There is a desperate need for UK churches and Christian families to host Ukrainian families, says a group of evangelical Christians who are struggling to place those seeking refuge.
Starfish Ukraine, which has helped place more than 400 Ukrainian refugees into Christian homes throughout the island of Ireland, recently saw one refugee come to faith. The voluntary organisation was founded by Rachel Graham, formerly a vet, who has 20 years’ experience in ministry in Ukraine. She said: ‘We trust that others will come to know the Saviour as they are loved and served by His family here.’
But the group, based in Northern Ireland and run by a small team of volunteers, is ‘really struggling’ to find more host families, with around 50 requests from Ukrainian families currently seeking refuge.
But Graham added: ‘If every church came forward with just one host family we would not have enough Ukrainians to go round… I know one church whose pastor embraced it and they took approximately 20 refugees, divided between different hosts. What a great encouragement it was to me when he called!’
But as the war shows no sign of ending, the numbers of Ukrainians hoping to find refuge here continues to grow.
(Caption: Vika & Sofia Lazarenko whose family were helped by StarFish)
Tanya
Tanya is from Zhytomyr and found Starfish on the internet. She is in her 50s and speaks virtually no English (all communication with the organisation was with Google translate).
‘When we initially started to communicate,’ Graham explained, ‘she was in a hostel in Poland. She wanted to come to the Republic of Ireland but we didn’t have any hosts.’
She was offered a host in the small town of Ballynahinch, Northern Ireland – ‘a single Christian lady, a godly prayer warrior’ – who was willing to host her and she agreed.
Graham said: ‘She was from the Orthodox tradition and wanted an Orthodox church; but as we didn’t have one she went along to the Baptist church. They have translation, as several Ukrainian families attend. A couple of the churches in the town put on the Alpha Course in the Autumn and did one group for Ukrainians, with translation. Tanya attended.
‘At their final day we had a pastor over visiting from Ukraine and he was able to lead her to the Lord.’ Tanya now attends church regularly, and the monthly meetings Starfish holds in Belfast.
