SPEAKER_03 0:00

Christians doing it's it's one way for us to show people we are not here to take advantage of them. Our church is not here to get people's money, you know, to brainwash their kids or you know, whatever the stereotypes may be, but we are really here to serve. People see the Protestant church or our church in in this particular case, and in many ways, much more so than the Orthodox Church or some of the more traditional churches in Ukraine stepping up in the face of this horrible war in Ukraine and saying, hey, you know what the church is um about loving people, showing Christ's love, and helping to meet people's needs. And so people begin to see us in a different light.

David Nakhla 0:40

Welcome to the Reformed Deacon, a casual conversation with topics specifically designed to help local Reformed Deacons. There are nearly a thousand deacons in the OPC alone, so let's take this opportunity to learn from and encourage one another. We're so glad you could join us. Let's jump into our next episode. Hi, my name is David Nokla. I serve as the administrator for the OPC's Committee on Diaconal Ministries. Today on the Reformed Deacon, we'll be talking with OPC missionary hero Hackabird and his colleague and fellow missionary in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, Doug Shepard. Also joining us is Ruslin, who is serving as the manager of the warehouse for Crates for Ukraine this past year and a half or so. And I've invited Trish Dugan to come out from behind the scenes. She's our producer of this podcast and uh has been very involved with Craze for Ukraine. So I've asked her to also join in the conversation. I was blessed to be able to visit Ukraine in March when the Lord opened away for a short visit. And then I saw Hiro and Anya briefly at the OPC's General Assembly in June. So it's wonderful to see them again. Many of you are already familiar with Craze for Ukraine, a ministry that enables U.S. churches to provide much needed humanitarian aid to Ukraine via the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ukraine. The OPC was privileged to be a part of this effort back in early spring of this year, and we've once again been invited by the PCA to participate in this next iteration. We're privileged to partner in this effort with our brothers and sisters in the PCA as a cup of cold water in the name of Christ offered to those who are suffering through this terrible war, which has been going on now in this active phase for more than 500 days, almost 19 months. So I'd like to welcome Hero and Doug and Rooslan. Uh, thanks. Thanks for joining me.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you.

David Nakhla 2:42

So the war continues, and we thought it'd be helpful for listeners to hear directly from you guys about life in Ukraine, certainly promoting the Crates for Ukraine effort, talking to us a little bit about your family, that type of thing. So maybe we can start with you, Hero, as an OPC missionary, familiar name and face to many of our listeners. And certainly, I know that they were really blessed by the video that MTW put together featuring you back earlier in this year. That was really a great blessing to many. So maybe you can just give a brief update on how you and your family are doing.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Yeah, thank you, David. Um, we're doing well. We're glad to be back in Lviv after being in the States for a short time this summer. Christian's back in school, eighth grade, sometimes enjoying that. Anya is staying very busy with different responsibilities. Juliette has transferred to Biola University in LA, and she's loving that. And uh at church, we're getting back into the new semester, you know, fall things starting up again, Bible studies and so on. So on that front, we're doing well. Anya's parents have been living with us. Um, and it's great that we can still offer our home to them. We don't know what the future holds for them as far as moving back to the south where they're from. But we're happy that we can have them in our home as long as it takes. And uh, yeah, being in Lviv as far as the war is concerned, is for the most part calm. Life goes on here. Many people here, and we're very happy about that, that life is calm and keeps going in in Lviv, in spite of the horrendous things happening in other parts of Ukraine.

David Nakhla 4:29

And can you reflect a little bit about uh how the church is doing and you know, maybe a little high-level sense of how it's changed and transitioned over the since the war began?

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Yeah. Uh the church is doing very well. Our church has grown since the war started. We have lost some members who have moved out of the country, but for the most part, even many of the people who left at the very beginning of the war, when things were so uncertain, people have come back. And then we have uh integrated people from other, mostly other churches over across Ukraine who have moved to Lviv. So especially from Kharkiv in the far east, very close to Russia, but also from Kyiv, some people from the south of Ukraine have moved to Lviv, um, mostly church members, but also people who are friends or relatives of church members, and some people who have come to faith because of the war, because of coming to Lviv and being a part of our church for various reasons. So it actually has been, as far as that's concerned, it has been a very, I hesitate to use the word, but it's been an exciting time in the church itself, in that many people are becoming a part of the church, uh, people with you know new gifts and uh experiences, and then also seeing people coming to faith, you know, the Lord has really been working through this war in our congregation as well. And um, there's a great spirit in the church.

