December 2022
Merry Christmas dear friends! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! If you are on our email list, then you know we sent out an urgent request for heating units with the severe winter weather settling into Ukraine. And many of you have really stepped up – Thank you! For those only on our mailing list, here is a quick update:
We were able to invest $22,000 to purchase generators, electrical heating units of various sizes (large rooms and small rooms), wood burning stoves (and install them in people’s homes), while also buying sleeping bags and firewood too. In other words, anything we could purchase to keep people alive and distribute through our five ministry partners!
The bad news is due to the demand of generators, a $500 generator now costs approximately $1,700 - we have purchased several generators so far. One of our ministry partners traveled 600-800 miles to Poland to purchase generators and heating units at a cheaper price, but there has been a delay in getting across the Polish border and into Ukraine due to an unknown issue, but they should be coming very soon.
The good news is that hundreds upon hundreds of people (if not more) now have the ability to survive this winter. We asked our ministry to please prioritize families with small children and then everyone else afterward. We already deployed many heating units in our areas and we plan on buying and distributing more very soon. If you still want to help, we will be collecting money through February for more heating units, since it looks like the UN has supplied enough food to our region for now. This way, we can utilize our limited resources strategically for these heating units.
Pastor Sergei Datsko of Living Hope Baptist Church – Kharkiv (one of our ministry partners) said,
“With your donation, we were able to buy 55 heating stoves, which will be strategically placed in locations to heat around 20-30 people at any given time. We are also using your donation to buy warmer clothes, blankets, additional food, and other hygiene products. Because of your help, we are reaching many people with the gospel of Jesus Christ too. Thank you!”
I will post many additional photos on Slavic Christian Ministries Facebook page, since space is limited within this letter. Nevertheless, here are some photos of what you purchased and a few families that you helped. I will let the photos tell the story:
As I shared with one donor recently, who sacrificially gave $50 (which was a lot for this person) - I remarked, “We may never know who receive a heating unit because of your gracious donation, but because of your kindness one family will survive this winter.” The same is true for everyone of you who partnered with us - thank you!
Slavic Christian Ministries is committed to helping our Ukrainian ministry partners in and around Kharkiv (a pre-war population of around 4 million), as long as God will allow us to do so. So far, with your help and a few others ministries too, our Ukrainian partners have served no less than 150,000 people with food, supplies, and the Good News of Jesus Christ (most likely many more people have been helped). Thank you for making this happen!
Because we will continue to buy these heating units, if you would like to make a year-end gift to help with additional heating units, please send us a check or go to our website at https://www.slavicchristian.org/donate
In Jesus’ love,
Ron Putnam