Five Ideas to Help Ukrainian War Victim – Updated January 26, 2024
Friends are asking us to recommend avenues of giving, to help relieve the suffering of the people of Ukraine. Here are four we know and trust well, because we have worked side-by-side. They are listed by the length of time we have partnered together, not by which may be our favorite. We love them all! May you find a wise way to show God’s love to Ukrainian people, whether it’s from this group, or other trustworthy and effective ministries serving in the name of Jesus Christ. He truly is the hope of the world.
Mission to the World MTW (Presbyterian Church of America) which we have served in many ways since 1997. They have planted 15 churches in Ukraine (the pastors and 1/3 of their members remain in their home cities). A newer church plant in Krakow, Poland, has become a vibrant center for serving Ukrainians displaced outside their home country. The church network and seminary are led by mature Ukrainian believers. They also have established counseling centers, a medical clinic, and crisis pregnancy center.
Below is the MTW website with giving information and reports from our brothers and sisters “on the ground” there. We participate in the regular zoom calls with MTW leaders actively serving churches in Ukraine and refugee populations. The needs have proven to be ongoing long-term, and the responses are flexing as situations change. The Crates for Ukraine humanitarian aid project continues, with participation possible through donations of funds or filling and preparing a crate for shipment.
Music Mission Kiev, founded to bring the Gospel to Ukrainian people through classical music they love, is an evangelical Presbyterian mission. We have been partners and friends since 1998. It assists people in the Donbas region Russia has held for 8 years; lots of widows and widowers, professional choir and orchestra musicians, and church members in Kyiv; and also an orphanage north of Kyiv that earlier in the war was briefly occupied by the Russian Army. This ministry has planted a church and actually serves people from a wide variety of denominations, plus the Orthodox (and some Catholic) traditions. There are 110 bedridden widows/widowers they aid with food, medicine, surgeries, and encouraging spiritual care. In all, they care for about 450 elderly; many who are able have been trained as Stephen Ministers and evangelists and serve others regularly. We sponsor a widow through MMK who’s a Stephen Minister, and we get together with her whenever we travel to Kyiv.
Our Faith Community Nurse partner, Pam Dandre RN BSN, has trained many nurses and volunteers in holistic (whole-person care–physical, spiritual, emotional) and has established coordinator leadership and training in various oblasts (regions) of Ukraine. She is a American missionary of Reach Global (The Evangelical Free Church of America). We have worked closely together since 2001. Pam has very effectively cooperated with people of many denominations, including 10+ years with Logos Christian Center in Kyiv, for marginalized people, founded by a Ukrainian Orthodox priest and a Catholic music conductor. Recently, they have served families displaced from the 2014 takeover of Donbas, and taught evangelistic/discipleship courses in sewing skills to give women-at-risk a more solid future.
For donations to “Blago“(well-being), the Christian Nurses and Volunteer Organization in Ukraine she founded:
https://my.efca.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=359&des=Blago-5907
Pam’s apartment in Kyiv was damaged early in the war, but it has been completely repaired. She spends most of her time in Ukraine, with occasional trips to the USA. In addition to continuing Blago, she leads a new organization focused on the most vulnerable people in Ukrainian society, including a large population of amputees.
She not only teaches holistic nursing skills, but is trained in PTSD issues and trains military chaplains and others building community to comfort and help. Here is the link to The Family Table Ukraine. (We have the privilege of serving on Pam’s Board.)
Kyiv Theological Seminary KTS was founded by a Ukrainian Evangelical-Baptist association soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union and has some professors who trained at Dallas Theological Seminary here in Texas. KTS has established a General Fund for aid to families of their scattered students, professors, and administrators. The seminary is still training pastors and Christian education specialists online! In God’s providence, the president asked us to do a fundraising video for them to enhance their Distance Education–before Covid and the war. Plus, we produced a student-recruiting video aimed at all the Russian-speaking world. The founder’s daughter Natalia and son-in-law Alex are personal friends and ministry partners of ours the past 6 years. Email us for giving instructions through this avenue, since there are several options including PayPal, check, and online giving. But all are easy to do.
AND MOST OF ALL, PLEASE KEEP ON PRAYING!
THAT’S WHAT OUR UKRAINIAN FRIENDS REQUEST MOST.
THEY KNOW GOD IS THEIR FORTRESS.
Please contact us with any questions. We know that funds can get through, for sure, to all four options, and that funds will be used very responsibly.
In Christ, who rose from the dead to conquer evil, once and for all, and to give eternal life,
Susan and Gary Bauer
Alpha Leadership Partners/A.C.T. International