David Nakhla 6:00

That's great. Would you mind maybe introducing a little bit the rest of the MTW team in Lviv and specifically uh Doug, as he's on the call with us, may not be as familiar to our listeners. Be nice when you introduce Doug, though.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

I will do my best. Uh yeah, Doug Shepard is our team leader, Mission to the World team leader here in Lviv. He's also an ordained minister and one of the three ordained men on our team involved in our church plant. Um, I met Doug in 1996. So that's I guess almost 30 years ago. Well um, longer than I've been married, back in Odessa, when I went on a short-term trip, and I was just interested in mission work in Ukraine. And Doug was leading the internship back then, called the Odessa Project in 1996. So we go way back. Um, and it's been a great experience throughout the years to have our friendship grow and also to work together here in Lviv. So um, yeah, Doug is also heading up uh Crates for Ukraine. He is really the mastermind behind it, and so uh lots, lots of things to talk about with him there. Uh, he's married to Vasha, his wife, who's from Odessa. They have uh three kids, all teenagers. And um, yeah, they've been here for as long as we have, you know, we've started this work together in Lviv. So many, many great experiences together and lots, lots of things to talk about. And we also have John and Olia Powell. Um, John was recently ordained after finishing Covenant Seminary, but he moved to Lviv in 2009 as an 11-month, I think, or nine-month intern, and that internship is still going. Well, of course, there's not an internship anymore, but he's now, you know, they have been full-fledged members of our team for a long time. And Olia is also from Odessa in the south. Uh, so it's wonderful to have them here currently working with um Leopolis, our student ministry, uh, really kind of restarting that ministry after COVID and the war. Um, so a lot of work to be done there, but they're doing a great job with that. Then we also have um a young man, Andrew Shepherd. Um, so these are all MTW team members. Andrew Shepard, who um is he also came through an internship several years ago, uh, but is currently working with the teenagers in our church and trying to broaden that to kids outside of the church as well. And then uh we also have a teammate, um, Virginia. Uh, she works uh with John in the student ministry and uh focuses on discipleship with women. And she also helps with Quase for Ukraine doing some of the um more technical aspects of it related to um IT, uh, since she has a background and experience in that as well. And then we have team members in the States as well. We have Bradley and Sarah Cordell, they work here with Bethesda and Laviv. Um Bradley has been doing um you know a lot of work that Doug can tell you more about uh crates for Ukraine being in the United States. He is like uh we've oftentimes called him a superdeacon, you know, he's a deacon on stairways. Whatever you need to get done, Bradley will do it and he'll do an amazing job. Um, and then we also have um another family getting ready to join us, Clark and uh Christian Norton and their three children. He's finishing up at Covenant and he wants to focus on uh counseling ministry when they move back here to Lviv. He they have also been in Lviv for a long time. She's from here. Um, so yeah, a large team were always in transitions, people are always coming and going, but uh a lot of different parts to a lot of different moving parts to to the work here in Lviv.

David Nakhla 9:53

Great. How long has the work in Lviv been going on?

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Since 2007, officially, when we moved here. You know, of course we were planning before then, but that's when you when the shepherds and our family moved here.

David Nakhla 10:05

So, Doug, how did Hero do?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Oh, he's incredible, like everything he does with excellence and precision.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

I was hoping I didn't miss anybody.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

I was hoping you wouldn't miss a team member. I mean, you can't come back from that. So he did well.

