Impact Report: Ukraine (June 2022)

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The following post is written in narrative form by Pastor Gerry Michalski, Lead Pastor of Soul Sanctuary:

Soul Sanctuary has been involved in Ukraine for many years, partnering with local churches and their ministries, specifically the Ukrainian Assemblies of God. At the outbreak of the war on February 24 I contacted my friends in Ukraine, trying to ensure that they and their families were safe, encouraging them to leave for safety in a neighbouring country. The response from my friends, our partners, was clear: “We are not going anywhere. We are going to stay and be the church.” I sat in silence—stunned. This was not the statement I expected. I came to realize that our ministry partners had made the courageous decision to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the hurting world in which they now found themselves. 

Then they asked “can you help us?” Without asking for clarity, I knew exactly what this meant, they were asking for financial support. I immediately said “Yes!” Now, I didn't know where we were going to get money, or how much, or how we were going to get it to Ukraine in a middle of the war, but I made it my mission to do my best and leave the rest up to God. 

Generosity of the Soul Community and Church Partners

So, here at Soul we moved to action, I talked about it in a Sunday life lesson, we shared it on social media and eventually the word got out that we were collecting money to help in Ukraine with refugees and the needs of our ministry partners. Many people that donate to non-profit organizations often wonder where their money actually goes. The question “What percentage of my money goes towards supporting the organization’s mission as opposed to administrative costs?” often arises. At Soul we have endeavoured to ensure that 100% of your donation to Ukraine has gone towards the projects and programming of our ministry partners. That means all organizational expenses such as office, communications, and other related costs have been paid for by the Soul Sanctuary church community. 

I would have been thrilled to collect $10,000 for our ministry partners. But the night that our social media post went live donations started to roll in. The post went out on Saturday, February 26 and by the evening of Sunday, February 27 there was over $37,000 collected. By Tuesday, March 1 our total was nearing $45,000. And the donations kept coming. Our donation page was being shared and people from around the nation kept contributing. Even two young girls in south western Manitoba wanted to contribute so they made yellow and blue elastic bracelets and sold them in their community, raising $1,000.

I began to contact churches from across the nation of Canada to see if they wanted to partner with us and communities like Glad Tidings in Victoria, British Columbia, Calvary Temple in Winnipeg, Movement Church in Woodstock, Ontario all jumped in right away. Not too mention other church communities who heard on social media what we were doing and decided to send in a cheque to help with the whole process.  The word was out and people began to give. I was humbled. To date we have raised approximately $250,000. But once we received the money, we had to ask: “in the disruption brought on by political and economic turmoil, how do we get this money to where it is needed the most?”

Some folks called me and asked if they could send items like clothing and blankets, like what other organizations were doing. I mentioned that this was good to do, but they should deal directly with those organizations because we weren’t set up for that. It would have been an administrative nightmare to host a drop off zone, rent a sea can to ship the items, then to arrange for people to pick it up in Europe and then deliver it to Ukraine and finally disperse the items where needed. It was simply easier putting cash into the hands of our ministry partners and let them get what they need quickly and effectively. So that is what we did. We sent money in small increments to ensure that our ministry partners received it. Much of the cash that we sent was used to purchase food and supplies to be distributed to displaced people. 

Immediate Humanitarian Aid

We started by sending $5,000 directly into Ukraine, but soon found out that it was difficult at the time for our ministry partners to access the money as the Ukrainian government put restrictions on how much money could be withdrawn at any time. We then were able to send $20,000 through a contact in Romania and it was picked up by our ministry partners who were able to purchase supplies in Romania and truck the supplies into Ukraine. I then was able to make a connection with Pastor Adam Piatkowski of WDJ Church in Wroclaw Poland. He has been a tremendous help and his church has been helping the needs of Ukrainian refugees in his city. Pastor Adam’s church has become the key conduit for us sending money into Ukraine hassle free and they work with a network of 16 other churches who work with refugees directly in their city. The above video documents some of the early humanitarian efforts from the Ukrainian Assemblies of God in Lutsk.

Cargo Van, Trailers and Generators

One day, a request was made if we could help purchase a cargo van to help transport goods and supplies within Ukraine and as well as purchasing items in neighbouring countries and bringing them back to be dispersed. First, I asked “How much?” and the answer was $37,000. I talked with one pastor in Alberta and he said that we would give $15,000 towards the van. Well, that is a start, but I still had a long way to go. Needless to say, about a week later, as I opened my email there was a message there from another pastor in Edmonton which said “we are sending over $40,000 that we want to put into this project.” I quickly phoned him and asked if we could use most of it to purchase the truck. He said “Yes.” A special Thank You to Pastor Dennis Varty of Celebration Church and Pastor Phil Kniesel of Hope City Church and all who gave to make this request possible. 

