Update–12/31/22

Astonishing year in the rearview mirror…

This will be the last update for the actions in 2022. Those who have been a partner in the efforts for a number of years realize how phenomenal the actions of March-December 2022 have been. The total numbers for 2022 (March – December) are amazing…

• 195 Projects (some of these included multiple facets. For example, thanks to Kathy Cadden’s efforts we airlifted 300+ pallets into Poland, trucked them into Lviv and then trucked to multiple locations in Ukraine. Another airlift out of NJ, coordinated by Charita Shteynberg, saw 50+ pallets of pharmaceuticals delivered to specific locations throughout Ukraine at no cost!). So total container loads shipped in 2022 was +/-233!
• Value of benevolent items shipped: $107,104,806.47
• Weight of benevolent items shipped: 4,506,060 lbs

For those interested in monthly numbers…December 2022 was possibly the most active ever experienced! We were urgently trying to get food into Ukraine and this explains the increased numbers. December concluded with these numbers:

• Airlift—pharmaceuticals—3,000 lbs—valued at $1,200,000.00
• Armored Ambulance shipped and delivered into Ukraine
• Containers—22 shipped—549,777 lbs— valued at $12,404,966.64.

The plea for food was met with a wonderful response (and we are continuing to receive needed donations which will be used to continue these relief efforts in the name of the Lord and His Church). This generosity allowed us to wire funds immediately to help purchase food for immediate use. The later donations allowed us to fund the shipping of containers that are packed with food, medical supplies, hygiene items, winter clothing, and other critically needed commodities.

Ivan’s Report from Ivano-Frankivsk…

Dear brothers and sisters! We greet you in 2023! We thank God our Father for the year we left behind. The year was very challenging to Ukrainians but we survived with our Lord’s grace and your support.  Thank you for prayers and support of this church. Despite the shelling and absence of many customary things that we had before the war, we still worship God, support displaced, widows and orphans, preach the Gospel and giving out Bibles so that everybody could read the Word of God, which changes us. We believe the Word of God is able to change this world as well and will do so. We thank God for you and your prayers. May the Lord protect you and your families. We love you and pray for you,

Ivan & Svitlana

The Lord’s Church in Arizona…

Throughout 2022 I have been encouraged by the immediate and generous response of Churches of Christ. From the beginning invasion and bombardment on February 24, countless congregations have sent funds to assist our efforts. This great generosity impressed the Apostle Paul as he was collecting funds for relief efforts in Jerusalem. The wonderful generosity of Churches of Christ in Macedonia was noted with this comment: “Now, brothers and sisters, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia” (2 Corinthians 8:1).

Communication from the Lord’s Church in Arizona illustrates this wonderful point. Three congregations (Alma School Road church of Christ, Chandler, AZ; Casa Grande church of Christ, Casa Grande, AZ; Sun Valley church of Christ, Gilbert, AZ) cooperated in this effort. Earlier in 2022, they drove a U-Haul to Montgomery and filled with Family Buckets, boxes of hygiene supplies, blankets and other supplies. The churches in AZ (and throughout the nation) have sent amazing contributions to assist with relief efforts. Here is a brief summary of their work…

John, just information on how we came about the December 4th food drive for the Ukraine. From the previous 5-gallon bucket and hygiene bag drive we had congregations respond and encouraged participation in future endeavors for the Ukrainian community. As we continued to read about the ongoing atrocities being committed against the Ukrainian people it became apparent that the basic staples of everyday living were void, one of the most important being food (Gal 6:10). We sensed a real need and drafted a letter and sent it to the congregations that had assisted previously seeking financial help for FOOD – UKRAINE (Lk 6:38). We are very thankful that Casa Grande and Alma School responded in a positive way. I have copied both Alma School and Casa Grande in this email. Please include them in responses on the funds. Blessings,

Glenn Mabley, Elder at Sun Valley Church of Christ

GRATITUDE FROM UKRAINE…

Mr. John! Wholeheartedly accept the bright wishes on the Christmas holiday! May the Lord God be incredibly kind to you and Churches of Christ! May the Lord God be very gracious, give His boundless love, warmth and faith. This season gives divine power, inspiration, inexhaustible energy. Let vivid impressions bring you joy, life will be interesting. Peace be upon your family the Lord’s Church and happiness to everyone! Together to victory! Sincerely, your friend and associate

Nikolai Liubymov! Lviv, 25.12.2022

RUSLAN SKOLEBA SENDS GREETINGS FROM IVANO-FRANKIVSK…

Our dear friends, brothers and sisters! Another year is coming to an end. A lot has been accomplished in various areas – spiritual, humanitarian and construction. Our country has faced many hardships and losses this year. We realize that it’s a test for each one of us. And God can see that we don’t give up but press forward together. Thank you for standing by our side at this horrible time. Those brethren that have visited us this year have seen everything with their eyes and have heard everything with their ears.

We pray that we will not have to drink this cup down to the last drop but everything is in God’s hands and His will be done. Thank you for your prayers, for remembering us. May God bless you and your families and may He never let you suffer such trials that we are facing now.

