Ukraine Update: Goods, Good News Delivered
UPDATE: March 9, 2022
Despite ongoing war, believers gather for worship and fellowship in Ukraine [TWR Image]
The news from Ukraine has been especially grim today, March 9, including the reported strike against a maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol.
Nothing can diminish the pain of hearing such reports. Yet hope still is being delivered to the region, in person and on the airwaves.
A TWR Ukraine staff member has remained near Kyiv and has been helping with food deliveries to others.
And not only are programs of hope still being heard in Ukraine on AM radio, but content for this time and this situation was developed within Ukraine itself.
That’s because with all else that’s going on – digging trenches, delivering food, living in perilous conditions – our partners in Ukraine still have prepared fresh programming, in rough form.
They sent the audio files on to the staff member who recently left the country with his family that includes a handicapped child. He was able to use his technological skills to prepare the content for delivery from TWR transmitters.
Yes: Hope from within Ukraine, prepared outside of Ukraine but then sent back to the people of Ukraine. The AM signal there remains strong, reports Frank Stephenson, TWR’s communications director for Europe.
All our TWR contacts in Ukraine are still alive, praise God. However, it’s not hyperbole to say they know each day could be their last. Your prayers matter.
So does your giving. The TWR staffer mentioned above crossed the border into a European nation with his family and virtually no possessions. They’ve been taken to buy clothing, purchased with money you gave to our Ukraine-Russia Crisis Fund. There will be many more needs soon.
Finally, we have a joyful reunion to report. You recall that the daughter-in-law and 2-year-old granddaughter of the TWR Ukraine director made it across the border a few days ago. What of the director’s son – the husband and father of the duo?
It turns out that he was not in Ukraine when the war broke out. Within the past day, he traveled into Eastern Europe and has been reunited with his wife and his little girl.
Please join us in prayer
- Praise God for the heartwarming news that family members of the leader of our Ukrainian contact group – whom we call Matthew for security reasons – were able to reunite in an East European country. We’ve been following the story of Matthew’s 2-year-old granddaughter since he spoke so movingly of her in a video (scroll to find the video) soon after the war started. Now the girl, her mother and father are back together in a safe country.
- Although the focus understandably remains on the shooting war in Ukraine, our brothers and sisters in Russia and Belarus most definitely also need our sustained prayers. TWR friends and partners there are already feeling the strong international backlash against their nations and are concerned about how they will continue to minister to their countrymen as resources dry up. Among the outreach that may be affected in Russia are relatively young but growing FM broadcasts, vibrant internet programming and groundbreaking broadcasts of TWR’s Women of Hope in the North Caucasus.
- TWR staff in Europe are feverishly working to ensure that transmitter sites outside the war zone will be able to continue beaming vitally needed gospel programming to the Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians. Access to additional broadcast facilities has been secured, and backup sites are being planned. Ask the Lord to preside of these ongoing efforts, providing wisdom as these dedicated staff members sort through the complicated details and providing the necessary resources to his Word on the air.
