We have another round of field stories from Ukraine to share. These stories are heavy but important: our brothers and sisters need our love and support.
Anna’s Story:
“At first, it was a shame to pee in a jar in the basement with strangers. Because there were explosions upstairs and outside. And the choice was between dignity and life. It was a shame when Makar vomited into the hood (nothing else was at hand) for forty hours on the bus. The choice was between sitting in stinky clothes on the bus or going on the road in a foreign country and staying on the street. It was a shame to go into the house and take off my shoes. Thirteen people did not take off their shoes for many days. The choice was between saying SORRY or staying asleep on the street. Finally, I agreed to be disgusting. And then we washed our clothes. We went to the shower. We washed the socks in the toilet and threw away the jacket hood. These things did not make us unworthy, bad, disgusting, or second-rate. We did not stay dirty, no matter what we did to survive. It’s over. We will wash our bodies and souls. And we will never remember in our conversations how we peed in a jar in the presence of each other. I promise. We will wash everything: basement dust, the smell of dirty linen, blood, sweat. I feel ashamed that not everyone was saved…I constantly repeated, “If I die, I won’t smell better.” It helped me to survive.”
Family Story From Mariupol:
“For the first four days of the war, my mother and I were in our apartment…And it was then that to our aid came our old friends, with whom we went to our church for almost 25 years. On February 28, they refused to leave the city with their children because they did not want to abandon us, so they took my mother and me from our apartment on the 8th floor to their apartment on the 1st floor of a neighboring building…We had to walk on the streets broken by shells and covered with debris, under explosions, with my mother in a wheelchair, past completely destroyed, burned houses, killed citizens, and unexploded grenades…Finally, we are in good, albeit temporary circumstances with housing, food, and basic necessities…Simply put, we can feel like free people.”
We are partnering with Christians on the ground. This support goes to churches and seminaries so they can provide food, temporary shelter, and means of transportation for displaced people, especially high-risk families who had to leave loved ones behind. ALL net proceeds from this relief fund go directly to the people of Ukraine.
