Report for the Fourth Trip to Ukraine (May 12th-14th 2022)

As soon as we returned from our third journey to Ukraine, we started the preparations for the next trip. The first step was to register the freight van that we purchased. Bro. Aurel Miclea took care of this. Bro. Aurel Munteanu and I kept in touch with the brethren from Ukraine and those in Romania, to identify the needs that we wanted to meet on the fourth trip. Once we finalized the lists, sister Magda Duta helped us a lot with logistics, finding producers and retailers and negotiating with them, so that we obtained the goods on our lists at the best possible prices.

While we were still waiting to receive the registration certificate for the van, we started the purchase of the goods, so that we could be ready to go as soon as we had the van’s documents. Purchasing the goods took a few days, and I was helped by bro. Lucian to load and unload them. On Tuesday, May 10th, we received the registration paper. On Wednesday, May 11th, brothers Emanuel and George Paraschivescu arrived from Bucharest. They accompanied me on this fourth trip. In the evening, we loaded the van together and, after getting a good night’s rest, we started our trip up north on Thursday, May 12th, at 08:00 AM. It was 5 PM when we arrived in Baia Mare, in northern Romania, where we visited bro Emil and sis Mia Tarau, who prepared supper for us. After that, we went to a big retailer there and bought the rest of the items on our list. It was passed 10 PM, 14 hours after we started our journey, that we arrived at the camp site in Sighet, where the brethren were waiting for us. We quickly loaded bro Ovidiu’s van with items that we brought, as they were planning to go to Kharkov, and they gave us canned meat and other canned goods to take for sis. Alesia to distribute in Kroprivnitskyi. Bro. Romi and sister Anisoara Molnar helped us in the mean time with the paper work in Ukrainian, needed for the border crossing. Around 11:30 PM we went to bed.

Friday, May 13th, we started the day early, at 04:30 AM, getting ready for departure. We started our trip to Ukraine around 05:00 and, after crossing several ranges of mountains, we made it to the border crossing around 11:30 AM. After waiting awhile for paperwork on the Ukrainian side, we crossed the border at 12:45 PM and started our trip to Chernivtsi, a city 45 km north of the border. There we met bro. Mihai and the other drivers, and started unloading our van into their van, which was going to deliver some of the goods to Kiev and the rest to sis Alesia, in Kroprivnitskyi (central Ukraine). After we prayed together, brothers Ovidiu and Beni, joined by Mihai, drove all the way to Kharkov, northeastern Ukraine, close to the front line. From there, they went to Kroprivnitskyi and Dnipro, in central Ukraine, delivering the rest of the aid and bringing refugees that were fleeing the war zone in eastern Ukraine.

After they left, we went to a different location and met with brothers Orest and Pavel Kharena, for whom we had a washing machine, a dryer and an electric stove. They were taking these items to a refugee center in the region of Carpathia, in western Ukraine, which is hosting 100-150 refugees. After we met them and gave them the items, we were ready to start our trip back. Around 5PM we crossed the border back into Romania.

Being three drivers, we decided to drive continually to make it all the way to Bocsa. We did that and we made it by 03:30 AM, finishing a trip in which we drove a total of 37 hours, while having only 5 hours of sleep. We rested on Saturday, and in the evening, brothers Emanuel and George drove to Filiasi, where they spent the night at Aurel Munteanu’s place. They drove to Bucharest the next morning, taking Aurel with them, and they made it safely to the service there.

By the grace of God, our mission was accomplished and we returned safe and sound to our homes. Yet our hearts and prayers were with the brethren who were still on the trip in Ukraine. We are thankful for all the fellowship we enjoyed during this trip, and also for the opportunity to serve together and do this wonderful work!

What is next?

We are thankful that the Lord gave us this opportunity to serve Him in this way. It is a great and intense effort, hard to describe in words. But we believe that it is an honorable and necessary effort, which must be made and which is worth all the sacrifices. We thank God that now we have a good and large freight van that makes our trips easier and more efficient.

We thank the Lord that He brought in our way dedicated and faithful people, through whom the aid that we bring arrives exactly at the destination, in areas in which it is most needed, and has a great impact. Likewise, the Gospel booklets that we bring every time are being distributed in various parts of Ukraine, even among soldiers, and we pray that God may be pleased to use this literature for the salvation of many. We wish to print more Gospel booklets. We have requests both in Ukrainian and Russian. We also started the translation and the proofing of the content of our church’s site (www.harulsuveran.ro) in Ukrainian and Russian. We want to continue translating materials into these languages and upload them on the site.

Brothers Orest and Pavel Kharena invited us to go to the refugee center in the region of Carpathia and meet the people there ourselves. Sis. Alesia has invited us to Kroprivnitskyi, in central Ukraine. We pray that the Lord will open such doors, in His due time, so that we can honor these invitations.

We wish to continue these trips to Ukraine for as long as we will have funds available. For now, we have enough for a few more trips. Once the funds will run low, I will let you all know, and, if more funds will be available, we will gladly offer ourselves to do this work of assisting our brothers from Ukraine and the people that are suffering the worst of this war.

Glory to God!
Raul Enyedi

Financial Report for the Fourth Trip to Ukraine (May 12th-14th 2022)

Purchased items:
50 single inflatable mattresses
10 pumps
50 sleeping bags
20 blankets
60 duvet covers
130 pillows
50 bed linens
150 pcs of essential medicine
600 personal hygiene kits
1 XL washing machine
1 automatic clothes dryer
1 electric cooking stove
3 large jerrycans filled with diesel fuel
84 pcs dish washing gel
182 pcs detergent
29 kg of bulk detergent
40 litres of liquid detergent
98 pcs shampoo
96 pcs shower gel
36 pcs wet wipes
138 pcs of soap
48 pcs of toothpaste
17 kg of candies
28 kg of crackers
48 kg rice
65 kg sugar
72 liters cooking oil
60 bags of pasta
60 pcs coffee
60 pcs sandwich meat
Items needed by the Ukrainian van drivers (shoes, socks, sun glasses, waist bags)

Beside the items we purchased ourselves, we took the following items that were donated to
us:
Approx. 150 cans of meat
15 large sacks with clothes and shoes
Diapers

We also took 2800 Gospel booklets.

Total for purchased items: $6211.19
Amount of cash given to cover costs of fuel and maintenance for three vans that make trips to Eastern Ukraine to bring people out and take aid in, from April 15th to May 13th.: $1802.72

Money needed for fuel, vehicle maintenance and other expenses on our trip to Ukraine and back: $1159.22

Grand total for the fourth trip: $ 9173.13