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Making Sense of the Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine: An Interview with a Missionary to Zaporizhzhia · Centrally Speaking

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Centrally speaking, is the Central Schwenfelder Church's podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks about issues that would be of interest to our society.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, it addresses how a Christian worldview intersects with Western secular culture.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of the church's founder, we take the perspective of the Middle Way, which is in agreement with the historic Christian Church.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Dr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Drake Williams, Minister of Mission and Theology of the Church.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Our website is www.cscfamily.org.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're very pleased this evening to have Ken Sears with us to talk about the Ukraine once again.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: And we've entitled this podcast, Ukraine Making Sense of the Humanitarian Crisis.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: Ken Sears has been a missionary to Zaporosia in Ukraine for over 27 years.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: He's worked in churches as well as in teaching and has also helps with humanitarian work.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: Ken, welcome back to Centrally Speaking.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: We're very glad to have you with us.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: In the last podcast, you spoke with us about how you came to live in Ukraine and you've gotten to know Ukrainians for some 27 years.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: Can you tell us the demeanor of Ukrainians?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: How would you characterize the Ukrainian people?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: When I got there in 1995, I was struck by the classically Soviet grim demeanor.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think people know what I'm talking about.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: People seemed depressed, grim, severe, sometimes aggressive.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: But there was a stark contrast between that and how people opened up when you got into their homes and behind locked doors and around the table.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I realized this was the reality in the Soviet Union, where people had to be careful and watch their lips and watch what they said out in public.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And they only opened up at home amongst their own.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the life, people's life, was home behind the table, sitting for hours talking.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: That, by the way, has changed a lot since they've become more Western.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in these past 27 years, what I have seen is the Ukrainian mentality take a strong, a strong departure from the classic Soviet or Russian mentality.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: They've become more individualistic.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're brighter now.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: The key word, what I have often said to myself in my own observations, you know, commenting to myself interiorly about what I'm seeing and how people are changing.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: What I've often said to myself in the past couple of decades is, wow, they're trying.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: They're really trying.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: They're trying to break out of that.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and, you know, even little things like you'd walk into a shop 27 years ago and nobody would look at you.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Salespeople would sort of just sneer at you from the other end of the counter, like, what do you want?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Go away.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And now they're bright, they try to help you, they're they're discovering their own identity.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: They're really trying.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been a wonderful uh believers, non-believers, you know, everybody.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh to me, I've seen them trying, uh gathering hope for a real Ukrainian identity, um, which I think goes hand in hand with Russia's increasing outrage at the way that Ukraine has culturally, politically, uh, socially uh separated itself from what Putin still considers to be Ukraine's motherland.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: That all goes into what's happening now.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: As you were first uh answering, you you were sharing about uh family life and how important it is uh in Ukraine.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I assume that family life still is quite important, even if people would become more westernized.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, yes, really.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um people people live for their children, um, you know, which has its upsides and downsides to it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we talked about this before.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: In in the vacuum of identity that opened up after the Soviet Union fell, uh, of course, a lot of people in the initial uh days uh turned to Christ or turned to religion in general, uh, but that waned.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And what a lot of people seem to settle on is well, if we don't know what else to live for, we can live for our children.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where they find their their meaning and and their hope.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And these are the things I've been observing and sort of gauging, you know, as you as you look at life and people and the world and try to understand what's going on, that have all come to a screeching halt right now with this disaster.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's thrown people into confusion and chaos and not knowing where to go next.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: So, with this disaster, this invasion of uh Ukraine that's uh started uh nearly a month ago at this point, uh, there are so many people who have become uh displaced.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, that's affected the home life, uh, which has got to be uh so uh very uh devastating for Ukrainians right now.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: As of today, March the 21st, these are some of the statistics that I have.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: 3.3 million refugees uh from Ukraine, 6.5 million internally displaced people, and 12 million unable to leave Ukraine, that from a population of about 44 million before the war.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: Are these the type of statistics that you're hearing?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and if you put those statistics together, I'm not sure what the last one means, unable to leave, whether that simply means because uh there's many, many more who are unable to leave for various reasons, like being old or infirm or what have you.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: But if unable to leave means people who've tried and can't and they're stuck out west, along with other displaced persons who maybe haven't fled to the west, but they've lost their homes, etc.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you add up all those numbers together, that's about 20 million.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the population is 42 million.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking about half the country.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: That level of social disruption is cataclysmic.