Today’s update from Dominika………….The door to the border has been open wide. We found 3 spots, where we will be positioning ourselves. One on the ukrainian side. We also were asked to help with transport inside Ukraine to take provision and bring refugees back to Poland. It’s 100 kms inside Ukraine from the border. They need drivers, vans and petrol. We are praying how we can help with that…

➡ Aneta, a girl from our group, yesterday visited the borders in northern Poland. Starting tomorrow she will be positioning herself there with a team of missionaries. We are in touch with them to provide anything they need. They are also going to apply for humanitarian mission status to try help on the ukrainian side of the border, as we advised them too.

➡ My home church is preparing 40 beds in their facilities to receive a group of orphans. At the moment, they are still in Ukraine waiting for a safe transport out. We receive information of many people still trapped in Ukraine, waiting for the door and possibility of transport to open. At the moment, people arriving in Poland are still mostly people with bigger means and better connections. We are still waiting for the most needy ones and preparing the places for them.

➡ We are contacted by more and more Ukrainian families needing accommodation. This means that the places in other organizations are being filled up. Unfortunately, our base of available accommodation between families is also decreasing. The free spaces are only in the countryside now, but Ukrainians that are coming want to stay in big cities, as there are bigger possibilities of finding a job or connection to go to other countries. So far we have received 450 000 Ukrainians in Poland. We were expecting 1 million in the first month, but we might reach this number sooner.

➡ Our Krakow team is still intensely looking for a building to accommodate refugees. There are many uncertainties, as it needs many financial resources and we don’t know what the situation will look like in 2, 3 weeks or months. But we feel the Lord speak to us about children… We know of many orphans, foster families and mothers with children still looking for a way to be rescued. They might only arrive in weeks to come. We want to be ready.

➡ We are also partnering with one church in Chernivtsi, Ukraine that became a refugee shelter. We have direct contact with them through a Ukrainian girl on our Krakow team. She was friends with this church long before the crisis. This is why we feel like the Lord is leading us to be present in the warzone through them and respond to their needs.

Our short-term goal:
➡ renting a building to accommodate refugees and provide spiritual and physical help.
➡ being present at the border in places with biggest needs
➡ weekly preaching the gospel on the street in both languages: polish & ukrainian

Our long-term goal:
➡ creating a community place where we can serve the broken and needy in the long-run (discipleship, homeschooling, feeding program)
➡ expanding our street ministry (doing more street outreaches, also in ukrainian language)