UKRAINE — Samaritan’s Purse is distributing food with help from a multitude of church partners in Ukraine to hungry refugees who have been forced to flee their homes due to ongoing violence in their region.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord He is my refuge and my fortress my God in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1

Nataliya – Samaritan’s Purse Partner:

Do you hear right now? The sound is alarming. The alarm is not just in the air here. The alarm is in every heart. It pushes a person to search because inside there is fear. Now matter how a person tries to hold it back, he is afraid. He is looking for a way to survive.

Vitaliy – Samaritan’s Purse Partner:

A large number of people left during the first days of the war but a large number of people still remained. Remaining here are those people ready to take this hit. You don’t want to hand your home over to the enemy give it to someone else. So we stayed.

Our church since the start of the war has been working to distribute food. Many people who crossed the red zone to us here at the church center opened their hearts and said they want to stay here with us. They say they just want to continue to serve such people.

Andriy – Internally Displaced Person:

The people who are here with us on this base right now, they’re also refugees. We never thought that war would come to us that we would have to leave our homes, become refugees, not see any answers ahead. But along with that we asked God where our place is at this moment. We see that God has never forsaken us.

We have never been abandoned by people who have never seen our need who have helped us. We in turn help someone else. Our goal is to show people that everything we do is thanks to the fact the Lord makes it possible for us to do so. And we testify to God with every food package.

Today we are located at the church where we are distributing food. About 1,000 people today will receive food packages. Most people here at IDPs from frontline villages, frontline cities where active combat operations are ongoing. We do this every week. And every week, apart from the people who come to the church and receive food there are others to whom we bring food personally – about 3,000 people.

Vitaliy:

Today faith works in every heart. Rightly one’s faith lives. If there is faith inside a person comes alive.

“Because thou hast made the Lord your refuge and you make the most high your dwelling no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near you. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will life you up in their hands.” 

Now we are going to the Kharkiv region. We are going into the red zone. One might say there is complete devastation due to the fact that missiles are constantly hitting, and you can say the whole infrastructure is completely broken and destroyed. I want to say that there is always these jitters. There is always fear that suddenly there will be a shelling that suddenly a missile will hit. But always we are strengthened by the word of God and hope of Jesus because if you don’t have this hope I think my human courage and that of my entire team would not be enough.

Dear Lord, we are grateful to You for the opportunity You gave us today to come to this village and bring food to come here and as a joy be some kind of answer for these people and help all these people.

There is a thirst for the Word of God, a thirst for God. It seems to me there is a lot more thirst here than in places where peace reigns and there is order.

I think in times like these, in times of upheaval people will ask God more questions within themselves with a sincere heart. There is an opportunity to cry out to God and see an answer from Him and turn to Him to repent and find that sonship or adoption. So in times of upheaval like this, I think these are perhaps the best times…perhaps I think so for the people of the nations family to draw closer to God.

My hope is only for Jesus Christ. If it wasn’t for Jesus and His hope, we would have given up a long time ago.

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Samaritan’s Purse International Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) program is committed to meeting the critical needs of victims of war, poverty, famine, disease, and natural disaster. We stand ready to respond at a moment’s notice whenever and wherever disaster strikes. The DART specializes in providing water, food, shelter, and medical care while sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

CONTACT: Kaitlyn Lahm, news@samaritan.org

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