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever happens in this war, Ukraine is never going to be the same again.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's going to be a huge Ukrainian diaspora in Germany, in Poland, um, Romania, Slovenia, maybe Hungary.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the population was declining as it was already uh before this happened.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So even in the best of uh scenarios, and Ukraine, in some sense, wins this war, it's anybody's guess what Ukraine is going to be after this.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a this is a true cataclysm for that country.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And what that means for the church and its future ministries there, again, in the best of scenarios, hopefully uh assuming we can get back in, the needs and the demands are going to be overwhelming.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Overwhelming.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, just doing some simple math, 3.3 million refugees, 6.5 million internally displaced people, that's near 10 million people out of a country of 44 million.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: That must mean that about one out of every four is without a home in Ukraine now.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: I and I know tons of people, tons of people from my church who are now effectively homeless.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're way out in western Ukraine.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: The men, as a rule, can't get out if they're between 18 to 60.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's prohibited.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of them have sent their their wives and their children across the border to Poland or to Germany.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I just know tons of, I mean, you know, this isn't just numbers, these are people I know.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna try not to get emotional, but this is what's happening.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, each case is a family torn apart.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's trauma, it's agony, it's uh confusion and a big fog.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: What's what's gonna happen to us?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Will we ever see each other again?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And repeat this millions of times.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what Putin is doing to Ukraine.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's a horror.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: If you can talk about internally displaced people, where does somebody who's internally displaced go?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I assume this is dangerous to be internally displaced.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe it could help our largely American audience get their minds around something like that.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what can you do except hope on the goodness of people?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: If if you're a father and you got a wife and a couple of kids and the bombs are falling on your city, and you know you can't get out of the country, you get in the car and you drive.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know where.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have any relatives out west, you don't know to whom you drive in desperation that somebody out there, some government, some government uh uh uh program, humanitarian program, some church, just some nice people in a village somewhere are gonna put you up and help you.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's it's horribly traumatic.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a lot of them are sending their families across the border, and Poland is being overwhelmed with with refugees.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: They're doing the best they can to help them.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: My dear friends who got out, they crossed into Moldova and the Moldovans, a very poor country, Moldova, but they were just overwhelmed with the kindness the Moldovans showed them and gave them, you know, supplies and food and tea and cookies and help even direct them across the country.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a small country, a few hours' drive across the country to the next country they had to go through, you know, escorted them.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is straining church resources, NGO resources, government resources just to the hilt.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Another family I know they had to flee from the city of Dnipro, used to be called Dnypropetrovsk, and they were fired upon as they drove out of the city.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: He he was one of my students.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thank God they came through.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: But that's the terror they're facing.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're internally displaced, you may be living in somebody's basement.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: You might be living in the basement of a church somewhere, I guess.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Or in your car.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Or in your car, out in the woods.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is what's happening.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So God bring an end to this as quickly as possible.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: And the healing process, the restoration and healing process is going to be oh decades.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Decades.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: Many of the refugees have gone to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, a few to Russia and Belarus.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_03: Why have so many gone to Poland?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: I would say, again, just from you know, having lived there all these years and you know, hearing people talk about Poland, Poland is the most attractive because to Ukrainians, first of all, the Polish language of the other Eastern European languages like Czech or Slovakian or Slovenian or um, you know, Croatian, etc., Polish would be the closest, the easiest to learn.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you're Spanish and you emigrate to Portugal, that that's not a big, that's not a big uh leap.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, there's a lot of Ukrainians in Poland already uh working.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's a big uh Ukrainian community in Poland.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh even though the, you know what, even though those other countries are in the European Union, Poland still seems to the Ukrainians to be the most advanced, forgive me, civilized European of the other Slavic countries.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's the most familiar and it's the biggest one.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the supposition is well, they're the biggest one, so they can take in the most of us.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And perhaps Poland also of the other uh Slavic countries strikes the Ukrainians as the most deeply anti-Russian one.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps safety, language, and then is it there's some relational background between or relational continuity between Poland and and Ukraine over the years?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, there is, but that's a mixed story.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's not all roses and sunshine.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: What's the name of the book by uh uh Taras Taros Bulba is it?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, which is all about the the Kazakh wars against the against the Catholic Poles.