Danish European Mission is in close contact with the Church of the Light of Life in Poltava, not far from the front. With the support of the Danish European Mission's intercessors and donors, the church's relief team distributes bags of food to displaced families in dire straits.
The relief teams are also distributing gas cylinders with top burners so families and single people can cook if the gas supply to their homes is destroyed by rocket attacks.
Families also get electric blankets to sleep on. A good and comfortable sleep can prevent illness if the house is cold and damp. The electric blankets do not use a lot of power, and if the power supply is intermittent, the church sometimes has charging stations (large power banks) that people can use.
The relief teams are working in the village of Malaya Ivanovka in the Bogodukhovski district, just 20 km from the border with Russia.
The relief team tells us: We surveyed the needs of the inhabitants and gave them humanitarian aid: gas cylinders and bags of food. We also shared the gospel and prayed for them.
There was both joy and tears for many. A woman from the village called Zhenja said: everything looks so impossible and depressing, and then suddenly God sends you!
In the village of Sukhorabovka, the local school became a temporary home for 40 people fleeing Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian government does not have the means to feed these people and they have to rely on help from churches, volunteers and kind neighbors. The heating in the school is weak, the electrical wiring is unstable and there are power cuts. People wear warm clothes and sleep under two blankets to keep warm.
The relief team tells us: Our help was an important support for them: electric blankets, food and a powerful charging station. The recipients were incredibly grateful for the opportunity to sleep on a warm blanket without freezing. Some of the food was donated to the school's community kitchen, where delicious pies were baked that evening.
Should Christians be persecuted in Ukraine again?
The Church of the Light of Life started in 1979 as an underground church during communism. It grew out of a revival where underground priests from Kharkiv traveled to Poltava to share the gospel with people. This was forbidden in the then Soviet Ukraine, where the Communist Party tried to promote atheism instead. Many came to believe in Jesus, but several of the priests received prison sentences or fines.
What Putin has done in the territories annexed by Russia in 2014 and the territories conquered in the 2022 invasion brings back dark memories for Ukrainian Christians of persecution under communism.
In the newly created Luhansk People's Republic, all Protestant communities were outlawed, as well as non-Moscow Orthodox communities for re-registration. An increasing number of books are banned in the Luhansk People's Republic, accused of being extreme, including even a translation of the Gospel of John from 1820 and a book by Billy Graham.
It is therefore important to pray for Ukraine, especially in this time when Western support for the country is not as strong as before.
Your help can be felt concretely by those in need in Ukraine. The priest of the Light of Life, Dmitry, sends this greeting to Danish European Mission's intercessors and donors: "Through your help, people get the most important thing they can experience, namely that they are not abandoned. That there is someone who cares for them. We have people who come and tell us that they are praying for those who help us. They return the prayer."
Thank you so much for praying for Ukraine, for the Christian relief teams and all who are suffering.
It costs DKK 89 to donate one bag of food to the vulnerable, DKK 239 for one electric blanket and DKK 360 for one gas bottle with top burner for cooking.