David Nakhla 10:21

Yeah. So we actually have uh somebody else on the call, uh, Doug, and maybe you can introduce uh Ruslan.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Right. This is uh Ruslan, um who uh first came to the church through I I think it might have been the university ministry, and was very interested in growing in the Lord and learning how to serve. He has a lot of different diaconal gifts, natural diaconal gifts and a lot of uh energy. So he became an intern in the university ministry, kind of like an RUF intern uh in the in the state model. And so he was uh he was doing that, um, has joined the church, and then in the middle of the the invasion, we just things pivoted. And so he moved from the student ministry. I asked him to work in the aid on the aid committee. And then as we were adapting and responding to the ongoing crisis, this led to to be the aid warehouse manager for Crates for Ukraine. So um now he's responsible for the inventory, uh, for the the sorting, the managing people that come to volunteer, and then working with the aid team to discern sites of where these go on the front, um, and then doing all the logistics to make sure that they get there. And then so he works on a uh a smaller team of people in the church that that helped process the aid, not only from crates, but also things that maybe you're purchased locally or in Europe. So Ruslan just got married about a month ago. Oh, great. So I just want to say thanks to the OPC because your ongoing support of Crates for Ukraine finally led to Ruslan getting a wife. So uh there was people that that evacuated from the east. Um, his wife, who's originally from Crimea, had already evacuated from Crimea in the early days, and then she came out, she's in the middle of medical school and ended up having to evacuate to Lviv. And so she was a key volunteer because she was working through our medical aid that was coming in and sorting it and trying to figure out what it was in Ukraine and how to how to work with the aid team to get that forward. And so that was a very good working relationship that we had, but she had an even better working relationship with with Rooslan. So they got married a month ago, and now he he definitely married above himself. So that's what Hero and I taught him. And uh so now he's he's here on the call and busy with a lot of aid. We have a little bit of an operational pause as we're waiting for this next wave of crates to come in, but there's a lot of work that we're doing now to get ready.

David Nakhla 12:54

That's great. That's great. Yeah, super. Doug, can you talk a little bit about the origination of crates for Ukraine? Like, where did this idea come from and how and how has it kind of morphed and bring us kind of to the present?

SPEAKER_00 13:08

As the the Russian buildup was happening, I mean, the war is not new. It started in 2014. So some of this we uh to a small degree, uh, we thought we knew what might happen. But as the buildup was happening of Russian troops on the border, the church decided to have an aid team that would try and prepare the church for how we would receive people when they came in from the east. And we didn't really know what we were doing. We took a uh an aid manual from the Dominican Republic. It was a typhoon management manual or something. Wow. And so we took it. Obviously, we weren't gonna have our police force, we weren't gonna have all kinds of stuff, but we were trying to figure out how do we use the church, and the whole church was involved in this to how do we use our facilities, the missionary team, how do we use our offices? What are we gonna do with our houses if people come? And we can't help everything. So what do we do? And trying to think those thoughts before the crisis hit. And so we had a small aid team, um, people that were set up for communications, and we figured we'd help people get to Lviv and we'd help get them further west if they wanted to. And then when the crisis hit, some members of the aid team ended up evacuating to Krakow, where we have a church plant. Hero uh and I have been working for years with a former intern, Slashkoorganism with Dino. So he had a church plant in Krakow that Hero would travel often and do sacraments and do all kinds of stuff there. So we did we had our people that were kind of displaced to Krakow. And then as things elevated and it got really bad at the first, for at least for my sake, we had people in the house that were so traumatized that we were questioning like, what are we going to do with our kids? Because we we couldn't filter the message, we couldn't have a lot of control. So we evacuated our family and a few others from the team to Krakow as well. And so basically we had a we had one team in two cities, but by God's providence, we had our aid team in Krakow as well as Lviv. And so we were getting women and children out because men could not leave the country. So as churches and people heard about us, we would help get the women over to Krakow. And then naturally we would be running aid back into L'Vivre and getting it back to the churches. And so that is really what set us up to ask the questions how do we I mean, we're not big, we're Barney Fife, we got one bullet, but what are we supposed to do? And the American church was responding overwhelmingly, obviously, with um not only compassion, but with foresight, trying to figure out how are we going to be helpful rather than be just busy. And that had conversations of let's take the the most needed items that we're getting requests for from the churches and figure out what are those items that we can get in North America the cheapest and a bulk and try and get those quickly to them. And so that the first iteration was we would get these crates and fly them to Krakow. And we would people volunteer to fly them over. We had no customs, and so we would take them out of the airport, put them in a put them in our office, and then we would drive them into Lviv where it would go to Rouslan and the church here, and then it would be sorted and then sent on to the front. So, because of our ecclesiology, we had a natural network across the entire country. And because of the ecclesiology and trust, we had a whole network in the US of the OPC and the PCA that were saying, how do we respond? And so we didn't know if it would work, but that's how we that's how we managed it. Because if you don't, we figured out if you don't tell people what to send, then they're gonna send the oranges and vegan cat food and like you're you're doing something else. It's all well intentioned uh and well-meaning, but that was our attempt to get in front of it. And so that first iteration of crates was about 1300 crates, um, with probably around um, I don't know what it was, a million and a half dollars. I don't know the the value's hard because we had so many other weird things coming in medical. But that's how it started with the first iteration, and as we moved to winter, we solved the problem of flying over and we were able to just use air freight because our crate system fit very good in both the cargo and passenger air freight. And so that was the second iteration to hit the winter, which was horrible. So that that leads us to the the next one, which is sadly due to the last NATO meeting that happened, that's what we were waiting for. And now it looks like this thing's gonna go on, and so the aid need is going up, and that's why we're attempting to see what the Lord wants to do. Maybe this doesn't work, but we have trying to figure out how is God going to take care of his people by using his people in his name, changing the iterations to get more efficient, um, and to help the churches in Ukraine respond well uh while taking advantage of the churches that praying and giving in North America.

