The Big Picture

While I’ve been giving updates about what’s going on here at the youth center in Slovakia with refugees, I haven’t had the chance to share about the big picture. I want to share some of the other ways the Spiritual Orphans Network Ukraine fund has been helping people in Ukraine as well as refugees who’ve left.

Erik Helgesplass delivering aid to a local hospital

As many of you know Ukrainian men between the ages of 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country. Many of the Ukrainian pastors we know have been serving their people in Ukraine for over two and half months while separated from their wives and children who evacuated the country. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult this time has been for them and I please encourage you to keep them in your prayers every day.

A van driven by Pastor Oleg with children written on it.

I’ll start with the Lutheran pastors from the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine, who SON has been partnering with for many years. There is the synod president Pastor Alexander Gross whose daughters will soon join us here in Slovakia to help out with the center and summer camps planned for Slovakia with SON mission teams. Pastor Gross and his wife are in the Odesa area, which has come under heavy rocket attacks over the last month. They run a social kitchen, providing meals to lots of shut-ins and people in need in the villages around Odesa, while also leading worship services and providing spiritual care for his flock.

There is the Bishop Pavlo Shvarts, who serves a congregation in Kharkiv, one of the cities with the heaviest fighting at the moment. He has helped set up humanitarian aid points, visited congregations all over the country including Bila Tserkva, and recently traveled to Vienna to meet with church leaders from all over Europe to give an update on Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis.

Pastor Ihor Shemihon preaching on Easter Sunday

Pastor Ihor Shemihon leads a congregation and ministry in Kyiv. He has also served the congregation in Bila Tserkva for many years and preached there a few weeks ago. He too has been helping provide and transport food and aid to people in need.

Pastor Kostya and Pastor Dennis loading up aid!

Pastor Oleg Schewtschenko is a Lutheran pastor with SELKU (Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine). He has been helping transport women and children to the border, has helped provide food and humanitarian aid near Odesa as well and much more.

Pastor Kostya and Pastor Sergei buying aid in the west of Ukraine

Pastor Костянтин Кисіленко (Kostya) is with Church of Christ in Bila Tserkva and one of my favorite human beings to be around. He too has been helping transport people, food, and humanitarian aid. The congregation in Bila Tserkva has been doing repairs so internally displaced people can temporarily live at the church.

Pastor Oleg and others with a truck loaded with humanitarian aid

Pastor Dennis Sopelnik is also with Church of Christ and helps run the Bear Valley Bible Institute. Dennis has helped drive people to the border, deliver humanitarian aid and even performed a wedding during the war.

A van driven by Pastor Oleg filled with humanitarian aid

Pastor Sergey Gritsenko also serves in Bila Tserkva. He has been helping prepare the congregation for refugees as well preaching and leading Bible studies. Sergei is my father in law and has helped take care of our house, watched our dog, and has helped us send money to different pastors and ministries helping out in Ukraine.

Pastor Alexander Gross with a van and trailer filled with humanitarian help

Pastor Ihor's ministry in Kyiv with food packets ready to go.

Finally, while not a pastor, I’ve been touched by the work of Erik Helgesplass, a Norwegian man who lives in the Bila Tserkva region, he has been non-stop driving families to the border and picking up aid. He offered my family and many others the opportunity to stay at their house in the village where it was safer than in the city.

Pastor Pavlo and the congregation in Bila Tserkva

Me with Pastor Oleg and his family back in June

We are blessed to know these men and support their ministry to people in Ukraine in different ways. We’ve also had the opportunity to provide direct financial aid to families in need, help with housing for displaced families and send aid to people in Ukraine. It is because of your generosity we’ve been able to provide funds to these different ministries. I also ask you to pray for Тарас Даниленко a driver from Church of Christ, Vadim, Valery Guk, Sergei, Ruslan, Zhenya and Yura, they are the men from God’s Hidden Treasures who I know have been working hard and doing so much. I know some of their families are abroad as well and they miss them dearly.

Special prayers for safe travel for the family of Kostya and the wife of Dennis, who are traveling to Bila Tserkva from abroad, there stay will be short as they are picking up necessary documents but I know the temporary reunion will be priceless. Please pray for peace, that this war will end and families will be reunited. Next time I hope to share about the many different ways the Slovak church are helping refugees beyond the center where we are staying.

God bless,

Scott