Children Of War

The Children of War – these are not only the children you see in this photograph. They are all whose destinies have been forever altered by war. All who have been deprived of their homes, jobs, their life savings, their daily routines, their plans for the future. All who, out of fear of being killed by the shelling are living in the basement. All who are fleeing from abduction, torture, and being locked away by the separatists because theirs is not the Orthodox faith. All who have no hope of changing the situation around them – not even a little.

The Children of War. . . . . . .

They are legion – hundreds of thousands. Maybe even millions. One was lucky and he was able to go to relatives in Western Ukraine or find shelter from a church in the more or less secure areas of the country. Another was able to travel abroad. But many still remain in the combat zone. They have nowhere to run, no one awaits them, and the international organizations pretend they don’t even exist. They huddle in summer children’s camps not equipped for winter, in the abandoned buildings of the former Soviet administrations and schools with no heating or indoor sanitation, or you can find them in the basements of destroyed buildings

How many of them will survive the winter?

I saw all this with my own eyes a few weeks ago, and since then, I am consumed by one thought only – as soon as possible to secure as much help as I can and go back so that as many as possible of the Children of War make it through this winter. Help establish heating centers for refugees, help repairing the war-damaged buildings, help providing regular hot meals, help with warm clothing. . . . . . . . .

I met a lot of dedicated Christian ministers who are practically the only ones in the region  caring for the Children of War. Every day, risking their lives, they are representatives of Christ in this land. They deliver medicines, food, warm clothing and a Word of Hope to refugee camps and basements, and they evacuate people from the shelling.