David Nakhla 18:03

Okay, so and uh that's that's great. And so for those who are just hearing, they're listening to this, this is the first time they're hearing about this. Where do they go to find out what they need to know? And kind of can you talk a little bit about what's even in these crates?

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, sure. Cratesfor Ukraine.com, it's it only does this thing. Just to be clear, what it is, is you go on and there is a list of items. There's three types of crates. You get a list, you buy those specific items that have been requested, and they're links. You buy them, you stick them in a crate. There's a video that shows you how to pack it, and then you get it to one of our local drop points around the United States. And we take the responsibility there to make sure that it gets to one of our warehouses in the states, we get it over to Lviv, and then we distribute it through the churches in Ukraine or to the displaced communities. So it's very streamlined now. There's no cash involved. You buy the product, you stick it in a box. It gets to Rusalon and Lviv, the church in Lviv sorts it and then we send it on to further churches. And then we have at crates4ucrine.com, you can see a map where we tag every item where it lands, not necessarily with faces or names, but we track the aid from your hands all the way to their hands. And so you can see the distribution and it stays local. It stays among our volunteers, our churches, all official stuff. So it's as transparent and as grassroots-y as it can be. So Crates for Ukraine lets you know where it is. Step one, you sign up. Uh the unique thing about it is churches can use this any way they want to further their local mission. So this can be youth groups, this can be the there's a there's a group in Tulsa that's got an owls group. I think that's the elderly people. They call them the owls. So it's we've seen the the old to the young and everything between, and they gather to raise money for it, to pack the crates. Or churches use this in some towns, churches that aren't just Presbyterian. So all the churches in a small town will send their goods as they buy them to one church, they pack them up. So it has an infinite way it can be used locally to advance God's mission, but also it helps people pray and be aware of how their brothers and sisters in Christ in Ukraine are struggling and how they can help. It's a very sobering task, but it's a very important one because those same hands that are praying are receiving those uh here in Ukraine and passing it on. Two, we don't know who the people are necessarily, but we're praying that God use it and we trust that God will use it to reach his people and to make his name great.

David Nakhla 20:44

Is this a limited time offering?

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Right. What we've done is we've launched it where you can register and pack your crates and get them to a local drop point right up till Thanksgiving, because we found that after Thanksgiving, you know, poof, you know, there you go. So until November 21, you sign up, uh, you register, you can get those to the local drop point. If there's any problems whatsoever, our team of Bradley, that there's a very small US ops team, but they're massively efficient, will help you figure out how to get your crates where they need. There's a massive frequently asked questions list there that's very helpful. There are videos that explain both in Ukraine the people that are requesting it, uh, but also step-by-step process. So I just tested this third iteration with my dad, who's 80. He was able to go on, purchase everything, including the crate, all delivered within three to five days, packs it up, follows the instructions. And now my dad's pretty sharp. So I'll give it to you, Dad. But yeah, it's easy to follow on this iteration.

David Nakhla 21:46

Uh Ruslan, uh, it was great to meet you uh in March and Lviv. Why don't you talk a little bit about how did you get involved with this?

