Ukraine Relief Update – how you can give and pray

Answers to your most frequently asked questions (3/21/22) >

A Q&A with our World Relief Officer Lisa Rothenberger (3/23/22) >

 

PHOTO| Shared by IM’s partner Hungarian Baptist Aid (HBAID)
An update from our Area Director for Europe, the Middle East, and Liberia Charles Jones (3/30/22):

We thank you that your ongoing and generous response to supply relief for Ukrainians through the ministries of our global servants and partners has so far provided more than $229,000, which will help meet basic needs for food, shelter, medicine, and hygiene items. Our thanks as well to the Christian Community Credit Union (CCCU) for giving a gift of $5,000 to provide Ukrainian women and children with relief.

 

RESPONDING THROUGH OUR GLOBAL SERVANTS

Our global servants in Hungary—Amanda and Jon Good, Carmella Jones, and Becky and Larry Stanton—are directly engaged in helping to provide relief for Ukrainian refugees. The Goods and Stantons have shared video updates below.

 

 

 

RESPONDING THROUGH OUR PARTNERS

Hungarian Baptist Aid (HBAID) an IM partner in Hungary is actively engaged in relief efforts. The Baptist Union of Ukraine, another IM partner has been relocated to Western Ukraine, nearer to the Polish border. Leaders and staff meet there three times a day—at 9:00AM, 1:00 and 5:00PM—for prayer and coordination. Their prayer request was for good coordination as they try to provide evacuation and humanitarian aid to people coming through or trapped—since bridges around major cities, including the capital Kyiv, have been strategically blown up to slow the advance of Russian convoys. This also limits escape routes for Ukrainian civilians. The Baptist Union’s six regions in Western Ukraine (out of twenty-five regions in the country) are seeking to serve over one million internally displaced people (IDPs) coming through. He asked for prayers for safe travels for the drivers and vehicles bringing IDPs from their towns and then returning with goods and supplies.

 

HOW TO GIVE

The work being done by our regional partner (the European Baptist Federation) in collaboration with national partners (Baptist Unions in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and other European countries) and the local efforts by our global servants in Hungary can only be sustained with your generosity. You can give a gift to International Ministries online or by check so that relief efforts through our global servants and partners can continue. Checks should be mailed directly to International Ministries (please designate your contribution “OGHS-Ukraine Relief” in the memo line).

 

HOW TO PRAY

While our financial support will provide for physical needs, the need for prayer is paramount. Will you pray alongside our brothers and sisters? Here are some of the requests they have provided:

    1. Pray that the war will be stopped.
    2. Pray for God’s comfort for those who have lost family and their homes.
    3. Pray that IM’s partners are able to help those who are running from the war, particularly as it is still winter.
    4. Pray for a stable channel of cash flow to Ukraine so that humanitarian needs can be sustainably met.
    5. Pray that the power of the Holy Spirit will continue working within every Ukrainian pastor ministering to these needs.
    6. Pray for the churches in areas surrounded by Russian soldiers—for the pastors and those who have stayed, that their hearts would remain open to surrounding people with Christian love and care.

I ask that you would pray for protection and provision for those who suffer, and for peace to be restored. And for our Baptist sisters and brothers and all peace-loving people in Russia, God will give them courage to pursue peace.