By Laura McKillip Wood
Several Kentucky ministries have organized relief efforts for Ukrainians affected by war.
ScatterJOY, Inc.
Nine years ago, Barbara Rendel started ScatterJOY out of her home to serve as an outreach to under-resourced people in Jessamine County, Ky.
When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in late February, a Ukrainian church in their Kentucky community began collecting baby supplies, blankets, underwear, and socks to send back to their friends and families still in that country. It seemed natural for ScatterJOY to work together with these Ukrainian friends.
“Our donors have given more than $10,000 in donations of supplies and financial gifts to purchase supplies,” Barbara says.
To learn more about ScatterJOY’s work, visit their Facebook page. To support this work, send donations (checks made out to ScatterJOY Inc.) to ScatterJOY Inc., 194 Bent Tree Court, Nicholasville, KY 40356.
Team Expansion
In 1991, Team Expansion, headquartered in Louisville, began working in Ukraine by sending people to aid with evangelism and leadership training. When the war started, the leader of Team Expansion’s Eastern Europe/Balkan team was about to return to the United States for retirement. He and his wife felt compelled to remain in Eastern Europe, and they now work with Ukrainian partners to coordinate humanitarian efforts with Proem, IDES, and other organizations.
The chaos of war and the influx of humanitarian aid and refugees, combined with the needs of people still living in regions of the country under attack, have increased the burden on their Ukrainian partners, who themselves fled the fighting and settled in western Ukraine. Donations to Team Expansion will be used to provide water, food, transport, housing, and trauma relief for Ukrainians both inside the country and those who have fled to other European countries. Contributions are accepted here.
Mulberry International
Mulberry International’s U.S. headquarters are in Louisville, Ky., but its roots are in Crimea. It started in the 1990s as a ministry to street kids in Crimea, but expanded its efforts after Russia’s 2014 invasion into Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine; that’s when it began working with displaced people and those living in and around the towns the Russians destroyed along the border. Mulberry works entirely with Ukrainians already ministering in an orphanage, with foster families, and in other ways.
Since the start of the war, Mulberry workers in occupied areas have risked their lives to deliver food and medicine to people trapped there. They have showed the hospitality and love of Christ by welcoming people into their homes and church basements. Mulberry also recently helped the orphanage they work with evacuate 33 children to safety; the perilous journey westward across Ukraine took two weeks. To learn more about their work or to donate to it, visit their website or their Facebook page.
Master Provisions
In 1994, Roger Babik of Elsmere, Ky., traveled to Ukraine and saw the needs of the people, who were still recovering from the break-up of the Soviet Union and its financial impact. He started Master Provisions to help meet those needs. Master Provisions organizes donations of clothing and other secondhand items and ships them to countries like Ukraine for distribution.
The organization has supported My Home for Orphans in southern Ukraine since 2003 through mission trips and supply shipments. My Home places orphans into Christian homes and group homes. Since the war began, My Home for Orphans has been caring for an additional 140 children. At the start of the war, Master Provisions established the Ukraine Emergency Fund to provide supplies such as food, medicines, and personal care items. To learn more about their work or to donate to it, visit their website.
_ _ _
In earlier articles, we profiled some other organizations that are providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Among them:
• IDES (International Disaster Emergency Service) — be sure to designate your gift as “Ukraine relief.”
• Mountainview Christian Church is collecting money to send to Tavriski Christian Institute staff on the ground doing relief work.
• Proem Ministries cares for refugees from Ukraine as they arrive in Poland.
• Love for Ukrainians provides humanitarian aid for those impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Laura McKillip Wood, former missionary to Ukraine, lives in Papillion, Nebraska, and writes about missions for Christian Standard.
0 Comments