SPEAKER_04 21:56

I I meant this full invasion as uh our student. Campus ministry, the Apolis, um as an intern. I had I also had a broken leg, so I just was in my bed like all the time. I couldn't walk at that time. But I tried to do my best to go to the church as soon as possible. And also, as Douglas mentioned, from early beginning, we tr we started to doing something to getting stuff from Poland, receiving medical supplies and food from churches in the States, in Europe. So I started helping with that on my crutches. It was a lot of fun. So doing all of this, um obviously our campus ministry was in a difficult position because of students wasn't in a city anymore. Almost all of them moved to the their villages or far to the west, to the Poland, it was evocated. So we had just smaller groups, and I have a lot of a lot of time to help with aid. So I spent a lot of time sorting aid, then I started looking for contacts. I started working on the logistics side of this ministry. So that's how I started being involved. And then I was I I was asked to be a warehouse manager to manage all the logistics sorting nights and all of that.

David Nakhla 23:28

How many crates have come through the warehouse in your time there?

SPEAKER_04 23:32

You mean in general?

David Nakhla 23:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 23:35

In general, it's uh it's around 2700 already. Probably more, more than 2700.

David Nakhla 23:45

When did you get started with this, Ruslan?

SPEAKER_04 23:48

Uh with managing warehouse and all of that, you mean uh so that's more than basically from first Crates for Ukraine project. I officially started doing that.

David Nakhla 24:00

Can you share any stories of just how it's impacted you as you've seen the types of things coming through? And you're you're receiving messages back also from the field where those are coming. Can you just share maybe some of the stories that have impacted you as you've served in God's kingdom in this way? Yeah, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

I'll be happy to. Um, yeah, generally, yeah, it's just a pleasure to hear all of those stories, to hear how to God's working in people's lives through this aid, through our church, through this ministry, because we heard many stories how people was they were so so happy, so glad to receive the aid, to receive this from the church. Um there is one really interesting story uh about the woman from the occupied Melitopol, that's a city on uh on the south of Ukraine. So we received through our church contact, we received uh a request for the aid in an occupied city melitopol. And there was volunteers who was who was willing to try to get this aid to Malitopol. It was really, really dangerous. Um, I still don't know how they did it. So that through the fields um super dangerous. So they got there, um and I was we we were not able to hear from that woman, and we thought that maybe something happened with her. They did not receive anything. We just lose her contact. It was really sad for us. But then several months after uh I'm just running around the city doing all kinds of stuff, and um one of church members calling me and saying that there is a woman in a church who wants to talk with me. I obviously didn't know who that, so I came to the church, and there was that woman from Manitopoli, and she said, I was so impressed that you you gave this this a to me, to my group in Manitopol, um like with not requiring something from them. She was so impressed, and she said, when I will at that moment when when she still was at this occupied city in Manitopol, she thought, well, as soon as I will get out of here, I will find that church. And obviously, we because of many problems, what she had, she losed our contact, like straight contact information. But all the all the aid has a sticker with church information, uh, with our Krainebo publishing house. Yep, so people can use all of that information. So she found uh our address through internet. So she came, she came to the church, and she just she was so so thankful to us. She she was thankful to God for this aid, for us, for our for our ministry. So she just as soon as she got to leave, because she was not really able to stay in Melitopolis, so she tried to get out and she was able to, so she came to leave and she found us, and she just wanted to say thank you. Oh, and also she brings some candies. Okay, yeah, so that that's uh those candies was really good. Wow, and we still helping her group because she was evocated where with her group from Manitopol to Zaporizhia, and now they have a small refugee center over there, so we're still supplying them, and uh, we are able to hear stories from her, and she always sharing about the church with the people who are receiving the aid. So that's uh that's one of the stories so it's really impacted. Impacted me, that's right. Because I obviously didn't expect someone to all of like all of this road all the way through to the leave, just find the information online somewhere. Like she losed that our straight contact number. Yeah, wanted to find us.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Women in these displaced communities or families or children that don't have the vitamins, you might not have the adult diapers. There's all kinds of different things that are needed, and those crates have those three different categories. And so Rooslan has a way to kind of strategically work with whatever the needs are. So you're looking at tourniquets and chest room seals and all kinds of really uh important but costly stuff. You have basic a medical crate, and then you have a basic care crate. So either hygiene stuff all the way over to some medicines that you would need. And whenever you go on, you can pick which type of crate you want to give or do one of each, and it's all listed there.

