Denise on a Mission
serving the women and children in Ukraine
Committed to bringing hope through God's word offering a choice for tomorrow
Prayer needs
Resources for projects that will benefit the well-being of refugee families staying in shelters.
Partners willing to work with churches and community centers, either in person or from the USA which are located throughout Ukraine.
Contact:
disgraceundone4u@gmail.com
Newsletter
Ministry to Ukraine
My mission trip to Poland (2022) was to work with refugees from Ukraine. I arrived in Warsaw, Poland at the Modlinska Humanitarian Center managed by director Krzysztof Szczesny. The refugee center, originally an exposition center, was sheltering close to 2,000 people, mainly women and children. The few men sheltered at Modlinska were generally older or were men allowed to leave Ukraine because they had three or more children.
My trip to the Modlinska Humanitarian Center as a Chaplain to women and children was to share the hope in God’s word through the Isaiah 54 ministry and to construct a chapel in the center. At first glance, the condition of the people was saddening and most had no direction, they had nowhere to go, and they didn’t know whether they would see their friends or families again. They didn’t know if their loved ones were alive and most just wanted to go home.
After realizing the war would not end as quickly as some assumed, the director of the center began to develop a relocation program. Countries such as Canada, Germany, and Japan opened their borders to receive refugees. People were able to make applications to relocate. Some understood it was an opportunity to start over again. Most just wanted to go back to Ukraine.
Second trip
I went back to Warsaw from December 28, 2022, to January 3, 2023, with Americans for Ukraine, a newly formed 501c3 based in New York City. The organization set the relocation programs in motion and added an employment and education program for people who wanted to stay in Poland. It developed classrooms for children to attend school, and a clinic to serve the sick. I saw more and more people turning to God for comfort, support, and answers, as they continued to struggle through the uncertainty of their future. While I attended a Ukrainian Prayer Breakfast, held February 3, 2023, in Washington, DC, I learned the war killed 923 children thus far.
Third Trip
I began visiting the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Church in Vineland (February 2023). After connecting with the Vineland church, I was introduced to Pastor Ioan Ustenko of the Regeneration Church, Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. Meeting the pastor and his wife, Olga, in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, I was taken to their home, where I met their five children. In Warsaw, we met with Pastor Lanny from the First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Georgia. After a direct flight to Warsaw, we boarded a train from Warsaw to Lutsk, Ukraine, and then from Lutsk to Lviv. I was prepared to go into Ukraine. I was prepared to meet the war. I was aware that Lutsk and Lviv were not engaged in active warfare but yet there were reports of missile strikes in the area.
After the group met pastor Elisey Pronin of Disciples Church in Lviv, we were joined by a driver who stayed with us for the rest of the trip through Ukraine. In Lviv, we visited the Disciples Church and met the pastor’s wife Oksana and the group took a tour of Lviv. Lviv is a beautiful city, and efforts had been made to protect stained glass windows in churches and statues in the public squares. We met with their discipleship team and I facilitated a women’s bible study.
We toured a building next to the church which was donated and renovated to accommodate 1,400 refugees. Programs included - developing employment placement programs, sewing and cooking classes for women, and the construction trades for men. They also held art therapy sessions.
The next stop was the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in Lviv, where we were introduced to 1,200 students who came from all across Europe. Then on to the Hosanna Church, we met Pastor Dmitro and his wife Olya, who is the director of the Center for Save a Life International. Pastor Dmitro took us to the “Tin Box City” in suburban Lviv, which is a project developed in partnership between Poland and Ukraine. Poland bought 1,400 shipping container homes as a gift to Ukraine and the city of Lviv provided the land. People living there were considered “internally displaced people” (IDP) from the east of Ukraine who decided to stay in Ukraine and who traveled to Lviv from Mariupol in the Donetsk region, which was occupied by Russia. The pastor of Hosannah Church and the Lviv city council oversees the operation of Tin Box City.
We continued on to the city of Rivne. There we met with a military chaplain’s ministry and met with the chaplain in command and the church pastor, Jerelo Zhitya. These chaplains have taken care of many people in their village and the surrounding villages because most of their men have been sent to the front line. They provide food and money to the families because without the presence of the men, no one is working and nothing is being done — the women and their families wait for them to return.
In addition to providing for families, the chaplains make trips to the front lines, bringing supplies to the Ukrainian soldiers. The women who remained behind have been making bulletproof vests and sewing military uniforms. While in Rivne, we met with military chaplain Lt. Col. (retired) Vasily Khimich, president of the Military Christian Fellowship of Ukraine. We visited the chaplain’s home where he and his wife take care of 30 widows at a time (about 130 in all) and their children.
