Heating Program
In November of 2024, we stated a “heating program” for the poorest of our people who we know don’t have enough money to pay their heating bills in winter. Heating bills are paid for the winter season. After looking at each person’s situation, we consider, whather they might need electric heated mattresses, electric heaters, rechargeable lamps so they will have light when the electricity is turned off, and blankets. We are helping over 70 people to survive the winter. For people in the villages, we bought enough wood to last them through the winter.
Myckola has CP and Down’s syndrome and lives alone in a small house since his mother died. Each month we give him food and all winter we have paid his heating bills. He is so very thankful for being warm during the winter.
Following is a thank you letter from Nadya Serdiukova:
“Our dear friends Thank you so much for the help you provide at holidays and usual days. It is a big, big support for us. Thank you so much for your care. It helps us a lot. Without your help we would die. It’s true. A lot of thanks to you and wish you good health, success, and keep doing your work.
One woman in one of the villages almost got hysterical when she saw all the wood and that it was so nice. She just kept saying, “I don’t understand why you would do this”. Having the privilege to bless people with the provisions God has given us is such an honor!
Feeding Program
When people come to us requesting a mobility, we deliver them to their homes and spend time with them thus gaining an understanding of their living conditions and if they have family members who are able to help them. A relationship with them is begun, and because we are in their homes, we truly understand their needs.
Since we saw many people living in really bad conditions and realized that there was no one to help them, God put it on our hearts to begin a feeding program in 2016. What started with approximately 40 people has grown to over 100 people we provide food for on a monthly basis. The food we give provides for a month’s worth of necessary staples. For many it is literally the difference between having to choose to buy their medicine or buy food.
Following is a story of just one person who receives our help:
Our Luba Gumenuk visited one of our people, Ephrosynis Klymenka. When Luba got there, Ephrosynis asked her, ‘Who sent you?”, and then told Luba that she had been planning to kill herself that day because of the burden of all the problems she had. She lost her disability retirement even though her sick leg is not healed. She is unable to pay her electricity bill, and her son was wounded in 2015 when Russia invaded the East. She is alone and no one cares for her.
It is God alone who directs us to such people. That day she got food, was listened to and cared for, and they prayed together for all her problems. Today life has a different meaning for her since food is delivered every month, and Luba continues to visit her regularly.
Each visit has a sad story, but we have the big privilege of telling people about the infinite love of Christ, and how He cares about each one of us. And especially that He won’t leave us if we invite Him to live in our hearts.
Christmas
We began our Christmas Program back in 2000, taking the Ukrainian version of Santa Claus, Father Frost and his granddaughter, into people’s homes. And every year since then we go to the new people for that year, usually 200-300 people.
Everyone looks forward to it, but it is a LOT of work, as we go to each person’s home with a small gift, sing a Ukrainian Christmas song, and ask them to recite a poem. Everyone is so touched by this program. It is fun to watch the people’s faces when they see us in the van.
It is especially fun to see the children’s faces when Santa Claus gets out of the van! Lots of pointing and gesturing, and many of them run to him. So Santa Claus always carries some small candies and gifts for the kids!
Easter
In Ukraine, we have a special tradition. Everyone makes or buys one or more loaves of Easter Bread. For those with special needs, it is not something they can do themselves because of their disability, and besides they can’t afford to buy it.
Every Easter we go to the families we feed and take them their food package with some special items added (such as canned meat and fresh cheese, etc.). We make each of them Easter bread too. The tradition here is to say (usually 3 times), Kristos Voskres, (He is risen), and the other person responds, “Vayistino Voskres” (He is risen indeed).
It is amazing how these small gestures bring such joy. I think the main thing for them is that someone remembers them!
Annual Picnic
In 1999, we held our first picnic for people with special needs. Twenty five of them, along with their caregivers, a mission team, and my staff came. For many of them, it was the first time out of their apartments since they became disabled (for many more than 5 years). In our city of Bila Tserkva, it was the first time people had seen anyone with special needs. At that time people with special needs were hidden away at home or in orphanages. I was actually told by a Ukrainian that there were no such people in Ukraine.
I had planned for our picnic to last 2 hours. We would feed them a hot meal, I would speak for a few minutes, and then we would get them safely home. But something started to happen as, for many of them, they discovered that they were not the only ones with special needs. They began talking together and exchanging phone numbers, and something new and wonderful began on that day!
At the end of 6 hours I had to tell them, “sorry, but we need to get you home before it gets dark.” And so this became an annual event in Bila Tserkva, and eventually grew to over 400 people, with volunteers from 5 or 6 churches and a mission team from Impact, helping us in picking up people, serving the the hot meals, providing entertainment, and taking them home.
Then came COVID, and for the first time since 1999, we couldn’t hold the picnic. And as COVID was finally becoming less and less an issue, the war began. We were no longer permitted to gather large groups together.
Almost 3 years ago we decided to hold a smaller picnic for our “kids” with special needs and their moms. We searched for a more remote location, and found one partly hidden by trees, near to a lake, with about 75 people in attendance.
We continue to dream of a day when we can once again hold our picnic in the Park, with hundreds in attendance! Until then we will host the smaller picnic.
Sponsor a Family
Throughout the years we saw many single mom’s struggling to take care of their kids with special needs. In most cases the mom cannot work because their child needs full time care. They get a pension from the government, but it not even close to enough to be able to live on. This is especially true of families who have children with childhood on-set diabetes. The cost of testing strips alone is too much for them.
In 2005 we started a Sponsor-A-Family Program where a family in the US sends a small monthly donation to a specific family (as little as $25 to $50 a month is a big help, and sometimes makes the difference between being able to buy your child’s medicine or food). No mother should ever have to make that kind of choice!
If you are interested in participating in the program, please contact Kim Kulp at: kimallens514@att.net
Clinics
Since the war began, hospitals, medical clinics, people’s homes and market places have become Russia’s favorite targets. Cities and villages which Russia occupied and then were retaken by Ukraine were pretty much stripped bare by the Russian occupiers as they retreated.
When Nita found out that many clinics in those areas had either been destroyed or stripped bare, God put it on her heart to help them. We initially chose 10 clinics in the Kherson Region that we would help resupply with equipment the Ukrainian government would not (or could not) replace. We worked with the main doctor who was responsible for overseeing all 10 clinics. Our budget was $5,000 per clinic, and we received a grant from Rotary International for $50,000.
In April 2023, Valentina (who was in charge of the project). Vadim (our driver) and Nita went to the Kherson Region to see the clinics that were chosen and the actual equipment that we bought.
It was a heart-wrenching trip because of the massive destruction we saw everywhere - whole Villages completely destroyed, and bombed out roads and bridges. We heard some pretty awful stories about their lives when they were invaded and occupied by the Russians.
While we were eating lunch at the last clinic, the city we were in was being bombed. To say the trip was intense is putting it mildly! But to see the smiles on the doctors and nurses faces as they showed us the new equipment made it al worth while!
Since that time God’s Hidden Treasures has helped 8 additional clinics in Zaporizhia, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Mykoloiv Regions. We have contìnued to help these clinics with additional equipment and supplies. One clinic in Sumy Region (which is very close to the front lines and receives soldiers who have been injured), called us one day saying that they’d run out of tourniquets, and could we quickly help them. We (God’s Hidden Treasures) called someone we knew and were able to send tourniquets to them the next day!
