Another trip to Dnipro & Zaporizhzhia

Written By Sophia Kutsiuruba

April 30, 2022

On April 20, Andriy’s team set out for another trip to Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

They loaded up with humanitarian aid, and stopped in both cities, as there are people in each of them that are wanting to go toward Western Ukraine.

This blog post is most pictures and videos, which tell the story well. Video translation is posted below the videos.

Andriy’s team of drivers for this trip.

“Good day everyone, or morning. Or evening, wherever you are. This is how are spring morning starts. Today is chilly, we even got a bit of snow overnight. But we are getting ready to get on the road again. We’ve started our horses, one bus here, and the other one for this trip. The guys are loading the bus, we’ll be bringing some aid with us. Today we’re driving to Dnipro, for more people who’ve fled Kharkiv. Pray for safety as we travel - it’s a long and hard drive. Some fighting has picked up. So, wishing you a good day, a peaceful sky, God bless.”

“Two cows came to drink a bit, to charge up. I’m not sure what the people behind us will say, because this process takes 15 mins. There is a big problem with fuel supply– long lines, fuel isn’t available everywhere. Thankfully we found a stop with some on the road here. (Jokingly) Pavlik is earning money for tea, here, washing windows. He doesn’t have any other work so he’s taking someone’s job at the gas station…”

“Good morning, friends. We are about to go into the central church in Dnipro, we arrived yesterday. We will be picking up people. We had a dinner here and stayed overnight. I briefly wanted to show you the church that is serving the people. Maybe some of you might know them. Here are the rooms where people stay; this is the church, in which people are sleeping, living wherever there is a spare corner.

The work continues full-time here. Yesterday, a bus pulled up with evacuated people, they barely pull up to the building, unload the passengers, the people come from who knows where, what they’ve escaped. They tell us, but the drivers take off right away and continue… and, well, here there are close to 300 people living here. 300. They feed them all, they register them, they’ve set up showers out here… this is the work. I really want to take an example from this kind of service, while God has still given us a chance serve people in this way.

I’ll take another short video inside to show you how things are organized, how many people there are.”

“There is the kitchen, here is the church, the buses. I’ll show you where the showers are and where people are showering in here. Inside there is a small shower, these two portable showers were quickly purchased. Tanks store water there, and these pipes warm the water. It’s quite a basic and simple shower. Yes, it’s cold out, but with warm water you shower quickly and run. Every day or every other day a truck comes to pump out the septic tank and take out the garbage,

And this is a Sunday school class - this is what a Sunday school class should look like today.”

“This is what the church looks like. During the day there is a church service, and every night people sleep here. On chairs, pews, cats and dogs… Just absolutely everywhere. Very many people. And every day more and more come.”

In this trip they also stopped in Zaporizhzhia. They load up as much aid as they’re able, donated from various people, churches, or businesses. Big buses like these have so much room to transport things like food and medical supplies.

“We received aid from a church in Lviv. And so timely, it’s just a miracle. There’s some cabbage…”

The following photos show the delivery of aid supplies to the church in Zaporizhzhia.

You can see how volunteers repackage food items into family sized portions. Some food items are also used to prepare meals for displaced people who stay at the church. There are toys for children and clothing for people to pick up if they need it.

In response to the reports of a renewed offensive on Eastern Ukraine, there are many vehicles that head to that region to evacuate people wanting to leave.

“The evacuation column is getting ready.”

As Andriy had mentioned, repairs come with this job. One of their smaller cargo vans stopped running right after filling the tank with diesel.

“Today the vehicle broke down while on duty; the quality of Ukrainian diesel shows for it. Mykola [Andriy’s dad] is towing us. I think he’ll manage to tow us home. This is how it is, friends. I had just filled up the car, and this is what happened. Not sure how much repairs will cost, but experience tells me it definitely won’t be cheap.”

When Andriy got home from this trip, they were able to celebrate Easter together as a family.

Thank you again for all of your support. It makes a huge difference for people to know people around the world are thinking of them and supporting them.

Sophia Kutsiuruba
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71 People Evacuated from Zaporizhzhia & Dnipro