On April 20th, a small team from VBC headed out to Ukraine to continue serving people impacted by the war.
For “real-time” updates, please follow our team on Instagram @vbcinukraine. This webpage will be updated with their entries on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays — the entries below are in chronological order, from the bottom to the top of the page.
Questions about this trip or missions? Contact us at missions@vbc.online for more information.
Wednesday, April 27th
(By Tim J.)
Hello from the Lobby of the Krakow Airport Hilton.
Yesterday, our team loaded up at about 6am and headed west out of Kyiv toward the Polish border. What was expected to be an eleven hour van trip with a two hour border crossing turned out to be a nine hour trip with a ten minute border crossing. Thank you for your prayers!
Once on the Polish side of the border, our hired van met us immediately, and we were on our way back to Krakow. We arrived in Krakow around 8:30pm local time, checked into our hotel, and hit the town square. If you’ve never been to Krakow and have the opportunity to visit sometime, I’d highly recommend it. The sound of horse hooves on cobblestone with the occasional church bell ringing is quite the old-world experience. One cannot help but feel overwhelmed coming around a corner into the town square and unexpectedly running into an imposing medieval tower. It’s an encounter with historical Christendom. Nuns, monks, and priests hurrying from place to place add to the feel. Truly, a beautiful experience.
This morning, we all had breakfast together, debriefed a bit, and prayed. Afterward Clare, Jill, and Tim Barely were off the airport. At my last contact with Tim, they had all passed their COVID tests and made their flight out of Krakow.
Erich and I spent the late morning and early afternoon in the Krakow main square and surrounding streets. We had lunch at a hip local joint with very kind staff who provided us with the WiFi passcode and offered to turn down the house music so we could have a video meeting to debrief with our two Polish friends who had overseen the purchase and logistics related to our supply van on the way into Ukraine.
Afterwards, we were off to the Krakow Airport Hilton. We’ve spent the afternoon and evening in the hotel lobby debriefing, speculating about geopolitics, rehashing our favorite moments from the week, and waiting for laundry to dry.
Overall, it was an amazing journey. God’s hand was in the details of every car trip, gas station stop, and military checkpoint encounter. We are indebted to you all for your constant prayers.
We are headed back to our homes tomorrow, but our work is not done. We are all incredibly grateful for our time in Ukraine and Poland, and hope that our involvement increases.
Until next time, would you set a reminder to pray for our brothers and sisters serving the Lord in Kyiv, Lviv, and Vinnytsia? I’ll not share names here, but you can pray for the churches of these cities and their leaders without those details. Many are risking their lives to serve the most needy in Jesus name. May we learn from their faithfulness to God Almighty.
Until next time…
In Christ,
Tim
Monday, April 25th
(By Tim J.)
Good Evening from Malyn!
As I write this, we are loading ourselves into two empty vans after a full day of travel and aid distribution. It was a good day.
We started with an early breakfast at our hosts’ home and then got on the road toward Malyn, a small village northwest of Kyiv, about an hour from the border with Belarus. Before we left town, we stopped at a Wal-Mart type store with a large grocery section to purchase eggs, cheese, whole chickens, milk, and a few other perishable items that had been requested by the residents of Malyn. The store was about two hours delayed in opening due to a missile alarm that had been sounded because of strikes on the railways in Vinniysia and Lviv, as we understood things.
On our way to Malyn, we passed through both Irpin and Bucha. In Irpin, we drove over a temporary bridge that runs parallel to a bridge that had been demolished to stop the Russian advances a few weeks ago. We were told that this was the location where a western journalist was recently killed during a battle. Signs of recent heated battle were all over Irpin and Bucha. There were many homes destroyed by mortars and small arms fire, as well as burnt out Russian and Ukrainian tanks, armored personnel carriers, and civilian vehicles. I never thought I’d say I’ve adjusted to the landscape of war, but after just three days in Ukraine there is no longer any surprise or bewilderment seeing burnt out tanks along the road. They feel almost like they’re supposed to be there. Lord, have mercy.
On the way to Malyn we had to find a detour due to a downed bridge that we had not anticipated. This turned a two hour trip into a three hour trip.