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a a fraught relationship.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And the city of Lviv, which you've heard about a lot in the news, used to be part of Poland.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't doubt the Poles would love to have it back.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: There there are some deep uh rooted antagonisms or grudges between Ukraine and Poland as well.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: God grant that this crisis will will serve to um to lift lift the relationship between the two nations to a higher level.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think this I think this conflict, I've already seen it, heal a lot of petty grievances between people when they realize that there's a lot more at stake for us all right now together.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: Humans caring caring for each other uh in need.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: And we're seeing that uh on uh news clips from Poland, uh, how many Poles are taking in Ukrainians right now, which is nice to see.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: Now, certainly uh Russia is the aggressor uh in this, uh, they're the ones who invade it.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: But is there anything that Ukraine or President Zelensky uh could do uh to help lessen this crisis, uh humanitarian-wise?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: That of course is pardon me if I'm being flippant, but that is the$64,000 question.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because many of our younger listeners won't have any idea what that refers to.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And there are many people saying, look, save your people, just surrender, and then cope with whatever the political the political arrangement is after that.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: What I would say is a lot of Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol and Kherson and Kharkiv and Kyiv, if surrender were the ideal out for the um Ukrainian people, I feel that a lot of those soldiers would already be surrendering now, no matter what Zelensky told them.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: They would see the writing on the wall and they're not doing it.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're not doing it.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I have yet to see a cry and clamor rising from the Ukrainian people.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just end this and give up.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not sure Zelensky can override the will of the people and surrender.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure it's all him.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's interesting that you haven't heard.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: I have not heard on the news either.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: Cry coming from Ukraine to end this.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: Can you tell a story or two of some Ukrainians who have made it to uh western borders?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: And perhaps you might tell us what such a trip might be like to drive across Ukraine during a time of war.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, most of our listeners may not know what Ukrainian geography is like.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Ukraine is uh about the so I've heard is about the size of France or Texas.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: My very dear friend, who's here now in the States, he's one of the exceptions because he had a draft exemption and he got out with his family and led another family out in their car with him, whose husband, father couldn't get out, and he escorted them to Germany to their relatives.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: His story was one fraught with, you know, anxiety and tension and anticipation, but also much blessing.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: He left with his wife and two children from Zaporozhia and he crossed the country in about a 20-hour trip, which is grueling, but it was also a miracle because others they brought tents and blankets in the car because others took days to cross the country, sleeping in their cars at night, stopping in traffic jams for five hours at a time.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: There were stories of the police uh riding along these traffic jams and picking out the families with babies to get them out of line and escort them more quickly through for the baby's sake.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: This friend didn't run into any of that, just stunningly.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then he was thinking about going to the Polish border like everybody else.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: But at the Polish border, now imagine you've crossed the whole country and you spent maybe two to three days to get across the country, slept in the car at night on frigid winter nights, and then you get to the Polish border, and it's gonna be three or four days in your car just to get across the border.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're the man who's not allowed out of the country, you're spending three or four days in your car just to get your family to the border.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I'm gonna choke up again so that you can say goodbye to them there and then go back.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, my friend, he he decided to go across the Moldovan border, and it was only two hours.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a blessing.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh I was praying fervently for him, passionately.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing that most touched me when he finally told me about, you know, the whole ordeal, taking this trip, I had been praying, God, send your angels, escort them with your angels, uh, send your angels ahead of them to surround them and just wing them through this journey.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And after he made the journey, he said one night he was driving with the family in the car, and it was nighttime, and there were I think there was no moon out, and the bare trees covered with snow, and the car headlights illuminating these bare, snow-covered branches that were overarching the road.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, for a moment, all he could see was angels' wings, angel's wings guiding him out.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, that was an affirmation that God was saying that uh God was doing exactly what I prayed for.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Other families I know, it took them days to get across the country.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Another young man who's very dear to me, he's like a son to me.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's still in Ukraine.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: He got his family out pretty much in a day, and his wife and children are in Germany, being well taken care of in the German refugee program.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: This other friend I mentioned first, he actually came to America because his family had tourist visas.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: So they're here right now trying to figure out what to do next.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: So there's all kinds of stories, millions of stories like this.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, some harder, some a little easier, but none of them are none of them are pleasant ones.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's trauma for all of them.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Picture driving on one-lane roads, not let's say like the interstates in uh in America, uh many uh stoppages along the way, uh maybe planes going overhead.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I assume I assume that to be anticipated in in some of these flights uh across the case.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one family know they left.