The ongoing war in Ukraine since February 2022 has caused massive civilian casualties and also destroyed civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes and seek safety, protection and assistance. Few people, especially elderly, are staying at the frontlines as long as possible so that they don’t lose their homes, despite the risk of fights nearby and struggling with diminishing supplies. They are in need of protection and support, and not only in the form of food, and medicine for their physical bodies, but with the essence of physical life: water.
With temperatures over 30°C this summer and very little precipitation, the need for water is becoming critical and urgent as an unprecedented heat wave is occurring and expected to worsen next week. In fact, sources forecast extreme temperatures of 43-47 degrees this week.
Unfortunately, due to the closeness to the frontline, a regular supply of drinking water is not available. In a few places, there are humanitarian water distribution points, but not every city or village has one and for some elderly, it is not physically possible to access these distribution points.
Our local partner and their leader Evgenij are working tirelessly to provide the necessities to those who cannot or do not want to leave. As a former resident of one of the cities along the front line in Donbass, Evgenij often risks his life. He has been in military custody twice and narrowly survived a missile and drone attack. The shrapnel in his body regularly reminds him that he had more than one guardian angel on that day.
Our goal is to come alongside Evgenij for the summer duration with 2-4 water deliveries a week, supplying up to 160 people each week with clean and safe drinking water near the ever unstable frontline.
Imagine no access to clean water during our heat waves. For an investment of $26, you can deliver 100L of water to those in need. $260 delivers 1000L of water to 40 people.
Would you help those in Ukraine who are experiencing scorching heat and desperate for this basic necessity of life?
Meet Sergei Buchin! He is the parishioner of a Baptist church and lives with his wife Nadezhda in the remote village of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine. When the war began, Sergei and his wife made a decision, at the risk of their lives, to stay in Chasiv Yar to help others.
Most of the people that live around Sergei and his family are elderly women over 70 years of age. Life in the midst of war-torn Ukraine is incredibly difficult for them, and so Sergei and Nadezhda assist them as much as they can. They deliver water and food to the old women and help to close broken windows and repair their roofs after shelling.
On Sunday, Christians in the community gather at Sergei’s house to pray, socialize and sing psalms, as all the churches were destroyed. Sergei continues to work at his job in the utility company where they unload humanitarian aid, dig graves, bury the dead, watch over power generators, clear the rubble after shelling and repair the rooms where water tanks are located amongst other tasks.
Since Sergei spends a lot of time working and helping other people, he has no time to stand in line to get water. Thankfully, Evgeny, one of our local partners, was able to bring water directly to his house for his family and the elderly neighbours whom he shares his water supply with.
Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more dangerous for Evgeny to drive to Sergei’s place. He reported that during his last visit, an enemy drone flew at him. Thankfully, there was a strong wind and the drone could not aim and flew away.
It is easy to forget that millions of people in Ukraine are facing this sort of reality, where churches are destroyed, water is a scarce resource and enemy drones lurk around the corner. Yet people like Sergei, Nadezhda and Evgeny represent what a loving and generous community can look like in hard times. We are moved by their selfless decision to remain in Chasiv Yar and serve their neighbours, even at a cost to themselves.
Olexandr Petrovich Bunin is 68 years old and lives in the city of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine. Before he retired, he worked at the local factory as an engineer.
When the Russian invasion began and most of the men left town, Olexandr went to work for the utility company again. Because of his organizational skills and experience working with people, he was appointed as head of the “Point of Indestructibility.” This is a place where the residents of the town can receive humanitarian aid, charge their phones, warm up during winter, eat free food and use the Internet to contact their relatives.
The point was shelled several times, but Olexandr continued to work and organize the distribution of water and food. He kept a small supply of bottled water for emergencies and taught the locals how to use the water filters from GAiN. His wife, Svetlana, stood in the place of medical workers and even learned how to give blood pressure shots to old people.
The couple has children and grandchildren abroad, but chose to stay in the city to help. Only until very recently did they decide to leave the city and visit them.