When we arrived in Malyn, we unpacked most of our food purchase for storage, as our time was shorter than anticipated. We ended up distributing food to about 10 families, all very poor. The rest will be distributed by our host on Wednesday.
The situation in the town is desperate. Those who stayed behind (mostly elderly, disabled, and mothers with small children) were left without a grocery store, working gas station, or electricity. As I understood things, electricity had just been turned back on when we arrived. We spent about three and half hours distributing food. One large family (10 people) were celebrating a third birthday for their little girl. Jill had brought some items for children, and I had purchased some kids books, coloring books, and colored pencils at the store earlier in the day, so we were able to help make her birthday a little more special by providing extra presents for her and some basic party favors for all the other kids. Praise God.
We are all tired as we head back to Kyiv, but very grateful for this opportunity to serve and pray with some of the neediest folks in the country. Each family that we visited we also prayed with and for.
Please pray for a quick trip home, easy passage through all the military checkpoints, and a good night of sleep. We plan to leave for Krakow around 5am tomorrow morning. It may be a 14-hour day of travel tomorrow. However, I am looking forward to being back in the relative security of the West of the county and then Poland.
Thank you all for your prayers and other support. This work would not be possible without your partnership.
May God draw you nearer to Himself through His Son as you pray.
Best,
Tim
Pictures below:
Bucha
Irpin
Unloading some food for storage
Tim Barley praying for a woman we delivered aid to.
The birthday girl with some extra presents (front right)
The team with a couple whose 33 year old son is away in the military.
Sunday, April 24th
(By Tim J.)
Hi All,
Happy Pascha! Today is Orthodox Easter, which is used by Protestants in Ukraine as the day of Easter celebration as well. Therefore, our team got two Easter celebrations this year.
This morning, we awoke to a large breakfast spread that our hosts prepared for us, including eggs, cheese, breads, pickles, and many sweets. After eating, we got ready and proceeded to a church in Kyiv that combined two communities for the Easter celebration. The pastor was very kind and humble, and asked for our team to take over the message portion of the meeting. We each shared a short message to encourage those in attendance, and then Tim shared an Easter message. I focused my portion on drawing near to the Lord in the midst of suffering, weaving my testimony in with Hebrews 4:14-16.
After the service, we had lunch with the congregation. Following a short break, we traveled to Dmitrivka, which was the scene of an intense battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces about three weeks ago. Dmitrivka is about 10 miles south of Irpin & Bucha. We saw several Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers that had been destroyed by Javelins provided by the US.
Following our time in Dmitrivka, we traveled to downtown Kyiv and took a short walking tour of the western side of the city, including an immaculate Orthodox monastery and some of the main areas where the 2014 revolution played out. On our way out of the city, the incoming missile sirens sounded. However, this turned out to be a false alarm.
We’ve returned to our accommodations for the night. Tomorrow we will spend the entire day delivering food to and supplies to those in the areas around Kyiv that had been held by Russian forces before their withdrawal. Many still do not have working gas stations, consistent utilities, or open grocery stores. As I understand things, one village in particular is in this situation and has not had a single aid delivery since the Russians withdrew. We will come to their aid, God willing.
Please pray for our day tomorrow. It will be around 12 hours of shopping, delivering food and supplies, and driving.
Best,
Tim
Saturday, April 23rd
(By Tim J.)
Good evening from Kyiv!
After a full day of travel, we have arrived in a suburb on the outskirts of Kyiv. It’s been a very eventful day, and we are grateful for your prayers and the Lord’s protection.
Shortly after we passed through Lviv en route to Kyiv, traffic slowed as we came upon a fresh vehicle accident. Both cars were totaled and so our driver got out to inspect. Tim Barley and I both followed closely. As we approached, two men were yelling at each other, and I assumed that they were the drivers of the vehicles and were arguing over whose fault it was. However, as we got close, we realized that all the vehicle occupants were still inside. I went back to ask Clare for help, as she’s a nurse, and we returned together to the accident. Upon my return, the door to one of the cars had been pried opened by bystanders. The driver appeared to be deceased. Clare was able to put on latex gloves and check his pulse. Sadly, he had no pulse. I then turned to the other vehicle and saw that it was occupied by two Ukrainian soldiers in the driver and front passenger seats. Neither were moving. It seems that all involved in the collision died instantly. As I was walking away, they were pulling the passenger’s body out from the second vehicle. I walked back to our van, which was about fifteen vehicles behind the accident. I prayed as I walked back for the families of the men who were apparently dead. It was surreal. When I got back to the car, one of our team members asked if everyone was okay from the vehicles. All I could think to say was, “they’re all dead.” And then got back into my seat in our van and continued to pray. Humans aren’t supposed to die. We are image bearers of God, created to live in communion with him forever. I felt as if I was face-to-face with the fall of mankind. And I was, at least with the consequences. As we were driving away, someone in our car said, “three men dead, three families shattered.” I cannot describe the sadness that came over me when these words registered. Lord, have mercy.
