could grab as they fled. The children present the worst images.
Our concern is put relief into specific actions. Words of promises are empty and heard with cynicism but specific actions touch the soul.
When we place a Family Bucket in their hands with clothing, shoes and basic living essentials you see eyes filled with gratitude and tears of emotions run down their cheeks. I can try to describe these situations to you but whatever I write is woefully inadequate.
In a world of evil YOU have given a sliver of hope!
Here is a 3-year-old named is Olexiy. He is an orphan and lives with his grandmother in the village. Ivan had taken a load of clothing, buckets and toys from our container and distributed them in that village. Among the commodities in the container was a stuffed animal that now gives security to a three-year-old whose world of security was blown apart by evil.
Here is the face of those that the Russian aggressors’ label “the enemy.”
Here is the face of those the Ministry of Social Policy in Kyiv’s TASK GROUP say relief items must not be approved because they are “smugglers”!
When Ivan entered the house, Olexiy was politely sitting on the sofa. Ivan started showing the grandmother clothing that might fit the 3-year-old. Some was a little large as Olexiy tried it on, but all items were gratefully accepted. Once Ivan handed the stuffed toy to Olexiy, he grasped it and exclaimed, “Thank you! I’ve dreamed about this!”
Thank you to all who help make the dreams of such 3-year-olds come true! Continue pressing so that justice be dealt swiftly to those involved in corruption! Do not relent in this mission! Do not slacken your contacts!
Those in Kyiv can rationalize their evil just as the fascists did 70+ years ago. BUT they CANNOT evade the Almighty God who sees and who says, “Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an orphan” (The Bible, Deuteronomy 27:19)
Continue praying for all aspects of our efforts!
John L. Kachelman, Jr. Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
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