Olexandr and Svetlana have modelled sacrificial, servant hearted love. Despite separation from their loved ones, they made the hard decision to stay where they were to help their neighbours. We are so grateful that they could distribute some of the aid provided by GAiN. Their humble service has not only blessed many with the basics to survive, but has helped keep families connected to each other during an incredibly difficult and isolating time.
Maria Osipchuk is a 79-year-old resident of the village of Borzoa in the Chemihiv region. She spent her entire working life as a teacher at the local elementary school, but is now retired. Even though she poured her entire life into helping and guiding other people’s children, she has no family of her own. In her old age, she feels the sharp absence of family relationships even more prominently.
The war added another layer of hardship onto her. When the conflict began and rockets were frequently being fired, Maria lived in the cellar for almost a month. While sitting there alone, she prayed constantly.
“I asked God to save [my] house and the houses of [my] neighbors,” she shared.
To her delight, God answered her prayer. Her entire street remained unscathed, but on the next street, only 200 meters away, three houses were demolished by one rocket. Maria understands that it was God who helped her. And now she continues to be provided for through the volunteers who periodically bring practical supplies and spiritual help to her small village.
The old lady received food from GAiN and a word of hope from the volunteers. She even joked that God knows she had no teeth and gave her baby puree with meat so she didn’t have to chew.
Maria was inspired by the help she received and felt strengthened in her spirit. We are so thankful for the opportunity we had to hear her story and encourage her that even without a family to call her own, she is not alone.
Through our local partner on the ground, GAiN is providing yellow boxes for displaced people in Ukraine. A single yellow box provides a week’s worth of food for a family, and one box is delivered each week until the family has received four yellow boxes. Our local partner also takes time during each weekly delivery to explain an aspect of the gospel message. They share about hope and God’s love for us personally.
During a recent trip to Kherson, two members of our partner organization, Sasha and Tanya, shared about their experience delivering yellow boxes to communities in need and hearing the stories of war survivors:
“We are driving along the streets and see many houses in the center with windows boarded up with plywood. It looks sad. I remember Irpin, Kyiv, and realize that they are being rebuilt much faster than here. We arrived at the church. We meet the ministers [and] share information [such as] how many people have left, how many new people have come [and] whether there are enough ministers left.
We are greeted by a very hospitable pastor [named] Yuriy. His sense of humor and simplicity help us to feel comfortable quickly. We hear the first stories about the life of the church. A woman tells us about the death of her neighbor who did not make it 20 meters to the house. The pastor recalls the first year. There was a lot of shelling because the airport was nearby. People from the neighboring streets started coming to church on Sundays. During the explosions they continue to have worship services. No one wanted to go home afterwards. They would just turn on the Christian music and people would talk for hours. In this way new people appeared, some of whom were baptized and now go to church regularly. Most of them are older people, families with children left after the intense shelling.
[A woman named] Halyna has a son and husband who both died of cancer and now her second son is ill. She said: “If my son dies, I will be left alone, I have no one else.” It is not only the war that causes suffering which makes [people] afraid and lonely.
[Another woman named] Svitlana said that thanks to the war, she came to church. Svitlana’s face shines because she now feels a great need to know God more. She says that she is sorry when the service ends. She said, “I understand, it’s just that I lived without God for 50 years, and now I can’t get enough.”
[We also met] Natasha, [whose] brother serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine [and] was surrounded by the enemy. [He got] a concussion but is alive and continues to serve. In the first year, her nephew was killed during the shelling in Mykolaiv when he was standing at a bus stop. That’s [an example of] how the war comes unexpectedly, [killing people and leaving their family members] alive in the middle of hell. [Natasha’s] only daughter recently decided to join the Armed Forces. [When I asked why], she said, “because she believes that now everyone should be able to defend themselves and the country.”
Sasha and Tanya’s encounters with people in Ukraine are a reminder of the horrors and trauma that families are experiencing each day. In the face of these losses, we are so thankful for how people are finding community, support and hope in the Lord.
