Support for Cru Moldova's Ukrainian Refugee Care

My friends,

 

The week of March 14th, I saw some particularly awful photos and videos of the Russian attacks in Ukraine. I felt helpless, particularly knowing I was going about my life as usual: going out to dinner, live concerts with friends, etc. I had made a few donations to various organizations I know of that are doing good work, but I just knew in my soul there was more I could do. So I started praying, asking God what it was.

 

I prayed about it just twice before talking to my friend Natalie about it, who connected me to a colleague of hers working for Cru Moldova. Insert Svetlana, someone who I hope becomes a lifelong friend. Svetlana, her family, and the rest of the ~60 Cru Moldova staff have recently pivoted their work to focus on providing for Ukrainian refugees, and have graciously invited me into their work. Moldova currently has almost 14 refugees in the country for every 100 Moldovans, almost three times the refugee-to-national ratio in Poland. As one of the poorest countries in Europe, Moldova simply doesn’t have the resources to keep up.

 

Svetlana and her family lives in Chișinău (pronounced KI-shuh-nau), the capital of Moldova, also the site of one of the two places Cru Moldova is caring for refugees. Here, a businessman has offered the top floor of an office building up to them, where they are housing up to 100 refugees for 1-3 nights as they make their way to safer places. They are also running a camp they rented the first week of the war about an hour outside of the capital; here refugees can stay longer if they wish.

 

Cru Moldova has partnered with other Christian non-profits in Moldova as well as churches to create a coalition to care for refugees. The four areas they’re supporting are: housing, transportation, material, and spiritual.

 

After my first hour-long call with Svetlana on Mar 24th, I knew I had to do something to help them. The staff is getting burnt out and resources are limited. They are caring for refugees around the clock, and the need is great. I initially hoped to go visit and serve first-hand, and I still hope to do that, once we know it will be safe. My tentative dates are April 12-20th, but we are all holding that loosely. I told Svetlana that I desire my visit to be a matter of “when,” not “if,” as I imagine they will need support for months to come. I said, “maybe it won’t be April, but May or June,” and Svetlana’s response was, “I hope Moldova still exists in May or June.” Moldovans fear their country will be the next target.

 

Would you help me in raising funds to support the work she is doing with her colleagues of Cru Moldova? The top needs of the refugees Cru is caring for right now, according to Svetlana, are spring clothes and shoes for both women and children (most refugees left with only the winter clothes on their back), partition walls to offer the refugees some privacy, resources to entertain the children, and materials for the women to do handiwork as a form of stress relief (crochet, knitting, etc).

 

Whether I end up getting to visit and serve the refugees or not, 100% of the funds given here will go to these needs of the refugees, through Cru account #1143810 for the time being. Once I am able to visit, Svetlana and I plan to take some of the women in groups to the store and simply buy them the clothing and resources they most need. I will be covering all my own travel expenses. I anticipate this being an ongoing need for the foreseeable future, and hope to transfer funds to this Cru account monthly. If you can give a gift again next month, please do!

 

I’ll be updating this page soon with more details, including a blog where I post updates as I receive them from Svetlana.

 

Please also join me in prayer:

--for Cru staff and the many volunteers helping them serve refugees. They are all burning out and exhausted.

--for the safety of Moldova. There are many Russians in the country and a history of conflict between the countries. Many Russians believe Russian propaganda that it is NATO bombing Ukraine.

--for the refugees themselves and the family members they’ve had to leave behind.

--for the end of the war.

--other prayer requests can be found through Cru Moldova’s telegram channel: https://t.me/CruMoldovaOfficial