David Nakhla 28:52

So yep, that's good. Ukraine is a big country. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ukraine is a very small church, right? In amongst millions of people. And yet, through this ministry, the publishing house, the websites of the church is being disseminated far and wide in places and ways that would never have happened under normal circumstances. Hero, maybe you could talk a little bit about the intentionality with respect to the connection of word and deed.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

An uphill battle trying to share the gospel with people because many people are suspicious of us off the bat because we are American Christians. And just in the Orthodox context that we generally have in Ukraine, there's just been a lot of propaganda, um, Russian propaganda as well against Protestants. A lot of it has come from the Russian church out of Moscow. Um, so yeah, people have a hard time distinguish distinguishing us from Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons. So, what Christians is doing, it's it's one way for us to show people we are not here to take advantage of them. Our church is not here to get people's money, you know, to brainwash their kids or you know, whatever the stereotypes may be, but we are really here to serve. And so people see the Protestant church or our church in in this particular case, and in many ways, much more so than the Orthodox Church or some of the more traditional churches in Ukraine stepping up in the face of this horrible war in Ukraine and saying, hey, you know what the church is um about loving people, showing Christ's love and helping to meet people's needs. And so people begin to see us in a different light. Like Ruslan has said, we have you know the contact information for our church on the boxes, in particular our website. And we've we've seen, I know I can't say exactly what is the cause of all this, but since the war started, and especially actually since uh there's a connection in the statistics, since crates started last June, we've seen a significant uptick in the number of people watching our services online. I don't know where all these people are, but you know, the the word is getting out, and we've also seen an uptick um in people ordering the books from the publishing house, um, also in in those areas. We can say for sure in those areas. So, you know, there has been a significant connection between people getting the aid and then showing interest themselves to learn more and um having thankfully they have the opportunity to to learn more about what our church is about and to learn about Christ, the source of of this love, of this physical love that they can experience and see.

David Nakhla 31:38

That's great. Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

Yeah.

David Nakhla 31:41

Well, this has been helpful. Is there is there anything that any of you would like to add that uh you know that you were hoping to talk about uh to those who might hear this?

SPEAKER_03 31:54

I I can just add briefly um along the lines of word and deed, that uh you mentioned that our denomination is a small denomination, but we want to keep growing, and we are greatly in need of more church planting. There are many different parts of that. You know, one of that is one important part is having more men who can go out and be church planters, but another part of that too is preparing the ground for it. And so uh we do pray all the time that the Lord will use crates for Ukraine to prepare the ground in parts of the country where we do not have churches or in those places where we do have churches, you know, so that you know, people God uses tragic events like like this war to prepare people's hearts, to work in people's hearts. And the church needs to be there to follow up on that. And so we hope that we can follow up with church planting as well as just the churches that are there, perhaps during, but especially after the war.

David Nakhla 32:47

Yeah, it's actually it's exciting to think about, you know, there's a lot of seeds being scattered at this time, and probably little ability to really follow up, particularly from a church planning standpoint. But it's it's kind of exciting to think about maybe the next five, 10 years past the war, to be able to look back and say, you know, those seeds were planted even through something like Craze for Ukraine that started these churches now that we see developing, you know, in the next decade or so. That's kind of a a hopeful perspective.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

Yeah, it's it's it's a huge opportunity. You know, the war, the tragedy, it creates huge opportunity as well.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah. You know, there's so much tragedy and loss, but at the same time, you know, we believe that God is going to advance all things for his glory and for our good. And first, it's thanks to the OPC for your response because the aid that you give is not just the aid that lands in the final hands. The church across Ukraine gets to receive that aid from you, from brothers and sisters in Christ. They get to repack it and they get to help their countrymen. That value or that is not included, but that we have seen that be a big part of the encouragement of the church in very dark times with no end in sight. The other part of that is people who would never come to a church. Humanitarian aid is something that everyone wants to be involved in. So we have people that are bringing their kids. We have neighbors, I have a couple from my kids' school. They want to come and they want to sort. We can't go to the front and defend the families, all of us. So they want to do something. And so this tangible way to be involved, and that has people involved in the community, the gospel community. So we are seeing a lot of conversations in the darkest of times about the only light and hope we have in the midst of this process. And Rouslan is able to talk with the volunteers that we work with. There's a lot of people that are doing work, but there's professional level, very organized people that we're developing relationships with. They may or may not be believers, but they're willing to drive and get things to a point. So those relationships are carrying on as well. And so we are in a position to have conversations about the hope that we have with people that we would have never had an opportunity for before. So the Ukrainian church, which is as my way of ending it, at least for me, the Ukrainian church is making a request. And that's what's very unique. And they're saying that please provide these things if you can. And then we're able to get those to the church. And they, in the name of Christ, can be be very wise on how they do it, how this is this is preparing the way, and how they can follow this up with gospel communities later. So it's a it's another way God has graciously allowed us to participate and and created some opportunities that we couldn't have planned. So I want to thank the OPC for that.