This past September, Morocco was rocked by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,900 people and injured approximately 5,500 others. The earthquake struck the western side of the country, damaging remote villages in the Atlas Mountains as well as parts of the historic city of Marrakech. GAiN swiftly stepped in to assess the situation and deliver aid to the affected areas, focusing primarily on the need for shelter and blankets.
As you know, GAiN desires to bring practical relief to those in desperate situations while also spreading words of encouragement and the hope of the gospel. Based on recent updates, and in collaboration with our partner on the ground, GAiN has provided 400 packages of essential items such as food and clothing, 20 large tents, 65 emergency tarps and 20 latrines.
In the aftermath of the quake, our local partner on the ground was able to bless many families who lost their homes and loved ones in the earthquake. The team encountered a believer named Ibrahim in a small village on the southern side of the high Atlas mountain region. Ibrahim worked as an engineer and moved to the big city with his wife and children, but later returned with his family to his childhood village to help his father with farming.
The village used to have 40 homes, but 80% of them are now demolished, including Ibrahim’s family home. When the earthquake struck, the house could not withstand the violent shaking and eventually collapsed. Only one room remained intact – the room where Ibrahim, his wife and five children were sleeping! Thankfully, Ibrahim received an emergency tarp from our distribution and is going to fashion it into a temporary roof next to their home.
As our partner spent time with Ibrahim, he came to understand the vision and heart behind GAiN’s work in Morocco and proved to be an invaluable resource. He served as a local guide and lent the team his credibility as they travelled into different villages. Because of his knowledge and abilities, Ibrahim aided our local partner in their distribution of solar panels and lights. He also taught each person how to use them and ensured that the batteries were charged regularly.
Ibrahim’s story is a prime example of how showing people the love and care of Christ can ignite in them a desire to do the same for others. Spending quality time with Ibrahim, listening to his story and giving him practical aid models the mission of GAiN, but more importantly, demonstrates the heart of God for His children. The outflow of Ibrahim’s gratitude in the form of helping our team and the surrounding villages is a beautiful example of the ripple effect that occurs when kindness is shown to one person.
This past March, GAiN’s DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) visited Turkey to help provide housing, including tents and tiny houses, to those who had lost their homes in the devastating earthquake that occurred in early February. One of the team members named Mitch shared about an encounter she had with a family whose home was completely destroyed:
Tulay is 32 years old and a mother of three gregarious boys. We met the family and a lot of other people because we were about to set up a tent. When we arrived, the boys (aged 9, 10 and 11) were in the middle of an intense football match with questionable rules. Since we had to wait for our work materials to arrive, we joined them.
For a moment, the world seemed like a less devastating place as we were running around in the sun, giggling and laughing every time one of the little boys lost his shoe in the dirt.
“I want to team up with you,” one of them said to me through a translator app and immediately his little cousin jumped in and said he wanted to be part of the team too. So we continued kicking a flat ball into a non-existent goal, losing shoes and running into each other.
When we eventually sat down and shared some freshly baked bread, the family and I started talking. “I was all alone with the kids on the night of the earthquake,” Tulay shared. “Our house got destroyed completely and now we are staying in this tent together with our neighbors.”
When I asked one of the boys where he went to school, he told me that the building was destroyed so there is no school for him to attend right now. I asked him if he liked going to school and he simply stated: “Medium.”
This somehow made me laugh because he was exactly like a 10-year-old boy was supposed to be: playing football and not liking school too much. At the same time, it made me sad to see how drastically the lives of these little boys have changed, and the fact that there was nothing I could do about it.
We sat there for a while, chatting through a translator app and sharing bread with their 7-year-old cousin who would only take a bite if I had one first. My poor Turkish made them laugh. In this small moment of peace and contentment, I hoped they could forget what they had been through — even if it was only for a second.
There is so much power in restoring human dignity.
Our DART team who were responding to the Turkey earthquake was able to participate in a distribution with GAiN’s local partner, First Hope Association. With their local volunteers and staff, we distributed hygiene kits as well as food and blankets for families in a community outside of Antakya. However, it wasn’t what we were able to give that was the center of attention. First Hope Association had a crew of professional barbers on site, who were giving children haircuts. The earthquake happened over a month ago, and a nice trim for many of the children was greatly appreciated.
