Since the beginning of March, the city of Molochansk, where the Mennonite church functions, has been under occupation. With the arrival of Russian troops, the situation in the small town changed for the worse. In addition to the problems associated with the humanitarian crisis, the lack of medicines and increase in prices, which affected every resident, the banking system is completely out of order in the city. Older people do not receive pension payments, except for those who receive money on the card. Being the hostages of the situation, most of the pensioners have no means of subsistence.
Aleksey, a pastor of the Molochansk Mennonite Brethren Church and an employee of the Multiply mission, together with those who left the Molochansk Church, organized a humanitarian aid center in Transcarpathia, not far from Mukachevo. With a team of 13 volunteers, they minister in three main domains. Firstly, they are engaged in the evacuation of people from the war zone to regions bordering European countries, where they are then picked up by foreign friends of the association. Since the beginning of the war, this ministry has been the most demanded. Many people still need transportation to get away from the horrors of war and save their children. There were, of course, other cases. A blind man, fleeing shelling in Kharkov, was on his way to the occupied city of Genichesk. To the questions: "Why?" the man answered: - I'm going to see my family, and what difference does it make that there it will be not better, if not worse, than in Kharkov. I just appreciate my family and want to stay close.
Another direction of ministry is humanitarian assistance for Molochansk, Dnipro, Zaporozhye, Kyiv and other cities, where people who flee the war come en masse. In Zaporozhye (New Hope center and the God's Family Church) and in the village of Berezinka (near Mukachevo), together with the Multiply mission, refugee reception points, the so-called "shelters" were organized. The team is also engaged in providing humanitarian assistance like food, diapers, medicines, hygiene products to various cities and villages such as Zaporozhye, Molochansk, Tokmak, Dnipro, Novomoskovsk, Kyiv, Svetlovodsk, Zolotonosha and others, where migrants from temporarily occupied territories live, including from our Mennonite Brethren Churches.
And another concern of the volunteer team is to help the Shelters at the churches in Dnipro and Novomoskovsk, where food is transferred to the kitchens to feed the migrants and mattresses with a bed for a comfortable overnight stay for those who need a temporary stop.
The third direction of the team's ministry is the planting of new churches in the cities of Dnipro and Kyiv, together with the Multiply Mennonite mission (its main task is planting of churches). Having started this work even before the war, Alexey, Sergey and their teams do not stop, despite the situation. Kits with food and hygiene products are being assembled in Kyiv for large families in crisis with financial difficulties, who are receiving social services. Although the war did not render such families homeless, it significantly affected their ability to pay.
During the war, a team of volunteer ministers from the Molochansk Mennonite Brethren Church has sent about 50 tons of humanitarian aid. Once every two weeks, 5 tons of provision are sent to the target cities, and once a month, 10 tons of products are sent at once in a large truck. In total, the team traveled more than 25,000 km while delivering humanitarian aid. More than 200 people were evacuated from the war zone and two places were opened to receive refugees. Church planting work also continues.
Alexey and the church team from the bottom of their hearts thank all those who respond to the need, sending help or helping to find it. Prayer support is also of great importance to the team. Their prayer requests are wisdom and strengthening the spiritual state of the team.
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