Greetings to you from the church in Ivano-Frankivsk, from brother Volodya in the wheelchair and brother Yaroslav who has reached 97 years! Sincerely Yours

Ruslan Skoleba

ANYA SENDS HER LOVE…

Dear friends!!! Happy New Year! May it bring peace, happiness and joy to you and your families!  We are very grateful for so much help that you provide for Ukrainians! It truly makes a difference and changes lives! What’s more- if gives us hope… the situation is very hard now and only help from kind people like you gives us hope! We are also very grateful to the USA for all the help provided. I believe if we didn’t get any help, our nation would be raped, tortured and murdered. As they are saying that are literally trying to obliterate our nation. If we were not holding the front line that would be happening in all areas. I have no doubt about it. We have already seen what they do in occupied areas. That would have been the fate for all the population…

Please, pray for Ukraine, Russians are trying to advance in some regions, Bakhmut is the worst, but they are trying to move forward to Zaporizhia, too… the situation isn’t that good for us, too many losses and it is very hard to hold the front line! The missiles and drones are still flying back and forth…We need a miracle! And we hope God gives us this miracle in 2023. All my friends and friends of my friends keep saying more and more that they pray to God it happens soon! 

Thank you for everything my friends! I thank God every day for such friends as you! God bless you and your families! Love, Anya! Happy New Year!!!”

Anya Nura

GLIMPSES INTO LOADINGS…

Hello John, Before the New Year, I received an offer of a donation of medical supplies from Long Island.  I do have funds for one load that is scheduled this week.  But we went today to inspect it and prepare it; it is more like 4 container loads. This is where the problem is, I only have money for one.  Does anyone wish to sponsor a load of medical supplies for $4,600.00 to Gdansk?  The inventory that is being donated is attached (we did remove hand sanitizer from this inventory, so ignore it). They want it out of their warehouse as soon as possible, or they will toss it; 99% is not near its expiration date.

Charita

Closer, New Jersey Load

November 21 was one of the days when things did not go as planned.  Many things changed over the weekend, but the aid still had to be shipped. A small but very successful group managed to load a full container load 27,000 pounds of medical supplies valued at nearly $300,000.00.

Special thanks to: Charita Shteynberg (Invaluable because of ALL she does in our actions!); Elena and Victor Lysenko; Alex Golubenko; Lawrence Dekhtyar; Sebastian Kopolovich

David Squires at Charitable Medical Distributors has become a dear friend and a solid partner in humanitarian aid that we can always count on! They have been assisting in providing medical supplies not only in Ukraine but throughout the WORLD! We are incredibly proud and thankful to be partners with CMD.

This may not be the first donation from CMD, but it is undoubtedly the largest one: four full truckloads have been donated by David (CMD) for our Ukraine efforts and worth in total of OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS in donations! Today we, WOCP, Help Free Ukraine, and Zaka Khan Foundation loaded one of three 40’HC containers scheduled to be shipped to Ukraine. Having the best loading team helps tremendously. We all worked incredibly efficiently and were done loading with 4 minutes to spare. Special thanks to Raj at East Coast International for providing space in East Coast Warehouse (Closer, NJ) and all the machinery to make this load go smoothly!

https://worldofconnections.org/news/f/255ukr12422-1-of-3-million-dollar-load

Milton, Florida Loading

A critical request we continue to receive is for the “wipes” needed by medical personnel. Earlier this year we shipped out of South Carolina a number of small packaged “Wet Ones.” We received an offer from Larry Ward in Milton, FL of hospital sized packaged wet wipes/napkins. Thankfully the project developed and a large shipment of supplies was sent into Ukraine for medical use. Here is a summary of the action.

There are 12 units per cardboard box and 30 boxes per pallet, which is 360 units per pallet. If stacked one level high there should be two pallets wide and 10 pallets deep for the first level. That’s a total of 7200 units if stacked one level high. Even though there are stickers all over the pallets that saying do not stack two high, we might be able to double stack them before forklifting them into the container. If we can do that and then use a manual pallet jack to roll the double stacked units forward without the lower level crushing that would double the dollar value in the container to $136,800.00. Stacking to the roof will add more product and increase the value. I’m not guaranteeing this would work but I’m willing to give this a try. I do not have the labor force available to break pallets down and manually stack the boxes to the roof. Let me put out a request on Facebook and see if I can get a church youth group, school ball team or some volunteers willing to come out and provide some labor to manually stack. The biggest issue with that is we would need the container dropped off and give us several hours or maybe even a couple of days to get manually loaded. I understood from the trucking company they had intended to come to our shop, have us load and get the driver on the way in a 2-hour window. It would be hard to get a volunteer group to show up and have the trucking company arrive at precisely the same time and pull this off. Advise how you wish to proceed Thanks,

Larry

Wonderful cooperation and eager response…

I have a lot of people that have changed their plans and taken off work etc. to be here at 10am on the 28th. We have churches that have planned other big events in conjunction with helping us load on the 28th. The final load inventory was: 65 per canister; 12 canisters per box; 30 per pallet; 47 pallets on truck; Totals: 1,402 boxes; 16,824 canisters; 1,093,560 wipes!

Larry Ward

There is no way to thank all who participated with us in 2022’s actions. It is astonishing to contemplate the unimagined scope and degree of involvement. Your efforts are commended as was the Macedonian’s: “For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you” (2 Corinthians 9:12-14).

Please continue to support these efforts in 2023. The situation remains urgent and once the rebuilding begins and the reintegration of IDPs becomes a reality, many opportunities for the Lord’s Church will appear!

John L Kachelman Jr Montgomery, AL