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned yeah, they they came under fire.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Another former student of mine, and he got his family out of the city of uh Dnipro, and they came under fire, but thank God they weren't hurt.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a terrifying reality.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: How are churches working to help those struggling with humanitarian needs?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I know you know churches in a variety of different places, but uh are they able to get food to those in need?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if they have access to funds and and connections with Western sources who can, you know, truck the the food into the country, either if they have access to funds and they can acquire provisions locally, and or if they have connections with Western agencies who are trucking humanitarian aid into the country, and if they're not being stopped on the road, you know, or being bombed, then yes, they can and are helping people.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: They're helping their own, they're helping the churches, the needs in the churches, they're helping the communities around the churches.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: The seminary, there's a seminary out in the city of Lviv, which is, of course, uh ceased functioning as a seminary right now, but they're operating as a as a as a way station to take refugees and helping get onto the border, you know, to provide food and clothing and and temporary shelter.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: In my city of Zaporozhia, there's a massive effort going on, and my mission is helping with it, sending in funds, and we're providing food and places to stay, you know, whatever needs the people from these cities like Mariupol or Melotopol or Berdansk need transportation too, sending in buses if they can get the buses in to bring the people out.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's hazardous, it's it's it's life-threatening, but they're doing what they can every day.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm getting messages all the time online about who's going, who's going to that city, who can bring people out of that city, who can bring you know food into this village?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's ongoing every every day, every moment.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: It must be fascinating, all these stories as uh the church rises up to care for people in time of war.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: It must be very, very inspiring.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it is.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: If somebody were to give money or supplies, what would you recommend and why would you why would you do so?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as far as giving supplies, of course, I would, you know, it's difficult for us here in America, of course, to uh, you know, wrap up a box and send a box of you know food and clothing over there.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's better to get in touch with agencies, NGOs, faith-based missions, you know, like Samaritan's Purse or people who are over there on the ground, either in Ukraine or just on the other side, like in Poland, sending aid in.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best way to do it.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think that would be much more productive than, for instance, like my trying to send a box of things over, even my church trying to send a container over.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: It takes so long anyway.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's people there on the ground now who have immediate access to the needs and can uh expedite that.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, for instance, my mission, my mission is called European Christian Mission of North America, and our office is based in British Columbia, but we have a state-based post office box in Point Roberts, Washington, also.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a Ukraine crisis fund with a direct link to our people in Zaporozh.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we're we're sending funds so that they can acquire what they need locally and then distribute what's needed.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like a young mother I know personally in the Zaporozhia area, and she wrote to me.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: She desperately needed medicine.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And she wrote to me, and and I said, Well, I don't, I, I don't, I don't know what to do.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: I can't send you money from here, I can't send you medicine from here.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I got her in touch with our man in Zaporozhia, and he gave her 10,000 grievenas.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's the not that's not$10,000, 10,000 grievenas in the local money to cover her medical needs.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: So um that's the most intelligent and efficient way to do it now, I think.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_03: To be able to send funds to Ukrainians who are there right in the in the thick of it.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: So that they can distribute as to how they see as best possible through the church.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Whether food, with a clothing, with the transportation, the needs are endless.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: It takes many forms, yeah.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: For some of our listeners, they might not know the uh address uh for the mission and uh the fund.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: Might you wish to uh to share about that at all?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's based in uh British Columbia, Delta British Columbia, Canada, but we're also an American, we're equally an American-based mission, and we keep a post office box in Point Roberts, Washington.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's a funny little place, it's a little peninsula that sticks out of Canada, but it's part of the United States, and it's just down the road from our office.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of Canadian companies and firms use that for our for our post office box.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's European Christian Mission of North America, post office box 1006, point Roberts, Washington 98281.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the website is www.ecmna.org.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So a check for this fund because it has to be designated very specifically for tax laws.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the check is payable to European Christian Mission, but designated in the bottom left corner on the notes, Ukraine Crisis Fund.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: And then that funding will be able to get out to pastors in East Ukraine who are doing this great humanitarian work.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: And thank you so much for uh taking some time to have this conversation with us about uh humanitarian aid.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: But we're we're so thankful that you're involved with this as well as uh the mission's work.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we wish you all the best in meeting these great needs in Ukraine.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: My thanks to everybody listening for all your prayers.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the victory is Christ's, and his resurrection power transcends all of this.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how his victory is going to look, is going to come through and rise to the top of this, but I know it will.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: That is the hope.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: And thank you so much again for your time this evening.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: God bless.