Ukraine Orphan Rescue
The world is in uproar since I last wrote to you. The conflict in Ukraine is dominating our lives, easily eclipsing the ongoing Covid crisis. While we watch in horror, “Putin’s war” as it’s called, continues to decimate cities and human lives. Every day brings new destruction. Indeed by the time this letter reaches you there will be, no doubt, much more sorrow than I can refer to as I write.
At this point over 3 million refugees have fled, mostly women and children, including many orphans. As a ministry that has focused on African and Indian orphans and widows for 22 years there is no way that we can ignore this painful new horizon of orphan care.
As you know WOW is committed to working through the agency of local church pastors and volunteers in the care of these desperately vulnerable and precious souls. We also hold as a core value that our “champions” be relationally known to and trusted by us. Love and accountability must be in the partnering equation. So it’s vital that if we’re to work in Ukraine and Poland there must be a pastoral/relational base.
Thankfully that base exists. A pastor whom I’ve known and trusted for over 40 years has been overseeing a network of Ukrainian and Polish churches for several years from Slovakia. He’s a proven champion, especially now as those very churches have become refugee centers, opening their buildings for desperate women and children. These local church “safe havens” have also become rescuers of orphans. Just a few days ago (as I write) 60 orphans were bused through the night to safety in Poland. As you can expect they need funding to continue for hundreds of orphans yet to come. This, of course, is a no-brainer for us.
So I’m appealing to you to help us help these helpless souls fleeing the pounding destruction of Russian bombs. We’ve already sent our first tranche of funds but there’s so much more that we must provide to these heroic churches. This will not be at the expense of our Africa/India work but will be above and beyond. We may be only small players but we must do our part in the rescue of Ukrainian orphans.
We’ll continue to be your arm extended to a world of hurt.