David Nakhla 35:53

Oh, that's well, that's well said. It seems there's opportunity on top of opportunity on top of opportunity. It's not just not just these items that are going, but it's all the relationships. I think about the whole network of relationships you guys have to had to establish, even to deliver stuff to get it to the churches. You have to have delivery people who, you know, some people are in the church, they're not, you know, but these are all trust relationships that are developing that who knows again how the Lord's going to use those in the years ahead. So that's that's really, really encouraging and uh hopefully. Absolutely. Yeah. Trish, did you have any questions of of anything that even logistically or anything that uh we might not have covered?

SPEAKER_01 36:37

One of the things that came up in the last iteration, there were a few people who had asked about being able to send notes of encouragement. Um, I saw one church actually had kids who were coloring some notes, which was super cute. And I know that was somewhat discouraged last time, but I've read in the material this time that that maybe is something they could do and send to Cindy. Did I understand that right, Doug?

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Yes. Yeah, the reason that we had to limit it is people were sticking all kinds of stuff in because they're like, well, it's just a small thing. If it didn't line up on our packing list as it was coming out of the States and coming across the EU, it could be problematic because it was more than paper. But whenever we get those paper things, Ruslan, we we post them up. It's a big deal. We love those. There will actually be a shorter film that will come out. I mean, a very small, like three-minute clip that'll come out with Ruslan talking about those drawings or whatever they are. So, yes, they can be done by churches, they can be sent to Cindy. We will put them up and then we can send on forward what needs to be there. But yeah, we're encouraging that to happen. And so churches can for whatever age level, and maybe maybe this is a time for for David to work on drawing, you know. I mean, I've seen some of the drawings. You can take it to another level and just include it. Maybe watercolors. I don't know.

David Nakhla 38:04

That's not in David's scope.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Maybe that's maybe that's iteration 10.

David Nakhla 38:09

Yeah.

unknown 38:10

Yeah.

David Nakhla 38:10

Unless you really wanted them to look like preschool drawings. I mean, I could definitely contribute to that.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Yeah, just put your hand in the paint and put the paint up and you do a turkey, you'll be fine.

SPEAKER_05 38:20

Just yeah, something.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Yes, we do want those. There's they're precious to us, they're encouraging to everyone that sorts. And that sorting that happens on Friday. So just to give the idea, every Friday night, whenever the crates are coming in, people know they come. And so for two hours, they're in stations packing and unpacking, and then we have a meal together. Uh, and so these are people in the church, people out of the church. Um, and so that that warehouse environment has those pictures up in different places. So please send those on.

David Nakhla 38:54

I was trying to get a sense with this iteration. Were you were you actually hoping to do less sorting because of having them more as a kit? Or do you is is it you're going to be doing the same sorting process?

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Well, the bump was to get rid of the state side problem of putting everything in Excel, and we had a different packing list for every crate.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

Right? So if we have a shipment of 208 crates, we have 200, you know, different, different collections of stuff, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And so this was something from the state side, and plus the people that are the most aggressive, positively aggressive and overflowing with this desire to help are 65 plus. And they're like, just tell us what to do.

David Nakhla 39:41

Tell us what to do.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

And so they right. So getting rid of the XL was something that helped them a lot. And we're still going to sort on our side, but it's going to make it a lot easier. And we've already had a meeting. Rousseau led a meeting talking to people about what's this going to mean and how do we get more efficient. But it was more state side of how do we make it efficient. Every crate is a little bit more valuable now. There's a little bit more control, but we also get in each crate the exact amount Rousseau was able to go through because he's an expert in this, the crate materials, and say, okay, we need 15 of those, 12 of these, 10 of these. So we're getting the right amounts in every crate. So it is a step up, both in efficiency and value and quality. So we're we're excited about that. I don't like the loss of the flexibility. Yeah, but we got two people in the US that are US ops trying to pull this thing off. And so it just really helps them and it helps people like my dad who are like, look, tell me what to do, but I don't want to break open an Excel spreadsheet and spend you know a week in there.

