One morning as our daughter Jessica was walking through the yard of our apartment complex, she saw an elderly lady fall and break her arm.  Without pausing to think, our daughter ran to offer aid and comfort.  It wasn’t till she knelt by the grandmother’s side that it dawned on her, there was little she could do.  She didn’t speak this woman’s language, didn’t know if you can call 911 in this foreign country, couldn’t run to notify the grandmother’s family, and worried that her words of encouragement were only frightening or confusing babble to the hurting woman.  There was little that Jess could do but have a broken heart from not being able to help as she sat beside the crying, hurting grandmother and waited for someone else to come!

While we lived in Ukraine there were many such situations.  One of the most heart wrenching for me is hard to confess.  I was coming home late one night and heard the sickening thud of a head hitting hard on concrete.  It was a young woman who laid on her back crying out for help.  I stopped in my tracks, wanting to do something but like my daughter realized, what?  Her cries went on for a long time as I lay in bed with the haunting fact that there was nothing I could do. My prayers shifted from praying for the woman in need to praying that someone who could help would hear the cries and come to her aid.

Because of economic hardships, generations of an atheist regime, the dark veil of a closed country, and many other factors there are many great needs in Ukraine.  Many a night I still lay in bed praying that someone who can will help.  But the heart break at our inabilities has changed as God shows us what we can do.

As we have shared the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs in Ukraine, individuals and church groups have become involved by partnering with pastors and those ministering to their own countrymen.  People within Ukraine who know the language, what actions to take, understand the real need of their society, and most of all have a fervent passion for their own people.