War Relief Updates - March 22, 2024

Thank you for your concern and for praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People

1. BIEM’s next container of humanitarian aid is on its way to Ukraine! This is an especially heartfelt cause for praise because the shipping company had originally dropped off the wrong container. Our loading time was cut in half because it took them a day and a half to swap out the wrong one for the container that we had purchased. But we thank the Lord for local volunteers who came and contributed their time and muscles, enabling us to have this cargo packed tightly and ready to roll when the driver showed up at 8:50 a.m. on March 21. Praise God!

2. On Sunday, March 10, BIEM’s missionary Vitaly Bilyak came under attack while conducting his 17th evangelism & humanitarian-aid trip in the Donbas region. Shortly after preaching in a packed-out church, he was driving to his next destination and slowed down as he approached two bombed vehicles by the roadside. Precisely as he was passing those vehicles, a Russian drone targeted his car with a grenade. Watch a video of that incident as Vitaly explains how it happened here:

https://vimeo.com/user37287229/amiracle

3. Igor Fomichov and Pavlo Usach are temporarily with us in the U.S. and are doing a wonderful job in sharing firsthand with churches how God is using war relief from BIEM to reach souls for Christ in Ukraine. We have had meetings in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. We still have meetings in Michigan before these men return to their homes in Ukraine. However, we request in advance your prayers for their return trip on March 27. In protests to protect their own produce markets, Polish farmers have been blocking crossing points on the Ukrainian border with Ukraine. Please pray our men will be able to cross the border into their homeland without delays.

4. Please continue to pray for peace in Ukraine. Even though the situation now receives little attention from our American media, the war still continues. Just this very morning (March 22), in a massive missile and Shahed drone bombardment on Ukraine, Russia damaged Ukrainian power plants and caused blackouts for more than a million Ukrainians. A BBC report stated there is no power in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The Ukrainian president stated that the overnight attacks consisted of 90 missiles and 60 Shehed drones. (The number of Russian projectiles fired at Ukraine is already over 1,000 for March alone.) Please do not be weary in praying for an end to this aggression.

In Christ,

Sam Slobodian
President, BIEM