David Nakhla 40:44

So good, good, good.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

I also just wanted to ask Hero diaconally, every church has its own diaconal needs that just run day to day. How do you keep the momentum going and how do you keep the volunteers coming to do this distribution on top of the other diaconal needs that you have in the church?

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Well, it has not been hard. People want to be part of the war effort so much. And being in Lviv, we are not on the front lines. You know, we do not get regular attacks here. So we live in a very peaceful city. So people are very motivated to help. Yeah, we we do not have to twist any arms. People they really enjoy coming out and and uh they you know knowing that they're making a difference and helping out.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

That's great.

David Nakhla 41:43

So maybe we could uh bring this in for a landing with uh one uh maybe one item of prayer from each of you as uh people listen to this and turn it off or go home and talk about it over dinner tonight. Um what are three things that they can be praying for? And you can each contribute one if you like.

SPEAKER_04 42:04

For me, just in general, to be patient enough and to be um wise enough for everything because that there's many, many difficult decisions every day. Um so that yeah, for that and for item, I would especially pray for tourniquets because it's just literally saving lives.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Okay, Doug? Yeah, you said one thing, man. I know, I know it's hard, it's hard to pray. I'm praying for three. Yeah, my first request is for three requests, you know.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

They can have sub-requests, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:47

Right, right. Um, but I mean, if I if I'm not gonna ask for obviously the leaders of the world to be wise and to take their God-given position to uphold righteousness and for God to thwart anyone that's seeking to do evil, it would be for the the families, the families of the of the churches, uh, pastors, churches, families, et cetera, in the midst of this, because it is a dark, long tunnel. There's no light at the end of it. The light we have is Christ, and and it's everyone's traumatized. You got to get up and make it through the day, and where is our hope? And in the midst of the crisis, uh, providentially, there's not a crisis of faith in the churches that I'm aware of, but it's just exhausting. And so for the strength in Christ to carry on and to do the good works he has for us daily, and that's protect protection of marriages and families and you know, everyone that's at the end of the rope. So thank you.

David Nakhla 43:54

I like how you strategically snuck in too on that one. I like that was pretty pretty tactical.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

That was an that was an intro. I had an outro. I got three or four on the way. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

We can't stop the recording until everybody stops talking, so go for it.

David Nakhla 44:14

That's right. How about you, Hero? What would you add to that?

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Uh yeah, there's like Doug said, there's so much to ask prayers for. Uh, you know, again, stepping back, big picture with with crates in this situation, that the Lord would really use this in people's lives, that our church will be a light in all of this. That includes, you know, Ruslan's contact with people, those uh who are receiving the aid and distributing it, our other churches. That includes, you know, my sermons on Sunday, because we have people all over the place and and soldiers also watching, should always think about, you know, how should I be saying this? Because there's such a you know large audience and you don't know who all these people are. But yeah, that God would use all of this this effort uh from the US to hear as we distribute it to bring people to Christ and give people real hope. We're praying that He will use the war for that to build his church, to build his church in Ukraine and and also in our neighboring countries. Um, people people need Christ. We need we need physical peace more. Most of all, we need Christ.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

Excellent. David, at ChristforUkraine.com, there's actually a join us in prayer section. So that's my outro of things that we're praying collectively for. So um there you go.

David Nakhla 45:32

Well done. Well done. So lots of good, lots of good things to pray for, and even in the midst of those prayer requests to give the proper perspective on what you guys are going through, but also how you also acknowledge and see the bigger picture and what what God's doing through that and the role that you guys are playing, that God would have you, like Esther, at this time, at this place, to play a significant role in the towards the saving of many lives, and even eternally through uh through the witness that this is producing in this country that so so greatly needs him. Well, thank each of you for taking the time to uh meet with us even on short notice in the midst of busy days. Trish and I were certainly blessed in this time with you, and I'm sure our listeners will be also. And uh may you continue in your labors empowered in the strength of the Lord. Uh so thank you, Hero Doug Rushlon, for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Thank you, Trish. Thank you, David, thank you, OPC. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Thank you guys. Take care. All right, you too. Good talking to you.

David Nakhla 46:37

Thanks for joining us. Go to our website, thereformdeacon.org. There you will find all our episodes, program notes, and other helpful resources. And please make plans to join us again next month for another episode of the Reform Deacon podcast.