The line for haircuts continued to get longer, and each trim brought a smile to the child and their parents. As they waited patiently for their turn, Lucia from GAiN Spain connected with many of the children, teaching them a couple key Spanish words, along with some numbers and colours. As she recited them over and over with the kids, you could hear their joyful cheering as they remembered numbers like ocho and nueve.
It’s incredible how such a simple gesture like giving someone a haircut can restore dignity and joy to a community surrounded by brokenness.
“I can’t do everything, but I can do more than nothing.” – Ian Daniel, founder of He Had Compassion
Since the war began in February 2022, Global Aid Network (GAiN) has sent disaster relief to Ukraine to help shed light into the oppressive darkness that has become people’s waking reality. In addition to GAiN Germany and GAiN Netherlands, our ministry has partnered up with a local non-profit organization called He Had Compassion to bring supplies to those who are desperately in need of food, clothing and shelter.
The founder of He Had Compassion, Ian Daniel, went on a trip to Ukraine this past January where he distributed aid alongside his friend Oleg, a pastor from Ivano-Frankivsk. Ian had become acquainted with Oleg before the war started and had been sending him money to support his church in Ukraine. When war broke out, the need for support increased, as Oleg’s church began housing, feeding and caring for a steady stream of refugees.
One group of refugees in particular is called House of 64, and is primarily made up of orphans and widows who come from the occupied east and are in need of all basic necessities. In addition to providing for these refugees, Oleg also wanted to use his church’s key positioning in western Ukraine to move and deliver humanitarian supplies to other locations in Ukraine, but didn’t have the money or vehicles to do so.
In response to this need for practical supplies, money and a transportation system, He Had Compassion was born, with Ian serving as its founder and leader.
“I just said ‘This is what I’m going to do and if anyone would like to support us, I welcome you to do that,’” Ian shared. He went on to say that He Had Compassion now consists of 100 supporters, ranging from church members to friends to business clients. One lady from his church makes handmade dish cloths and sells them by donation each week, giving all proceeds to Ukraine.
GAiN’s COO, Lindsey Schacter, became acquainted with Ian through church. After hearing about the mission behind He Had Compassion, GAiN decided to team up with the organization with the goal of helping Pastor Oleg care for House of 64 as well as transport goods to different cities in Ukraine.
The primary purpose of Ian’s recent trip was to set up a solid system for obtaining supplies and transferring it to the border between Poland and Ukraine. Throughout his time there, he bought materials like sleeping bags, hot water bottles, food and generators, and also obtained two vans and two trailers to transport the supplies. Pastor Oleg picked up the supplies from the border and stored it in warehouses near his church. From there, the supplies were distributed to occupied places in the east, including Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kharkiv and Volchansk.
During Ian and Oleg’s first trip to deliver supplies to the border, however, things didn’t go as planned. Ian shared that they had approximately $72,000 worth (50,000 €) of supplies (including 1,000 sleeping bags) to bring across as well as the van and trailers, yet people at the border would not let them through. They checked their trailer and credentials half a dozen times, even though Ian and Oleg explained that the gifts were from people in Canada and meant to help those in Ukraine that were without food and shelter. Ian, Oleg and his family were stopped at the border for 5-6 hours in freezing temperatures–long enough for Oleg and his entire family to become sick with pneumonia. Finally, the border guards decided to let them through.
“One of the border guards–a great big burly guy– was so pleased with the decision to let us through, he came out to us and said something in Ukrainian and gave me a hug! God put his fingers on the scales and let us in,” Ian recalled with a smile.
Ian, Oleg and his family made it back to Ivano in time for Christmas morning. Since Oleg was sick, he asked Ian to share a message to the church on his behalf. Ian shared about peace, and although it seemed like a risky topic for a congregation in the middle of war, many people wept and were blessed by his encouraging words.
The war has undoubtedly made the atmosphere in Ukraine incredibly bleak. Ian explained that air raid sirens are going off constantly and buildings everywhere are destroyed, with bodies buried beneath the rubble. He shared that three of the places he visited were shelled 36 hours after he left. Yet in the midst of their concern and stress, people have great heart and are extremely thankful.