As we progressed toward Kyiv, the military checkpoints increased in both size and number. We were told to stop at one of them, but when they saw we had American passports, they waved us on and gave a smile.
Driving into Kyiv, we crossed over the only bridge that had not been destroyed by the Ukrainian army as the Russians began to surround the city last month. The only way I can describe the drive in to Kyiv is “post-apocalyptic.” We saw many buildings that had been destroyed by missiles, artillery, and small arms fire. I do not remember how many burnt-out Russian tanks we passed, but one we passed by slowly enough to read what had been spray-painted on the barrel: “Wolverines”; a reference to the 1980’s classic, Red Dawn. Surreal.
When we arrived at our host’s home, he welcomed us warmly, and his wife cooked us a hearty meal. He shared the story of the first day of the war, and we all listened intently. Time and space will not allow me to re-tell the rest of his experience. Long story short, he and his wife have stayed in Kyiv throughout the entire conflict thus far, ministering to the needs of many others.
Please pray for the safety of our team, for good rest this evening, and a productive day of ministry tomorrow. We plan to attend two services and spend all of the rest of our time distributing the aid we brought from Poland. It seems that we will go to a few villages, including Irpin and Bucha, which have been on the news quite a bit lately.
Praise God for this opportunity to serve him by loving and ministering to some of the most severely affected by this atrocious war.
The pictures I took are too overwhelming to process right now. I will plan to share them upon request in the near future.
In Christ,
Tim J.
Friday, April 22nd
(By Tim J.)
Hello from Lviv!
This morning, we got word that the line of vehicles waiting to get into Ukraine was 2+ miles long. Additionally, we were going to have to make more than one trip with our van to get all of our supplies and people in. It seemed that it may be a daylong activity to cross the border. However, many of you were praying for us. Much to our encouragement, our friend Filip (who coordinated the delivery of the supplies) was able to get special access for us to cross the border without waiting in line. As we were loading our van, an American guy from Texas who was there to volunteer in another area of need offered to drive the rest of our load and people in as a convoy. So, we ended up crossing the border in less than two hours, with all of the supplies and our entire team. Praise God for immediately answered prayer. Thank you all for praying!
Our pastor friend from Kyiv, Andrei, was waiting for us with another Ukrainian pastor, Volodomir and two vans. We loaded all of the supplies into the new vans, and our new friend from Texas departed. The rest of us caravanned to a village outside of Lviv.
Along the way, we saw countless military checkpoints and road closures. Ukrainian army and territorial defense units were a regular sight, often in camouflage fatigues with black AK-47s, behind sandbags.
We are staying the night in a missionary guest house run by a couple from Houston (more Texans!) who have been serving in Ukraine for 27 of the last 29 years. When they heard we brought hemostatic gauze and hemostatic agents, compression bandages, and chest seals, they were clearly excited. As it turns out, someone they know well is on the front and was injured when a tank fired on a building he was in. Since then, they’ve been looking for some of these exact life-saving trauma care items we brought that they cannot get in Ukraine or Poland right now. They will send these to the front. So, we divided the medical items we brought between our hosts and a doctor in Lviv.
Soon, we will eat dinner and then retire for the evening. Our plans have shifted, and we will head straight to Kyiv tomorrow after breakfast. Please pray for a quick and smooth trip to Kyiv. Between the road closures and military checkpoints, it could be a daylong journey.
We are grateful to the Lord for rest this evening and fellowship with our new pastor and missionary friends.
Best,
Tim
Thursday, April 21st
(By Tim J.)
