What a year 2020 has been! Through God’s grace Heart to Heart has been continuing to do charitable work and help the most unfortunate. We are so thankful for all of you who have been faithfully helping to fund different projects in Ukraine. As we have in years past, we continue to ship boxes of all sizes of clothing, toys, and supplies to Ukraine. This year we shipped over 20 large boxes. Because of the Covid-19 virus of 2020, Heart to Heart did not have an American team traveling to Ukraine. We were however blessed to haver our dear and faithful helpers in Ukraine, Vasiliy and his wife Yana, who were able to help distribute the shipped items to the orphanages, nursing homes and help multiple families in need. Unlike America where we were able to get some sort of government assistance to supplement income during job loss, the Ukraine government support was very small or most of the time not available. Many families struggle financially and are incapable of feeding themselves through this difficult time. Additionally in 2020 we made multiple monetary donations to help families deal with these difficult conditions.
Pastors Steve and Diane Sumrall and Christ Chapel congregation had their traditional “Christmas in July” project during which they collected toys, school supplies, backpacks, and clothing to bless hundreds of children in the orphanages. Also, we are grateful for the financial help from the Feeding the Nations organization for helping us to support different food projects for refugees and poor families in Ukraine.
During the summer we got the sad news from West Ukraine that the bishop of the Pentecostal Union of Ukraine Vasiliy Fedorovich Raychinets passed away from the Covid virus. We had been working closely with this bishop to help the poor in West Ukraine for many years. He will be very missed for his kind heart and passion to help his community in need. Pastor Alexander Zaytsev became the new bishop of this organization. Pastor Alexander, his wife Vera (pastor with his wife Vera and Svetlana Pokhodina below), and many of his children have been actively involved in Heart to Heart ministry for years. Pastor Alexander just recently relocated from the Russian occupied part of East Ukraine to the camp his church built years ago. The camp was used to house summer gatherings for church events in the past. Now it has become a refugee camp and a permanent residence for more than 75 families with children.
The Ukrainians who relocated to the camp from the war zone in East Ukraine could not afford to move to bigger cities and were forced to look for more affordable shelter. A few of the camp buildings were originally built to be used only in summer conditions, with no insulation, showers or permanent restrooms. The camp residents are working hard to make the buildings more inhabitable with very limited resources. They are installing restrooms, showers, and insulating the buildings for the winter. They are starting to build a few new houses to accommodate so many families. Most of the houses are shared by 2 or 3 families at least. Pictures from the camp with a new construction below.
Heart to Heart got involved to financially fund the building and food projects (the pictures on this page are from the camp). We continue to raise money to help the refugees at the camp. We made a financial contribution to one of the churches in West Ukraine that is helping to purchase food and supplies. This year the church shipped over 23 tons of food and various supplies to help the families at the camp.
We are so thankful to so many of you who got involved to fund the building project at the camp and continue to support Heart to Heart ministry. Thank you to pastors Steve & Diane Sumrall, pastors Mark & Margaret Strickland, pastors David & Maureen Woodcock, and their congregations. We are also grateful to Genesis church, Eb & Debbie Hoehl, Linda James, Deb Copeland, Tonya Stogdill, Sharon Campbell, Leacock family, and so many others for being so generous year after year. Thank you for your prayers and love for the Ukrainian people.
