UPDATE FROM ROEDIE RAP: WAR—GOOD AND EVIL SIDE BY SIDE
Left: Many devastated homes among thousands upon thousands. Middle: Sometimes the Body of Christ amazes me! In one day, FIVE different Christian organizations turned up to meet in Kaharlyk, bringing aid, networking and sharing plans how to do war-zone ministry. An ad hoc team from “A Jesus Mission” Romania is about to return for round two. Right: One of the five refugees safely staying in our home, cooking and serving us a national Ukrainian dish, Borscht.
VIA ROEDIE – A HEARTCRY FROM WITHIN UKRAINE:
“Good evening friends! Please pray for us! You can’t even imagine what’s going on here! My family and I are in the church on the left bank. By the grace of God, we are alive, The city is simply wiped off the face of the earth, it is completely destroyed. There is no electricity, there is no gas as the gas pipeline is blown up. People go out on the rubble in the streets to cook their own meager food over open fire, but there is no water. The streets are broken, shops are smashed and looted, guns are fired, cannons, aircraft, bombs just fall around us just a few meters from the church, but God controls this distance. Only our windows are blown out, but we are alive. Now the generators are turned on, so we can cook quickly and charge our phones as we briefly have a network connection. I keep writing faster until it disappears.
Please pray for us! When there was a corridor we wanted to leave with my family, but the car immediately broke down, the Lord did not allow us to go far, we are trusting He has a plan of rescue for us! Even if everything ends, people have nowhere to live as everything is broken!
This is not the end, but it is very scary. The corpses of the dead lie in the streets, no one is collecting them, perhaps they have no time to take care of them. Lots of saboteurs around ! By the grace of God, we have a meal twice a day in the church, but we save on everything. Yesterday, for the first time, I washed our children. May the Lord give wisdom to the rulers that they will quickly come to an agreement on peace! We don’t know how to continue living. The Lord is with us He is strong!
COREY BOOHER PRESENTS TEAM TRIP REPORT: FROM POLAND RESCUING WAR VICTIMS FROM UKRAINE AND FEEDING THE NEEDY WITHIN THE COUNTRY
Our truck is packed down with oil, flour, sugar, noodles, canned food, wet wipes, power banks, and other things deemed useful. Time for a short sleep and to hit the road to Ternopil, Ukraine. I appreciate your prayers, as do all the guys who are going and all the folks we are going to meet. Pray especially for those who will go as far as eight hours further East than I will on this trip.
My thought tonight before bed: “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” – C.T. Studd
April 8, 2022
Yesterday, we arrived safely in Ternopil. In addition to a longer stop at the border, we beat the route well. We were only questioned longer at the checkpoint before entering the city.
In Ternopil, we supplied one of the local churches with the most basic things the church needs to bring practical help to refugees from eastern Ukraine. The church used to run its gym in the basement, but now, the gym has become a place of refuge for residents in the surrounding area. Vitaly said: “Once upon a time, people didn’t want to hear the gospel and come to church. Now that the war is on, many people from around here come for prayer”. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness cannot overcome it. Crisis, drama, war are the beginning for the manifestation of the power of the Gospel in the heart of people. It is my prayer too, that the Ukrainians forced to flee will find the ultimate safety in salvation of Jesus.
In the evening, we visited YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in Ternopil. We met Sasha, who is the director of the organization in this city. With tears in his eyes, he told us about what is happening in Ukraine, with the same faith and confidence that after a short or long time this situation will change. There are 32 evangelical churches in Ternopil. They organize 22 shelters, where they take in 3500 refugees a day, along with providing food, clothing and finding a new home for the refugees in Europe.
YWAM has been helping to evacuate Ukrainians from eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the war. Almost every day they send their people to transport refugees to Ternopil from the east of the country and then further into Europe. YWAM at its base accepts 110 people a day per night. A baby was born at their resort yesterday. Due to mother’s stress, the baby was born prematurely. Sasha said with a smile that he should be named Victor – the Winner.
