Ukraine Update #5

Why Pastors in Ukraine Need Bulletproof Vests

As ever, thank you so much for your prayer and support.

In this most recent update of our project “Churches Helping Churches Help”, we want to give you an overview of our activity in the last two weeks and share the story of one of our Ukrainian heroes: Pastor Sylvan.

Last Week

The supply run on 31 March was unbelievably special: my (Andrzej’s) 79-year-old father decided to help drive a van to L’viv. It was healing for many reasons. For one, he had been born in today´s Western Ukraine and had not returned since his family fled to Poland during the Second World War. His parents held painful memories and opinions of the area, and he never thought he would return. The first time he returned after almost eight decades, his birthplace had become a war-zone again.

However, despite the bomb sirens, the frequent military stops, and the fact that our phones stopped working on our way home, the purpose of the trip and the friendship with our Ukrainian contacts were incredibly redemptive and life-giving for both him and us.

Images: The supplies delivered to L’viv were picked up by two vans and went straight to Kharkiv. This means an incredible 1000 km/620 miles long trek through the war-torn country.

(Tip: If you’re entering a warzone, always bring physical maps! Even though we did, we ended up struggling, as all the street signs are covered or plastered over to confuse the Russian troops…)

Last Thursday

On 7 April our collaborative project (with charity Dobro Czynić and the Palowice KWCh church) sent a record number of five vans on one evening, filled with humanitarian aid, leaving Poland, for L’viv, Ukraine.

One member of our team was part of this trip. They recounted that the basement of a Christian educational institution in L’viv has become a food hub of sorts—the last delivery (a total of 8t of food and other supplies) was emptied within hours by drivers taking the food to Eastern Ukraine.

One of these individuals who has been driving food to Irpin, Bucha, Kharkiv, and Mariupol, is Pastor Sylvan (name changed).

Pastor Sylvan had a van, which was used to evacuate civilians from Irpin, but it unfortunately found itself on a collapsing bridge, and was irreparably damaged. The church in Palowice bought him a used van and paid for maintenance. Unfortunately, in the last two weeks the state of the van has seriously deteriorated due to the bad roads in Ukraine and the many kilometres it has travelled in that short amount of time.

The stories that Pastor Sylvan shares are deeply moving and harrowing: the devastating scenes he has witnessed and the grief he has endured are indescribable. However, despite it all, he has continued driving to Ukraine’s most dangerous places, because it is precisely there that the Red Cross will not (and cannot) go. He brings supplies to hungering cities and shuttles back injured civilians. In fact, this driving back and forth has recently become the most dangerous job in Ukraine—travelling without military protection, these very visible, humanitarian aid vans are an easy target.

Therefore, this job is increasingly being taken on by pastors.

His request to us? Bulletproof vests for him and his team. Indeed, the pastors who have become humanitarian aid drivers in Ukraine do not need weapons: they need life-protecting gear. In the last weeks, several pastors, drivers, in our contact circles have died driving supplies to the cities under siege.

So, we started looking for bulletproof vests. We tapped all our contacts in Austria, and under incredibly unlikely and almost impossible circumstances, were able to source four vests, helmets, and wheelchairs for Pastor Sylvan (see photo prior to delivery to Ukraine).

We cannot begin to understand how it happened—and thanks to our source and supplier (who must remain anonymous) for this incredible gift.

May it protect those who wear it, wherever they go.

Pastor Sylvan is a father of three. While his wife and two children are in Poland, his 18-year-old daughter has just returned to Western Ukraine: she has decided she wants to serve her people alongside her father.

There are other churches and individuals your contributions have been financially supporting: a Protestant church in Przemyśl (at the border), whose building has been converted into a dormitory, and whose volunteers are daily cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and driving refugees across the border; a Catholic parish in Warsaw, which bought medical supplies for Ukraine valuing 3,300 USD, but could not afford the expense; and a contact in Ukraine, who will be buying tarpaulin to cover destroyed roofs in Irpin and Bucha.

How you can pray

• Please pray for the safety and protection of those determined to serve at the highest cost, especially for Pastor Sylvan, his daughter, and other pastors doing similar work.

• Please pray for those who are suffering hunger, that supplies may reach them.

• Please pray for protection over those who are pregnant or have recently delivered, and their babies.

• Please pray for Maria (name changed) and her 18-month-old son, who have gone to Spain without any contacts, and without passports, and who is uncertain of their fate there.

• Please pray for Ivanka (name changed) and her 10-year-old son, who have been waiting in uncertainty for weeks for their UK refugee visa to be approved.

• Please pray for our Polish volunteers, who are continuing to do the faithful and good work, who are God’s hands and feet in this crisis.