Van for Refugee and Aid Transports

The next request was if we could also purchase a trailer with the truck to maximize effectiveness. I asked “how much” and was told they found one for $7,000. I said “Pick it up!” So they went to purchase it and when they got to the dealer it was sold. They were saddened but not defeated. I got a call that night and my friend said, “I found another trailer, it is brand new…” Then he told me that it is only $5,000. I quickly interrupted and told him to buy it. He then said “but I have one more request… I found two generators for $1,000 each, is it okay if we purchase them as well?” This was a no brainer, “of course!”

A little while later I was on a call with a group of our partners throughout Ukraine. One pastor from Kovel, a city in the north western area of the country that is approximately 70km from the Polish border, mentioned that they were looking to purchase a van to transport people and goods, they had raised money from their community, but not quite enough. I asked “how much to do you need?” $6,000 was sent so that van could be purchased. Pastor Andrei and his team, travelling in this van, were one of the first humanitarian groups to reach the terrorized city of Bucha after Russian troops withdrew. Their team provided immediate humanitarian assistance and stayed to minister to victims.

World Vision Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative

At Soul we have a longstanding partnership with World Vision and when the war broke out, I reached out to the leadership and saw that they were helping the refugees at the border in Romania and Moldova. The issue there was the danger of human traffickers posing as friendly people wanting to take in and provide shelter to unsuspecting women. World Vision was and still is a safe presence at the border, providing shelter, safety, food and direction for those fleeing the war. Soul Sanctuary worked with World Vision in a promotion to raise awareness and funds in an event called One Night for Ukraine. Soul Sanctuary invested $20,000 and the One Night subsequently raised an additional $51,000!

Distance Education for Ukrainian Children

We sent $5,000 to help pay teacher salaries at JAMM School. JAMM is a distance education platform in Ukraine that has taken up the mantle of continuing the education of displaced children for free. JAMM had 277 students before the war and expanded to 3,272 students after the outbreak of war with another 1,800 students waiting to be onboarded. JAMM is also providing crisis services to students who have been traumatized due to war related events.

Salaries for Aid Drivers

On Easter Sunday we collected a special offering that went directly to help pay the salaries of some men in eastern Ukraine, who had lost their jobs due to the war but were helping our missions partners with humanitarian aid deliveries in cities near the conflict’s front lines. We were able to support the salaries of eight men for four months at the cost of $250 per man, per month.

Displaced Children in Turkey

We’ve also supported the work of Alexey and Tonia Pankov, missionaries with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, who were formerly in Altai, Russia, but had to flee when the war broke out and found themselves in Turkey. There, they stumbled upon 1,500 orphans and foster children that were brought to Turkey from Eastern Ukraine by a private businessman. They had subsequently partnered with this businessman’s organization and are helping to meet the needs of these children. We have sent $5000 to help Alexey and Tonia get started in this new ministry endeavour. Last month Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht, a part of the Soul family and the leader of the Laboratory for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at the University of Manitoba, travelled to Turkey to meet with Alexey and Tonia and to provide sport equipment resources to the children they are working with.

Kids Camps in Lutsk

At the end of June, a week-long kids camp for 140 displaced children was held in the city of Lutsk. The local church hosted social events, fed the children, and shared the gospel with them. They attempted to give these kids a little bit of normality in a country of chaos. In July they will be hosting two more camps and we have sent $10,000 to help cover the cost of all three camps. 

Summary

It has been encouraging to see how our community has been able to rally around our ministry partners and support their continued efforts to bring the hope of Jesus Christ into some of the darkest places on the European continent. To date we are continuing to disperse collected funds to meet the evolving and ever-diversifying needs of those who have remained in Ukraine to serve their communities.

To engage with the work of our ministry partners directly, we encourage you to follow the following accounts on Instagram:

FINANCIAL Summary as of June, 29, 2022

General Humanitarian Aid: $89,000. Distributed to organizations in Poland and Ukraine to provide for basic humanitarian needs including food, water, displaced person care packages, transportation to international borders, fuel, etc.

Cargo Van and Trailer: $44,000. Purchased by Ukrainian Assemblies of God for the purposes of transporting aid shipments throughout Ukraine. .

Generators: $2,000. Purchased by Ukrainian Assemblies of God for field aid.

Transport Van: $7,000. Purchased by Ukrainian Assemblies of God to transport refugees to international borders and to transport aid throughout Ukraine.

World Vision Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative: $20,000. Given to World Vision to continue anti-human trafficking projects at the Romanian and Moldovan borders.

JAMM School Support: $5,000. Provided for the purposes of continuing and expanding educational support to displaced Ukrainian students.

Lutsk Summer Kids Camps: $10,000. Supporting the work of Lutsk Ukrainian Assemblies of God as they host summer camps for displaced children.

Humanitarian Aid Driver Salaries: $8,000. Salaries for drivers moving humanitarian aid throughout Ukraine, including into dangerous territories.

Displaced Children in Turkey: $5,000. Supporting PAOC Missionaries Tonia and Alexey Pankov in their support of Russian speaking Ukrainian Children in Turkey.

Remaining Funds to be Disbursed: Approximately $60,000. Funds are regularly being disbursed as the needs of our partners on the ground evolve and change.

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