Thank you for your concern and for praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People
Dear Friends of BIEM,
Several of the families of our church planters are now in Poland and Western Ukraine where they continue to wait for any new developments from the US consulate in Krakow, Poland. They hope the consulate will soon disclose a path for them to enter the US through an emergency visa that the Biden administration has announced but which so far has not materialized. They are hoping that the recent announcement stating that the US will allow 100,000 Ukrainians to enter the US, will result in some directive to the US consulate in Krakow, Poland that will allow them to begin processing some of these emergency visas.
2. Meanwhile, since there appears to be an alternate route through Mexico, we have purchased tickets for 9 of our refugees (all women and children related to our church planters) to fly from Poland to Tijuana, Mexico. When they land there (after almost 30 hours of flights) they will go directly to the US border where there is a special corridor for Ukrainians to enter the US through a "white passport" system that will allow them to stay in the US for 1 year. Once they cross the border, we have people that will meet them there. Please pray the group will make this journey successfully. They depart this Friday.
3. Praise God for the generosity of God's people in the United States. Thus far we have been able to transfer $250,000 of war relief aid to our missionaries and ministry partners in Ukraine. This is but a drop in the bucket in comparison to the need so please continue praying for this and sharing about our efforts.
4. One of our recent war video updates on our website featured Pastor Vitaly leading a 5-vehicle caravan of humanitarian aid they hoped to get into Chernihiv. If you viewed that video, you know that outside of Kyiv they were momentarily stopped by the military from entering Kyiv due to a military operation taking place along their route. They had planned to meet up with others in Kyiv who knew how to get to Chernihiv more safely by going off-road at certain places. While they were waiting, they learned that the last remaining bridge for vehicles to Chernihiv had been blown up by the Russian air force. So, they changed plans to leave some of the aid in Kyiv as well as reserve some for those who were still able to get aid to Chernihiv through the last remaining bridge which was a pedestrian bridge accessible only to Chernihiv residents. One of the vehicles in their caravan was driven by a resident of Chernihiv so he remained in order to get some of the aid into Chernihiv through this method. I spoke with Vitaly today and received this update: That remaining vehicle was able to get aid to those people. Now that pedestrian bridge has also been blown up, and the only remaining access to Chernihiv to get aid in and refugees out is by volunteer residents using boats under supervision by the Ukrainian military.
5. Though most of Chernihiv has been heavily bombed, as of this morning the large apartment building in Chernihiv that we have remodeled a portion of into a church, has not been hit. Therefore, once again we are glad to report that none of our people have been injured and none of our church buildings have been hit. This is an answer to prayer so please keep praying.
Sam Slobodian
President - BIEM
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