Ukraine Update #3

The Smell of Fresh Bread

The second supply run was very different from our first, but again: we felt we were a blessing, and left blessed.

The team that went on the second supply run was smaller (only one van), and it was a 12-hour trip, rather than a 24-hour one. Further, we did not know the individuals that we were meeting in Ukraine.

One of our team members described it like this:

The whole thing was like a drug smuggle scene straight out of a movie. We crossed the border at about 4:30am. The place we were going to was only 40 minutes away, so we didn’t want to wake the guys up so early… so we pulled over so we could take an hour-long nap. After about 15 minutes, 2 soldiers with long guns come out of the forest and walked up to the front of our car. They didn’t have the yellow arm bands, so we had no idea if they were Ukrainian or Russian soldiers. They looked at us but just kept walking by. Sleep evaded me after that.

Our drop off point was in a pretty rough area - dirt road with huge potholes and impoverished houses in a quite poor village. We were about to drive a little further when a parked van flashed its lights at us, and 3 guys stepped out and started walking to the back of our van. It was still dark. We rolled down the window to ask what they needed, and it ended up being the 3 pastors who were picking up the food! We feel like true “criminals” rolling back home!

The three pastors belonged to a small Baptist church, which had messaged a church in Poland the day before, asking for help. They were hosting refugees but had run out of food—unable to buy more. Although we were scheduled to bring another church supplies, we changed our plans after receiving this request. One of the pastors moved us to tears, when after opening the back of our van, he exclaimed, “I can smell fresh bread!” (Bread has become a luxury good in Ukraine—one of our contacts told us that a loaf of bread, previously around 4 UAH, could now cost up to 80 UAH!)

Tonight, one of our team will be joining other local volunteers to shuttle individuals and help at the Polish-Ukrainian border. In the following days, we will be in meetings, coming up with a strategy to best support the Polish and Ukrainian churches from afar—both short-term, as well as long-term—as some of our team members go back home.

How you can continue to pray

• Please pray for Kate, Tanya, Anya, and Galina: incredible women we have met along the way, who are heroes in their own right!

• Please pray for those with PTSD and trauma, that they may find psychological help

• Please pray for the physical well-being of the refugees, especially of children, as many have fallen ill after their long and arduous journeys

• Please pray for safety for those shuttling civilians across Ukraine, and for protection against military attacks

• Please pray for all the drivers bringing supplies into Ukraine from Poland, at great personal risk

• Please pray for long-term solutions to questions of housing and employment for Ukrainian refugees 

• Please pray for encouragement, stamina, wisdom, and energy for all the volunteers, who after three weeks of full-time crisis work are becoming overwhelmed

• Please also pray for our health, as some of our team have fallen ill

• Please pray for our journey(s) home, and for wisdom on how long to stay