Day 15 of Russian War Against Ukraine – It’s Hard to Find the Words.

It is hard to find words today. Yesterday Russians bombed the children’s hospital and maternity home in Mariupol. They are shooting at people who are trying to evacuate, and taking prisoners in surrounding cities. We hear there have been thousands of civilians killed in 15 days. We are hearing concerns about Russia preparing to use chemical weapon. This is nothing less than a Russian genocide of Ukraine in the 21st century.

In the meantime we continue doing what we can under such circumstances.

Currently we have 15 of our staff in the city of Zhytomyr, 3 are in villages, 2 in Western Ukraine and 23 abroad. All female staff with children have been evacuated from Zhytomyr. I am very concerned for our female staff who are remaining in Zhytomyr – and for the daily trauma they face while living under bombshells. Please pray!

We are also monitoring the needs and wellbeing of our 23 staff members abroad. They have all landed in good places, have food, and a place to sleep. Currently our staff is in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Holland, Sweden, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, France, and Spain. They all can’t wait to get back to Ukraine.

Roughly 50% of our clients have been evacuated. We continue serving the needs of the other 50% who remain – providing food, medicines and other available supplies. MTU is also helping the city with defense efforts.

Our stores are half empty now, but we still have some fresh produce coming in from Western Ukraine. We are glad we have several sources of humanitarian aid now, we are currently working on organizing our needs lists.

Dear friends, please pray for the Lord to put an end to this horrific war. Pray for the Lord to give Ukraine victory and crush the enemy. God is with us and our staff has peace, but we are all praying had and hoping this will not last long.