On a Saturday afternoon I was driving back from my dad’s place after dropping 12 boxes of medical supplies donated to Ukraine via Maple Hope from a medical warehouse owned by the ex-boss of the ex-boyfriend of my (current!) landscape designer. Everybody pitches in with whatever they can, and it’s so heartwarming to see. Our dispatchers brought warm clothes and gave money, my skater friend got gym passes and medical supplies from her fitness store, etc etc etc. I was driving and thinking how grateful I was for everyone’s support, regardless if one had any prior connection Ukraine.
On those thoughts I was listening to the latest sermon of the Village Church. And as I was having those thought, the pastor on the recording made an unqualified comment about “The taekwondo association cancelled putin’s black belt. Do they really think it will stop the war?”. Well, that REALLY stroke me the wrong way! Maybe it’s not the black belt absence that will stop the war, but it’s yet another drop in the pool that will drown the monster, another contribution to the shitstorm that comes his way. No, it will not on its own. But it is the “together” that WILL win this war – a family protesting in their city, a child writing an encouraging letter to a soldier, a granny who cooks food for the troops, a volunteer who delivers medication to the hospitals or drives evacuation vehicles back to safety. Or even someone who reposts the truth about the events – so that one more mother in russia reads it and stops her son from going to war and becoming a murderer of innocent people. It is ALL together that makes the difference.
So on that note – what is Village doing??? I asked myself as I was making a semi-legal U-turn to pay a visit to the church’s ministry centre. Village prides itself on a bunch of global missions, dozens of missionaries, multi-million dollar budget… and yet, it has been almost a month that Ukraine is being attacked, innocent people are dying, and I have not heard a single word of Village lifting a finger to do something about it! (could be just me, you never know!). Anyways, as expected on a Saturday at 7pm, the ministry centre was closed, as it should be… I sat in the car for a moment to send a couple of texts before continuing my drive home. And at that very moment someone was just coming into the building. Literally, the ONLY person in the entire day, the ONLY five minutes he was in the building – happened to be EXACTLY the moment I randomly showed up. No, there are no coincidences, God clearly has a plan. For sure His plans are better than my plans (or absence thereof)
Emerson was just picking up some supplies for the church service the next day. I asked him about Village’s involvement in helping Ukraine, and it turned out that it was not for the lack of care, but the lack of information. It turns out that in the entire multi-thousand people church there were only two Ukrainians, and they did not really have much connections or information. Basically didn’t know where to start. I sure didn’t wait to offer my help in that area!
Long success story short, Ukraine was the topic of the ministry centre’s staff meeting on Monday, Village Church met the Maple Hope Foundation on Wednesday and the full-blown fundraiser was happening already on Sunday! The congregation maxed out on donations sets after the first service, so that people coming out of the second service had to go on a waitlist to help! We are so truly in it together – I’ve seen it one more time. Everyone was eager to help, contribute, and committed their resources, homes and prayer to perfect strangers in a heartbeat.
Thanks God! And Glory to Ukraine!