How is Ukraine Doing?
In this month’s CIM Ministries newsletter, we would like to update the situation in Ukraine with our partners House of Mercy. Though the invasion of Ukraine is no longer the top news story anymore, lives are still being lost every day, and refugees continue to flock through Western Ukraine to flee to other countries. Close to 12 million refugees have left at time of writing, and more leave every day. House of Mercy has been working very hard caring for these refugees. They are housed at House of Mercy, different churches, and even in people’s homes. Between 2000-3000 meals are prepared daily. Physical needs are being met, but the gospel message is also being shared. They have been holding two church services per day and many refugees have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In fact, recently, there was a baptism ceremony for those who have come to know the Lord. The situation in the Roma settlements has also been deeply impacted by the invasion. Many have fled as refugees but they are quickly replaced by other Romas who have been coming from the East. Some have come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour and have been baptized too. Though many leaders have left the country, all the pastors that we know and support and felt called by the Lord to stay and serve. Through CIM Ministries, close to $65,000 CAD has been raised for the aid of the refugees. From the bottom of our hearts, we say ‘thank you’, but the needs in Ukraine are ongoing and we continue to seek your help.
This month, Lucy Ivaneko, friend of Mark Valko (whom we highlighted in our March newsletter)(she was also part of the team that Mark went to Africa with) , shares how life is on the front lines and what the situation is like on the battlefield….
My name is Lucy Ivanenko. I am a Ukrainian missionary. I came to Ukraine from my 8- month mission in Uganda a month before the war due to serious health issues. The war for me was a shocking disaster. Life stopped. Fear, darkness and dreariness, terrible weakness and hopelessness, depression, desire to make a change and no strenth. That was all I could feel at the time. A week later pastor's call, "There's a christian organisation who work on evacuations. They need a translator. I think you would like to help them." "Sure. Let me try." And here I am 7 months later with a phone full of different contacts from all over Ukraine coordinating the work of the team and solving many different issues. Things like explosions and going to the front lines don't scare me as long as we can bring Jesus to the lost and hurt.
7:30am. Usual team meeting. Two boys are away in Kramatorsk who then are going to Soledar to do evacuations under constant explosions and different sounds of all kinds of weapons, close and distant rockets landing on different sides. Helmet, plate carrier, prayer, waiting, finding willing evacuees and our little white T5 with signs "Humanitarian aid and evacuations" hurries to get people out of one of the hottest areas in the East of Ukraine.
Our meeting continues. We discuss plans for the day. Taking other vehicles to the shop, doing food parcels, many phone calls to different contacts, taking more food to Druzhkivka, Bakhmut,Kramatorsk, packing and labeling boxes with food and hygiene for Kherson and many other places in occupied areas in Zaporizhzhya oblast', many other local (Dnipro) runs, getting our supplies from CAM and Samaritan's Purse, sharing ideas of where to get many more things people need besides food and looking for ways and organisation that could help. After some laughs and other arrangements we pray, have breakfast and the team of 4-7 splits and goes to each of their responsibilities.
How is Ukraine now?
It is a very good question. We keep on living, working and finding different ways and means of enjoying life. Hard to imagine this life without air raid sirens that make blood run cold and always remind that even if in some parts of Ukraine you can ignore them knowing that there's little danger, in others it means death and massive destruction making people live in dark bomb shelters and cellars. But it always means that there's always some brave military trying to protect us risking their life. And actually war zones are places where you hardly hear any sirens rather neverending sound of fighting. Sometimes it's constant thunder, other times it's big booms and rockets landing just a few meters from you.
Once we went with our chaplain friend to Mariinka. Now the town is occupied by Russians and we were there just 2 weeks before it was captured. So we did 4 food distributions in 4 different places accompanied by close and distant incoming and outgoing thumps. Everything was going well with all of us. People were friendly, listened to the Gospel carefully, asked questions. But the last and the biggest distribution was interrupted by a cluster bomb which sounded as if we were shot at from a few meters. There was around 100 people and we were just about to pray and give them food parcels. I still remember all their complaints, how we hid behind our van and then in a few minutes hurriedly distributed over 100 food parcels with shaking hands, pumping hearts and full of adrenaline heads. Still hard o understand how many of these people decide to stay at those hot areas towns and villages. Moreover, they plan on protecting their properties, believe they aren't needed anywhere in the world, don't have means for any travels. And visiting many different shelters throughout Ukraine and even abroad, receiving many personal requests from people who lost everything, I can feel how humiliating it is for Ukrainians to leave their homes, friends and families. For that reason many now return from abroad and we get more requests to evacuate people back home even to the leveled cities like Severodonetsk. So as volunteers we try to help people at the front lines with evacuations and food, as Christians we try to be the light and the salt for the hurt. So please pray for:
the team's safety on the roads
God's provision for many needs
spiritual revival
wisdom in decision making
Thank you for keeping us in your hearts and prayers!
Rev. Isaac Quan
Executive Director
CIM Canada
August Financials
1. General Fund - for general and administrative purposes, such as staff salaries
2. Designated Fund - for specific ministries in different field locations as designated (cannot be transferred between funds)
*All financial figures are in Canadian dollars and rounded to the nearest dollar
Pray With Us:
Please pray for Pastor Isaac's trip to Ghana and Togo and Pastor Matthieu's trip to Togo this month. Pray for safety, protection, and that there will be meaningful discussion with EGCT leaders in Togo as we seek God's direction for His ministry.
Pastor Matthieu's mom's Celebration of Life and also Janice's mother-in-law's funeral are both scheduled for October. Please pray for their families during this difficult time.
Pray for the recruiting effort underway to fill job vacancies at CIM USA for a Director of Ministry to oversee STM and daily operations as well as an Executive Director.
Administrative Assistant
If you are keen on being a part of a small ministry team committed to sharing the Gospel and making a difference in lives across the globe, then you may be interested in joining the CIM team. This opportunity is remote and you would be supporting ministry work in Ghana, Togo, Ukraine and Canada.
Please email us at contact@cimcanada.org for more details.