There are 13 full time workers at the YWAM base in Kiev. They are evacuating and feeding refugees – 600 people a day. They have themselves decided not to leave the capital unless Kiev will be completely besieged by the Russian army. Risking their lives to save others’ lives. There are miracles of daily multiplication. The chef says every day that there is not enough food to feed 600 people, but every day the food is miraculously multiplying, enough for everyone. Ukraine has violence but also God’s grace.
April 9, 2022
We are spending the night at another church in Ternopil. I awake at 3:00 am at the air raid sirens blaring. I can see the lights from people’s flashlights outside the window that they make their way to shelters. My roommates and brothers are sound asleep. One is snoring louder than the sirens. I don’t think I’ll wake them up just yet. These people live through this every night. “Lord, bring an end to this violence. Rise up and show yourself strong!”
The church where we are staying has turned its sanctuary and Sunday School rooms into actual sanctuary for 35 refugees a night.. A group of appr. 20 volunteers will spend the night here, tending to the needs of those who will come, having only the clothes on their backs and a bag or two of items they could take.
April 10, 2022
The three vehicles are unloaded. We will probably try to move on before curfew, but I’m not sure. Might stay here for the night. Our team is separating ways today. One of our guys is going to the Romanian border to pick up people who are waiting for him to take them to Toruń. Another is bringing people from Ternopil to Przemyśl to return back to Ukraine tomorrow. I’m heading back to Warsaw with four women and a child. They will be in our home for a few days. Good. They need family. They need a clean and safe place to be. They need the Word of God ministered to their hearts and minds.
The trip would take eight hours by car under normal conditions. The wait at the border could be at least 14 hours or as long as a day. We need endurance, they need comfort. These ladies have escaped a city up North which has been surrounded, bombed and under siege. They don’t speak English and I don’t speak Ukranian. Not a problem. He’ll figure it out. I want to be a blessing to them.
UPDATE: I’m safely home. Praise God! The wait on the border yesterday was only three hours, which to me was a miracle. The road was very challenging with a mixture of potholes and unpaved, winter-worn farm roads. We had to go through ten or so military checkpoint stops. Total travel time was 12 hours, but that includes an hour trying to find a store in Warsaw to buy some foldable mattresses, no luck – all sold out! That illustrates how many refugees are currently staying in homes in Warsaw.
FROM R.K.’S CORNER
War brings out the worst and best in mankind. Through the mainstream media and the web we are all daily, 24/7 being bombarded with horrific real-time images and video footages of inhuman atrocities and suffering on a massive scale.
Here, I focus on one of the positive side in this war—the thousands of ordinary people who have risen to the occasion to help their fellow man at their own cost and peril. I briefly present here our three contacts, our partners who bring the Bridge funds in full, directly into Ukraine to relieve the suffering of the war victims, and also help refugees who have fled into neighboring countries. They are true Ambassadors of Christ, heroes who demonstrate sacrificial love care towards the needy.
In last month’s issue, Roedie Rap, our Australian friend shared the historic background of Ukraine, and gave his view on the conflict. He is continually in direct communications with brothers and sisters within Ukraine and has brought five refugees across the ocean to live with his family in Melbourne.
Corey Booher, son of a dear longstanding friend and Bridge intercessor, Paul Booher who is now with the Lord, lives in Warsaw, Poland with his wife, Angelika. He is a full time missionary, and is engaged with a network of ministries and goes with their teams into the war torn parts of Ukraine to rescue people from death and destruction, and bring relief to those who cannot leave. He has just rented a larger home for his family in Warsaw to give shelter and care for the fleeing refugees On pages 2-3, Corey gives us a report from one of his April trips.
Andreius, son of Sargon Daniali, our Assyrian friend and partner serving Iranians in Turkey, is studying Economy and Management based on a Judeo-Christian theology at the University in Chisnau, the capital of Moldova. Andrei initiated and has brought together a team of four fellow students. They began raising funds to help the Ukrainian war victims who had fled across their border to find shelter in Moldova. With the funds they have rented an apartment for the mother daughter above, and a room where several families daily come together to be fed and ministered to.
