I trust you are well and being kept by the power of God. Please accept my apologies for not writing earlier. I have been travelling in Europe for the last two weeks encouraging our leaders and checking on the House of Hope Children all of whom are out of Ukraine (except for the three 18-year-old boys who were eligible for military conscription – I’ll tell you about them later).
Visit to Düsseldorf, Western Germany
Thank you for your very generous gifts for the homeless children of Odesa now in Düsseldorf. They are still a little lost, living away from the only home they’ve ever known – the House of Hope. At least they’re safe from the terrible war situation in Odessa.
The ministry I’ve just had in Norway, and in Düsseldorf, Germany, was very fruitful. It was very pressurised with a lot of counselling to needy people looking for answers to their overwhelming problems and horrific losses. I visited Norway to check on the availability of refugee status for the future because Germany is not taking in any more refugees – they’ve reached saturation point. However, they will allow us permission to bring refugees through Germany and then fly them from Düsseldorf to Norway. We’ve started doing that already.
The House of Hope children are very special. Thank you for taking them to heart and helping to meet their needs. It was wonderful to link up with them, share with them in small groups and encourage them. We met with them at their new temporary home provided by the Düsseldorf Messianic Jewish people (we have to pay the utilities, food, toiletries, clothing, schooling, and study equipment). They have grown up so much over the last two and a half years since I last saw them in Odesa. They seem to have “old” eyes, having seen and experienced such terrors in their young lives. They lived previously in the sewers and ghettos after they’d left abusive homes but had never seen death and destruction at close range as during this war in Ukraine. Thank you for helping us to rescue and help these youngsters.
A Simple Message of Encouragement
The fellowship meetings and services I had in Norway saw a lot of needy people, teenagers and children give their hearts to Jesus, some with copious tears.
At one meeting, a lady came and asked to talk with me. Through my interpreter, she told me that her husband had died, and she and her child had been accepted as refugees in Norway. She battled financially and had to work hard to survive, but she was still grieving. It was so emotional listening to her, and I wondered how I was going to counsel her, when she said my simple message had been just for her – as if I was talking only to her. She had been relieved of her distress although she still had some way to go to resolve the issues she was facing.
One young man who had come from Russia to Germany, wanted to go back to Russia where he thought he’d be safe with his elderly mother. She had begged him not to do that, because he’d be conscripted into the Russian army to fight Ukrainians or be shot if he refused. He could have been murdered just for having a Ukrainian residence permit. I told him to bide his time and God would elevate him to a very responsible position of counselling and helping others. He has needs that no one was meeting or knew how to meet. I said I’d help him with those needs and help him to be a genuine man of God.
More happy faces of Refugees having crossed the Border
Week after week, our drivers are working hard, driving our two big vans across the border to Moldova, full of desperate people and children wanting to escape the war in Ukraine. They are still leaving the Odesa province and travelling south-west through Romania and across Germany, through Munich to Düsseldorf. We used to get free train rides from Munich to Düsseldorf, but not anymore. The fares have become very expensive. So, we have an extra day to drive and then head back the same route – making each evacuation trip three days with rest-overs and meal-stops. With two big vans they are managing two evacuations a week – that’s 200 people a month. We’ve evacuated about 600 children and adults since the war started and want to increase that number.
They are possibly going to change their exit point from Moldova to further north into Poland. It is believed that the goal of Russia is to cut Ukraine from access to the Black Sea and make a pathway connection between Eastern Ukraine, Crimea and Odesa all the way down to Transnistria, on the Moldovan coast. Unfortunately, this makes Odesa a huge target to capture. So, we’re working on new safer routes now.
We were impressed to speed up the evacuations, and then we heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky latest message, where he said,
“200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcibly taken to Russia, including children from orphanages, children taken with their parents, and those separated from their families. He claims that 243 children have been killed so far in the war, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing. The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people but to make those were deported forget about Ukraine, and unable to return.
Ukraine cannot be conquered, people will not surrender, and our children will not become property of the occupiers.”
Please stand with us and help us to rescue many more children.
Mercy Missions to the remote Odesa villages still go on
Our budget has grown immensely, to support the needy children and families in the villages of the Odesa province. Our local teams, who have chosen to stay in Ukraine and help the poor and elderly, are busy everyday taking food, clothing, hygiene products, medicines, and Bibles to needy families – and leading them to the Lord at the same time. This includes those who stayed in the House of Hope plus those who have come to the house seeking refuge on their journey out from the country.
They are out delivering survival packs to the poor as well. If the Russians occupy the coast of the Odesa province which include the area, Vitaly, the pastor who leads the evacuation missions, has said he’ll get those that stayed behind out of Ukraine, somehow.
Plans for the House of Hope
Our leaders met with me in Düsseldorf and came up with an amazing plan to protect the House of Hope if Russian troops moved in and occupied that region. For security reasons we will not be releasing these details, in God we trust!
We installed really good equipment in the House of Hope in January, preparing to take 
many more children into the refuge. Vitaly asked if we could provide the funds for moving a lot of the equipment – fridges, washing machines and dryers, to be removed from the House of Hope and placed in secure storage most likely in another nation. We want to move on that soon.
It was also suggested that we build a high, strong fence around the property and a big security gate to keep out would-be thieves and attackers. I agreed to all of that because I did not want to see the beautiful building, created to protect children, destroyed by Russian troops or marauders.
Please pray and stand with us for these budgets:
Current Budgets for the Evacuations and House of Hope
- Future evacuations (now we know the regular costs) per month $ 11,542 (2 evacuations every week with 50 people each = 200 people
- Survival Packs – food, medicines, hygiene products & Bibles $ 13,000
- House of Hope children’s needs in Düsseldorf per month $ 6,200
- House of Hope – running costs, vehicle repairs, food for villages $ 12,300
- Protection of the House of Hope – fence, gate, concrete $ 8,390
God bless you for your wonderful support and effective prayers.