We need your help to raise money for a people carrier (MPV) car for our mission partners in Dnipro. Our aim is to buy a good-quality 9-seater MPV that can be used as a tool for ministry, enabling local Christians in Dnipro to provide pastoral care for people in orphanages and disabled homes in Eastern Ukraine.
One of the most urgent needs that we have identified in the Dnipro Region is the means to take out residents of disabled homes and orphanages for day trips out to local attractions – e.g. parks, sports centres and beaches. This urgent need has been confirmed by numerous conversations with local church leaders, social workers and care home volunteers.
In Ukraine, the state-run care institutions (e.g. orphanages and disabled homes) do not have the means to take residents out of the care homes. The result is that all the people in the care homes spend literally their whole lives inside the confines of the building. In most cases, these buildings are in a state of disrepair and conditions are often unpleasant or even unsanitary.
Therefore, one of the problems is that people in the care homes (disabled homes, orphanages) in Eastern Ukraine are essentially forgotten about by society. These people have no money and no possessions. In many cases, they don’t have any living relatives. They depend on outside help, which is simply not available. The government does not have the resources to address people’s most basic human needs, such as fresh air and the means to get out of the building.
If these people had the opportunity to take even occasional day trips out in a minibus, this would immeasurably improve people’s quality of life. As well as allowing time for recreation, such trips would have additional benefit of improving the mental well-being of the residents, creating a healthier and more harmonious environment in the home itself.
For many years we have been in contact with Rev. Sasha Boyko, who is the pastor of Vasylkivka Baptist Church in the Dnipro Region of Eastern Ukraine. Pastor Sasha has been praying for a long time now for a minibus that would enable him to visit various care homes and orphanages in the region and take the residents out for weekend activities.
Under the most adverse circumstances of poverty and deprivation, Sasha has already become something of a roving pastor, travelling throughout the Dnipro region, offering prayer, material help, medicines and encouragement and support for the forgotten people, such as those with disabilities or diseases, the elderly, the orphans and refugees. If he had a minibus, he would be able to take out teams of young people to go out to these forgotten people, offering prayer, music, games and pastoral care.
The trouble is that at the moment Sasha only has his little old Fiat Punto to drive around, so he’s unable to deliver large supplies of medicines and equipment and he’s also not able to arrange day trips out for the people he meets in the care homes he visits. He’d like to bring these people to church, so that they can receive a warm welcome by the Christians in the local churches around the disabled homes. If people are unable to come to church, then with a minibus, Pastor Sasha will be able to bring church to the people!
Having received an amazing gift from one of our partner churches in Surrey, we are now planning to buy a minibus in Germany and drive it non-stop to Ukraine in December this year. The minibus will belong to DHM, but we will leave the keys with Sasha so that he can use it for his ministry work.
Something as simple as a large people-carrier car will have a massive gospel impact for potentially hundreds of needy people in the Dnipro region.
We will soon have a fundraising page on this website, where people will be able to sponsor our trip to Ukraine. Please continue to watch this space.
Thank you for your support.
The DHM Team
