From Jay Don and Mary Lee Rogers Greetings, Here is some of the latest on the Ukraine situation. Mary Lee and I do feel that we need to get back to Ukraine to help people over there. We are planning on flying into Dnipropetrovs’k. Dnipropetrovs’k is in a safe zone. Our flight is to leave on September 2 and we should arrive there on September 3. We know there are many who don’t want us to go back right now but we strongly feel the need and will stay in safe areas and not do anything foolish. We hope to meet with as much of the staff as we can gather, to determine what the next step needs to be with reopening the school and where would be best, if we can’t get back into Donetsk by then, which for now doesn’t look too promising. Lord willing we are going to have more new students. I have already heard from some who want to start as soon as UBI can re-open. We also hope to help coordinate relief efforts, on behalf of the church, to those in need. This means getting funds to staff, students and graduates who are and will be working with displaced people. Also to see if there is any way of getting help into Donetsk that the local churches could distribute. We are going to need funds to help orphans and widows who are suffering. It is the churches responsibility to meet the needs of those who are hurting and by doing so, open the door to share the gospel. While Ukrainians have been open to the gospel for many years, there has never been a time when the people have been more desperate and more receptive than they are today. It is important for the church to walk through doors which are opening to the spread of the gospel. UBI students and graduates are already out there helping many hurting people. They are on the front lines of the battle. They are distributing food, clothing, supplies for babies and small children and Bibles and children’s Bibles produced by EEM. God has blessed us with a team already out there working. There are many others like Andrew Kelly, Teresa Filmon and others who are already working on and coordinating getting help to those who are hurting. We also want to encourage as many as we can who are weary from the efforts they have already been putting forth and are just “war weary. Also we will be able to give more first hand reports of what is going on and how members of the church in the US and Canada can personally help. Do we need more humanitarian shipments sent in? What kind of financial help is needed? How can we best get that in? Where can those shipments be sent? We just got a note in from Natasha today. She reports: Kirovskoye was shelled heavily last night. I talked to Sasha this morning and thankfully he is fine. He doesnt know about any people killed but several houses were hit as well as a local stadium. He is pretty sure it was done by DNR. All the roads from there are blocked and the fighting is going on all around. This morning Hartsisk is a real hot spot as well as Gorlovka. I am sure some shelling is done by Ukrainian army but most people who live in the freed cities say that Ukrainian army hits pretty accurately the places where the DNR is located while DNR just shells everything! In Donetsk, many keep saying that they cant wait for Ukrainian army to come in. I read several Donetsk forums and more and more people are saying they are willing to hide for a week in the basement for the Ukrainian army to come instead of waiting forever not knowing whats going to happen. I think everybody wants this to be over. But... many people are still fond of DNR, they hate Ukraine and hate anything Ukrainian, they say they do not want to live in Ukraine... But I think those are minority now. Most people do not care where they live they just want the war to be over. Yasinovataya has a lot of ruins and the battle there still continues. I found out that Leonid is now working in Mariupol, so he is safe. Since last night Donetsk has no water, at least for 3 days maybe longer. Terrible. Alexey was able to get some water in all the containers they had. We even had an idea to fill the baptistry! We have several people living in the dorm and they will need water. We always anxiously await hearing from Natasha. We love and cherish these precious people so much. War is so stupid. It kills and destroys. I understand that sometimes it has to happen to fight against evil men but it is so sad to see all the innocent lives that are ruined and destroyed. We look forward to heaven where there will be no more war. We also received the following report from Dimitriy Grishchuk: (Dimitriy is the Dean of Students at UBI and also does a great work through a fund called “Let’s Love”.) In Mariupol, Let’s Love team members and UBI graduates Alexander Piletsky, Fedor Chernichkin and Alexander Karnauh continue to serve refugees in the Azov area bringing them food, medicines, hygiene items, Bibles and hope. There are a lot of women with children right now from Donetsk, Gorlovka and Lugansk. In Zaporozhye, Let’s Love team member and UBI student Yura and his wife Julia continue to visit refugee families in Zaporozhye. On August 15th there was a family they helped. The dad has been recruited to Ukrainian army. The mom and girls especially need care now. Yura and his family visit them a couple times a week. On Sundays this family visits church worship. Yura also helps disabled refugees. He reported that there is very little money for refugees in Zaporozhye from the government. Many people have no money to buy food. We thank you for your donations to help these people to get what they need. In Kiev, Let’s Love team members and UBI graduates Alexander Nikolaenko and Dema Grishchuk with Donetsk youth church members Toma and Lena visited several refugees families in Kiev. We also visited this week children at Teterev sanatorium where we had camp last week. In Donetsk we covered transport expenses for the evacuation of 6 families from hot spots to safe places. As you can see there is a lot of trouble in Eastern Ukraine but we are so thankful that so many of our UBI team are there on the front lines helping and making a big difference. We have found a very interesting web site that is keeping a minute to hourly update on what is going on in Eastern Ukraine. You might want to check out this website: liveuamap/?ll=48.168796360883526;38.804624328613265&zoom=9 God bless you all for your love and support of the work in Ukraine and for your constant prayers. We pray that God will work in this situation and help it to be over soon. We also pray for the faithfulness and safety of the family of God in Ukraine and Russia. God bless, Jay Don and Mary Lee
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 18:33:56 +0000