KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Fellowship of Christian Athletes has created the “Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund” to help Ukrainian staff members and their families relocate in America for the foreseeable future. The goal is to raise $447,000 in order to provide long-term housing, basic necessities and schooling for the children.
A total of 30 Ukrainians have not returned home since they visited San Antonio, Texas, for a FCA international conference last month.
“Two days after the conference started, the war broke out in Ukraine,” Chief Field Officer Dan Britton said. “We saw the pictures of the bombing. Our Ukraine staff were with us, and seeing the emotional outpour of what they were experiencing first-hand… Not seeing it on TV, but right in our room.”
Britton says the outpour of support from those in the Kansas City metropolitan area has been overwhelming. Local businesses, churches and residents have opened up their doors to embrace 30 Ukrainians as their own, and local families have volunteered to host them.
In just a few weeks, they have already reached $288,000 of their $477,000 goal.
Going forward, the organization is continuing to ask for two things: prayers and monetary donations.
“Your faith is only tested when there is a crisis. And in that crisis, it makes you take a step back and do nothing, or it makes you take a step forward,” Britton said.
For the last month, Andriy Kravtsov has been living with survivor’s guilt. He is one of the Ukrainian members staying in Kansas City while waiting out the war. Most days, he feels helpless living through the war from overseas, but he believes there is a reason God put him here.
“We just don’t want to survive, we want to serve. And thats what we’re trying to do,” Kravtsov said.
While it is hard to understand the “why,” Kravtsov is trying to find his purpose in all the unknown. He is checking in with contacts on the ground daily, meeting the needs of those who need him.
“My friend who is fighting in the war he says, ‘You just help one person at a time. Don’t try to help everybody. Just one at a time’,” Kravtsov said.
And as the shock of the war wears off, Kravtsov and others are turning to hope.
“Horrible things have happening right now, but God is not far but He’s close,” Kravtsov said. “We are looking for that bright light, that moment, that path that we can walk through this together.”
