The war has changed the usual course of life for believers: churches are scattered around the world and communicate either online or in small groups at home. In Zaporozhye, Novomoskovsk, Poltava, Molochansk, Berdyansk and Donetsk region, churches no longer go to the habitual church services. Mostly, women and children fled for Europe, and men remained to defend the country or to be engaged in helping people.
On February 24, everyone woke up in a new atmosphere, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians would feel an urgent need for help. The atmosphere of war. When people began to move en masse from the occupied territories to Zaporozhye and Western Ukraine, the churches took the initiative and provided the refugees with accommodation and food. When people didn't have the necessary medicines or warm clothes, the churches tried to find it. When many did not have means of fleeing, volunteers picked people up in their cars. When people did not want to leave the war zone, the ministers persuaded them, which saved their lives afterwards.
In doing all this, the ministers had to leave their usual zone of activity and put into practice what was preached from the pulpit in peacetime. Many had to leave their permanent place of work and completely plunge into the ministry, working for free.
From the beginning of the conflict, it was not too difficult to predict that it would hit agriculture and the food industry in general. There will be food and water shortages. Many refugees and people who have lost their jobs will need help. Therefore, one of the main directions of ministers in wartime was the provision of food and water to those in need. After more than three months of continuous shipping of goods to the front-line territories, warehouses with humanitarian aid are getting empty. With prices soaring, the process of purchasing products has become more complicated. Now the ministers spend more energy on finding food than on its distribution. Every day the food crisis becomes more tangible.
The second problem and obstacle to ministry is the lack of vehicles. A car is a lot of opportunities to serve people, but the disadvantage is that they quickly become unusable and are not cheap. The Association is actively searching for trucks and minibuses for ministry. Such vehicles help both evacuate people from the war zone and deliver humanitarian aid to those in need. At the same time, recently in Ukraine there have been big problems with fuel due to the destruction of a large number of Ukrainian oil depots. So, the price of diesel fuel at some gas stations reaches more than $2 per liter, and you can buy only 10-20 liters. Therefore, the difficulty with fuel greatly affects the ministry “behind the wheel”.
The financial dependence of ministries sometimes hinders the work of volunteers. But thanks to the support of foreign partners and friends, AMBCU continues to serve those in need.
In addition to the above, some ministers are increasingly in need of a pause due to a variety of factors. Change of activities, worries about relatives who remained in the frontline zone, fatigue, the situation in the country, bad news, melancholy, anxiety - all this leads to frequent depressive states, sudden mood swings, and sometimes even to burnout.
In all three aspects ministers are in dire need of support. Both material and prayerful. All who selflessly continue to serve people every day are asked to support their service in any possible way.
But despite the difficulties, the AMBCU churches are making every effort to relieve the suffering of people and contribute to the approach of peace. Everybody tries to serve in the direction in which he is most useful. Nine humanitarian aid centers continue to operate, each with a team of about 30 people. Through the efforts of the association, ten thousand people have already been helped - this number includes all people who have been directly or indirectly reached by the ministry.
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