The Profound Impact of Ukraine Relief Giving

Since 2022 began, Converge Heartland has receipted more than $315,000 for Ukraine Relief, with over $200,000 of that being given over this past fiscal year. To date, we have distributed $218,000 and committed the remaining funds to the monthly support of 19 Ukrainian pastoral families in the Odesa Oblast (province) through December 2024.

This generosity has profoundly impacted Ukrainian churches and ministers. Please take a moment to watch this 3-minute video of Odesa Oblast Regional Presbyter, Oleksander Dimov, talking about the profound impression your generosity has made.

This war has revealed great needs and opportunities. The bombing of critical infrastructure such as the dam on the Dnipro River near Nova Kahovka resulted in many needs in the area. Your responses enabled us to send sizable support to 20 pastoral families serving in the flood regions of the Kherson Oblast, many of them in Russian-occupied communities. Other needs have arisen from the aftermath of economic hardship and war-related deaths. With your support, Ukrainian churches are taking in, feeding, and serving an increasing number of widows and often their children. Like the first-century church, the Baptist Union churches in Ukraine are marked by how they are caring for people in their communities.

When I visited a district-supported church last summer in Sanzheika, Ukraine, I met with Dima Pishala, a deacon from a nearby church who stepped into this once thriving but now war-abandoned church. When I showed up, only five members remained. Supported by Converge Heartland’s generosity, Dima and his family began faithfully ministering to the hurting, scared, angry, and broken community. 

By Christmas, the congregation had grown to 150 people, mostly new converts. Now they have launched a thriving church plant in a nearby town. Just a few weeks ago, Olexander Dimov (Odesa Oblast Regional Presbyter) and Vyacheslav Sherbikov (Dima’s home-church pastor) laid hands on Dima. They prayed over him as he was publicly ordained to serve as the Senior Pastor of the Baptist church in Sanzheika. Converge Heartland family, this is but one example of the incredible fruit that abounds to your account!