Hello from the eastbound train out of Krakow Main Station.
After about 14 hours of international air travel, we are on our way via Polish Rail to Przemysl to meet our contact, Fillip, who has arranged our lodging for the night on the Polish side of the border.
In my first email, I asked for prayer in getting my 2nd bag fee waived. When I explained the situation, the United Airlines check-in staff at SFO initially said they had to charge the fee, and then went ahead and waived the fee. Additionally, Tim and Clare’s extra bags (also with medical supplies for Ukraine) were checked for free as well. So, thank you for praying!
Erich and a Polish pastor friend, Czeszlaw, greeted us upon arrival. Czeszlaw is an elder at an assembly about an hour west of Krakow and teaches Bible and Theology through a local network-based theological education program (think Polish Antioch School). We had lunch together, discussed the state of Evangelicalism in Poland, and learned of Czeszlaw’s work with churches in Russia and Ukraine. Apparently there was quite a bit of significant progress for the gospel up until the war broke out. Please pray for the churches in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. Many churches in Ukraine have understandably stopped meeting regularly due to the war, and many congregations have dwindled as a result of the mass exodus from Ukraine.
Tomorrow morning at around 6am we will meet a wholesaler who our contact has ordered a number of basic aid items from, take the items across the border, and load them up on a van arranged by a Nazarene pastor, Andrei. We will then head to Lviv for the morning and on the Vinnystia, God willing. Please pray for safe travel and smooth logistics in crossing the border.
Thank you all for your prayers, and I look forward to sharing more once we get into Ukraine.
Best,
Tim
First Entry
Tuesday, April 19th
(By Tim J.)
Hi All,
As many of you know, our small team from Valley Bible Church leaves tomorrow to begin journeying toward Kiev. During my trip to Poland in early March it became clear that there would be much more work to do in the region and that some of this could be accomplished through short-term trips. Upon return, I began exploring ideas with Erich, who had stayed in Poland on the border and eventually traveled into Ukraine. After a weeks-long discussion with Erich and VBC elder Tim Barley, we formed a short-term team from Valley to minister to the immediate needs of the churches and some medical workers in Ukraine.
So, tomorrow, I travel with Tim Barley, Jill Daniels, and Clare Borges of VBC to Krakow, and then onward to the Polish border town of Przemysl. We intend after a night in Przemysl to cross the Ukrainian border by foot and meet our driver and supply van in Ukraine. The supplies (mostly food, medical supplies, and other basic necessities) will have been purchased and loaded for us by a team in Poland before our arrival, as I understand it.
After we locate our driver and van, we plan to head to Lviv for the morning and then onward to Vinnytsia. Following a day or so in Vinnystia, it will be on toward Kiev.
Please pray for smooth travel for our team from SFO to Krakow, and then into Ukraine. I’ll be bringing a suitcase with medical supplies (mostly trauma items), and it would be great if I could check it without additional costs. I’d also love to be able to get some sleep on the flight from SFO to Krakow, so please pray for that as well if you think of it. It will be a very long day of travel.
If you’d like more frequent updates and additional pictures, please follow our trip on Instagram (@vbcinukraine).
Thank you all for your generosity and prayer support. I’ve been greatly encouraged by it. Many have given through the church’s website, some have lent me travel items, others purchased medical supplies, and just today I received two unsolicited cash donations to pass along to brothers and sisters in need in Ukraine. The Lord has shown great mercy through you. I am grateful for you all.
Best,
Tim
Ways to Pray
Pray for our team – Clare B., Jill D., Tim J., Tim B., and Erich W.
Pray we’re able to locate and meet with those who need encouragement, support, supplies, etc.
Pray for opportunities to share the hope of Jesus in homes, churches, and along the way in our travels
Pray for clear passage to Kiev
Pray for connections to be made with Ukrainian pastors and other believers to establish ongoing support and relationships
Give
If you feel led to give financially, you can contribute through the Hope for Ukraine fund online.
(Under “Fund”; click the down arrow to view the dropdown; scroll down to the “Missions - HOPE FOR UKRAINE” option.)
Go
Prayerfully consider joining a future team, traveling to Ukraine or other nations caring for refugees. Send in your name to missions@vbc.online and request for your name to be placed on the list for prospective future team members.