Ian shared numerous stories about how touched people were by the practical items supplied by GAiN. When he visited a place where supplies had been distributed, people would swarm his van to personally express how grateful they were for the provision of hot water bottles, food, sleeping bags and warming centres to charge their phones and rest. In Mykolaiv, their team was also able to supply 18 cubic metres of firewood to a network of churches that in turn delivered supplies to the entire community. People would come to the church and ask, “Who is this God who hears their cry when they are cold and hungry, and brings firewood to their door?”
After talking with a young woman from a village near Mykolaiv named Anna, Ian also learned that women were in desperate need of feminine hygiene products. With the funds covered by He Had Compassion and GAiN, Anna put together 60 beautiful packages for women in her community, including cream, nail files and other hygiene products. She is planning a meeting where all the ladies will gather at the church and the pastor will give a devotional and pray over them.
Out of their gratitude for the work of He Had Compassion and GAiN, Ian was constantly blessed by a network of people throughout his journey. Wherever he went, people would invite him to stay for a meal and to spend the night in their home. On one occasion in Berlin, a 75-year-old man from the church in the area told Ian and his team to follow him home because he and his wife and their friends had prepared a meal for them. He also insisted that they spend the night, and served them breakfast at 5 am the next morning so that their team could get on the road early. Ian described the meals he received as being “fit for a king.”
“They are giving you some of the last things that they have, and want you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are changing lives and touching hearts . . . For several days, we didn’t have to pay for a meal or a night’s accommodation. People kept sending us to their contacts,” explained Ian.
GAiN is deeply grateful for the opportunity to be part of this process of delivering much-needed supplies to the places of greatest need in Ukraine. Ian described the system as similar to an underground railroad of Christians helping refugees go one way, with those bringing humanitarian aid going the other way. His testimonies of successfully arriving in the country and witnessing the gratitude and joy of those lives he touched are stunning reminders of God’s faithfulness.
“We just came across story after story of people. You think you’re going to do logistical stuff, but really you’re going to hear and touch people’s hearts, people that God has put in your path. You end up coming home with a collection of contacts with people you want to keep in touch with. That’s what matters the most,” Ian shared.
Ian has just returned back from another trip to Ukraine, disturbing humanitarian aid and providing “Trauma First Aid” for people through seminars and discussion. He has reported that so far, these seminars have had an incredible turnout. People arrive early and the room is always packed! Ian shares that there have been opportunities to pray for people. It is encouraging to hear that people in Ukraine are eager to process what they have experienced and receive emotional support as a community.
We are thankful to all our partners who make these kinds of missions possible. Without your constant support, the stories that stem from our partnership with He Had Compassion and GAiN offices worldwide would not exist.
Tyler C., one of the team members of the DART Team, recounts his interaction with a family in Turkey who lost their home because of the earthquake:
“Are you afraid of another earthquake?” I asked 10-year-old Taner* from Iskenderun.
“Maybe after the first three – but not anymore,” he replied.
We passed the phone back and forth, working in Google translate.
Taner and his family lived on the first floor of an apartment building in Iskenderun, and while his building remains standing, it’s not safe to return. After the first earthquake, Taner and his entire family slept on their first-floor balcony in case something else happened. They wouldn’t go into the kitchen because they were afraid the refrigerator would fall on them in the next quake.
“For 1 minute and 45 seconds, the ground was crazy. I was very scared. You could hear the walls cracking,” Taner shared.
The family is now staying with Taner’s aunt, who lives in a newer building that is still safe. His grandmother Selah* received one of our tiny houses. Taner was a very helpful builder, with his father and uncles also supporting.
When we had a break, I told him that we were friends now, but he stopped me and said to me: “No. We are blood now.”
He continued to ask me why we came to Turkey and if we were afraid. I told him honestly that I was a little scared. But we know that the people of Turkey are in need of our help, and we will be here for them.
He gave me a big hug and thanked me again for coming.
*Name has been changed
