Img 2022

Iliya Hlushchak and his people have been consumed with ministering to the needs of the war torn refugees fleeing Ukraine. In his report he provides a picture of just how demanding the work has been:

Prayer and fasting strengthened us physically, emotionally and spiritually. We made many efforts to help Petru, our son, who was living in Kiev, to come back to Chernivtsi. He took the last train that left Kiev. Then the railway was blown up and many explosions took place later. After several days, we managed to convince our youngest son, Roman, to come home until he’s called to army. We pray every day that the Lord would work as he pleases. Our oldest son volunteered to help the Ukrainian army in Chernivtsi. He’s waiting to be called into army and we pray that the men would do the right thing at that moment. We haven’t been called into the army yet.

After several days, the refugees started coming. Our church decided to get involved in helping the them according to our capabilities, to work together as church members with other churches and organizations. Our church it is not far from Galicia Road, which is the way to Poland. Some of the churches focused on helping the refugees get to Romania, while we helped the refugees who wanted to get to Poland. Very many refugees were hosted in our homes for a day or two. Some for a night or for several hours where we fed them, allowed them to take a shower and so on. Men between the ages of 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country during wartime, so they took their families to the border and then went back to their places if they still had a place to go to. When coming back from the border, they would stop to spend the night with us. Sometimes the phone rang day and night and we were able to help the refugees even if we couldn’t meet them, because of the fuel crisis.

When the war started, our church building was in construction, so it was impossible for us to host refugees at church due to not having a heating system as the weather was quite cold. We worked hard to solve this problem. During war time, people have less money and greater needs. With God’s help, it was okay. We also received help from abroad. In several days, we will be able to host refugees at our church. Please join us in prayer.