This war was inflicted on them. Russia invaded Ukraine when most people were going about their normal daily lives, and the Russians dropped bombs on homes, schools, and hospitals, and their lives were turned upside down. Some have been displaced since 2014, and there is no social safety net or survivor’s benefits. A widow is at the mercy of her family — if she has a family, They would meet in groups of 30 each month, have dinner together, provide personal care items and provide spiritual encouragement. Most Ukrainian war widows remain unsheltered and have doubled up with other people or live in shelters. Pastor Khimich tries to stay connected with them. Being a chaplain this was a sincere moment for me. I saw a great need, but also I evidenced the outpouring of love through this ministry.
After visiting the widows' ministry we drove to Kyiv, where we met the leaders of the Ukrainian Baptist Union we discussed opportunities Americans for Ukraine have for people living in communities ravaged by the war; to provide humanitarian supplies, educational material, documentation recovery program, relocation programs, and other resources. We also toured Kyiv, on Sunday, February 19, the day before Pres. Joe Biden arrived in Kyiv. Kyiv is another beautiful city, very metropolitan, which also carried the marks of war. There was a large sign posted outside a government building reading, “World Help Us.”
Most people didn’t have the time to evacuate. They left with the clothes on their backs and with their children tucked under their arms. Most of the elderly stayed. They were not physically able to make the trip.
The churches in Ukraine have responded to the displaced people in an extreme act of sacrifice as I have never seen or experienced before, some churches gave all they had because they had no choice, and some gave all that they had by choice. What they gave was different but they gave their time, love, life-saving resources, and money. The churches that received refugees depleted their building fund accounts using the money to buy food, personal care items, and clothing for the refugees who came to their buildings.
The churches in western Ukraine opened up their doors and allowed the refugees to sleep there. Church members brought extra mattresses, pillows, and blankets from their homes for people to be more comfortable sleeping on the floor. February in Ukraine is very cold sometimes dipping to -20 degrees. The government was rationing the utilities and electricity was sporadic. Metal drums for burning wood were scattered all around town for the people outside to warm themselves and cook.
I saw the churches respond in such a sacrificial way, they took the time to minister personally, and individually to people. One particular church was in Cherniv, which was 200 kilometers south of Belarus. The ride to Cherniv was probably the most trying time of the trip. It was very dark and the road was terrible, filled with potholes, so we couldn’t drive more than 15 to 20 mph. It was a desolate area with no other cars for miles. Checkpoints were many as we got closer to Belarus. Although they were Ukrainian soldiers at every checkpoint it was still very intense. The soldiers took passports to record the information and looked into every vehicle with flashlights. At the last checkpoint, we were detained for about 20 minutes while the soldiers checked our passports. I wasn’t afraid. I thought this was an opportunity to share the gospel. I was thankful I had my Bible on my lap praying about what I had seen and experienced, keeping focused on God and the ministry. I will always remember the smell of burning electrical wire and scorched metal which was always in the air. Packs of dogs were wandering, running after cars, or after people walking by, looking for food. I saw a woman carrying a bag into a little park and she took something out of the bag to feed the dogs, which was received with wagging tails.
From there they went north into Poltova where we found a church being run like a hotel with a meeting area. There we were given breakfast and met Pastor Sasha, whose church was helping 350 refugees, most of whom had come from Kerchov. The church provided humanitarian aid and set up a school. The church helped people get connected online. The chaplains went to the front lines carrying food, clothing, medical supplies, and blankets to the people and to the military.
During this time, since the church was opened, they saw 300 baptisms in the church, 80% were refugees. The women from the church, the elders’ wives were providing food and doing the laundry for people; washing everything by hand because there was no electricity.
We stayed overnight then in the morning went on to Dnipro. There we saw bombed-out apartment buildings. The group was told as the Russians were leaving these areas they fired their machine guns randomly at fences, houses, or buildings, we saw entire areas sprayed with bullets.
From there we made our way back to Kyiv, boarded a train to Warsaw for the return trip to the United States.
My Fourth Trip
Although the war continues on in Ukraine, my next trip is planned for late September. My mission will continue as I minister to women through the Isaiah 54 ministry. The team is also scoping out locations to create Lifestations in several location throughout Ukraine. These stations will provide much needed support to churches and community centers working with refugees.
Locations to visit:
- Lviv
- Ivano-Frankvs’k
- Kyiv
- Kryvyi Rih