In response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and eastern Europe, EPC World Outreach is hosting virtual prayer gatherings at 11:00 a.m. (Eastern) each Thursday in March. The meetings will be held via Zoom and are available to all with registration required.
Gabriel de Guia
“We held a virtual prayer gathering on short notice last Thursday, and more than 100 people registered,” said Gabriel de Guia, Executive Director of World Outreach. “It was a powerful time of intercession, as well as an opportunity to hear reports from the field—glimpses of what God’s people are doing in this crisis to meet the needs of many in Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, and Russia.”
In addition, de Guia said opportunities for assistance were “talked about and prayed over.”
“We have many opportunities to come alongside this gospel work and how the EPC International Disaster Relief Fund will be used in sending resources to those engaged on the front lines,” de Guia explained. He said World Outreach is focusing on three strategic locations to deploy donations to the EPC’s International Disaster Relief Fund:
1. Poland. Bruce Anderson, Director of World Outreach’s International Theological Education Network (ITEN), is coordinating with a long-time trusted ministry partner in Lublin, Poland. Donations would support threefold efforts:
- Assisting Christian chaplains in Ukraine who bring medicines, medical supplies, other personal supplies, and gospel ministry to soldiers throughout Ukraine. These chaplains do not carry weapons but need helmets and vests.
- Help evacuate disadvantaged people in Ukraine who are at particular risk.
- Help provide food, clothing, housing arrangements, and other necessities of Ukrainian refugees coming to Lublin.
2. Hungary. World Outreach global workers who live in Hungary are already housing two families who have fled Ukraine. Opportunities to help other families increase by the moment.
3. Czech Republic. A ministry partner of Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tenn., is involved with ministry to refugees in Prague. He is in Prague now, assessing the situation firsthand. Ministry teams are responding to an absence of any organization as busloads of Ukrainians are dropped off at stations with nowhere to go to provide shelter and basic needs.
“There’s constant flux in this chaotic moment and other opportunities will arise,” de Guia said. “But for now, these are the clearest ones for us to engage in based on trusted relationships.”
Click here to register for the prayer gathering. Click here to donate to the International Disaster Relief Fund.
There’s no question we should be praying for the people of Ukraine, but I believe we should also be praying for the people of Russia. I am a firm believer that with regard to virtually every country in the world, it’s only the leaders that drum up reasons to go to war, not the everyday citizens.