New Update 3/30/22
Dear Church Family,
The last few weeks have gone by so quickly. A day is measured by the people and circumstances that you encounter. In His sovereignty and grace, the Lord sends people and allows circumstances to direct our days. Time becomes irrelevant.

I worked with refugees in Tecuci for two weeks and made plans to be home on March 18th, but the Lord allowed people and circumstances to change that. At Servants Heart, Costel (Constantine in Ukrainian) and Rodica were busy managing the people the Lord was sending to them. Costel and Rodica are the two hardest working people I have ever met. We made three twelve-hour round trips to Siret/Sucheava border crossing to adopt families, or at least parts of families.

I wrote earlier about watching the mothers, grandmothers, children, babies walk across the border in twenty-five-degree weather through bone-chilling winds with a suitcase, stroller, and whatever else they could carry with their eyes filled with fear and desperation because they knew no one and had nowhere to go; and there we all are. Us and them standing in the same place and at the same time, families looking for love and the church prepared to give it. Some people might call it fate or coincidence, but I know better. I call it God.

During those two previous weeks, I continuously asked the Lord whether I was to continue to Ukraine because, at the time, I did not have any contacts there, no way in or out, or was my mission about the refugees at Tecuci. On Monday, the 21st, I made plans to return home on March 25th. I asked Costel if there was a way for us to find an English/Ukranian translator so that I could speak to the people before I left to encourage them. Costel said that he would try.

On Tuesday, I met Armen, the Arminian. Imagine Ben Owens five or ten years ago times ten. Armen came to Tecuci from Vaslui and translated for me as I spoke to the Ukrainians. He and his family left Ukraine and had been staying with another ministry centered in Vaslui. I did not know that while I had been praying, there was a mission to Odesa Ukraine being planned, but they needed a driver to take the cargo of food, clothes, medicine, and two passengers. I overheard Armen talking to Pastor Denis, who is related to Rodica and the Holy Spirit spoke, saying, “Go with them.” I told Costel, and he said you could take our microbus and some supplies we have and go with them. Again, I canceled my flight home, traveled to Vaslui, about 70km from Tecuci, and moved in with Pastor Denis on Sunday.

We loaded the giant truck on Monday and left for Odessa at 2 am Tuesday. After two ferry crossings on the Danube river, the Romanian border, the Ukrainian border, and about ten military checkpoints, we arrived in Odesa by 6 pm.

I ate dinner with the Messianic Church’s Rabbi and then moved in with Presbyterian Pastor George Kadyan, whom you can follow on FB. Today, I am preparing to speak to the Messianic church a 1 pm and then teach emergency trauma/first-aid to his church. I also met an Officer in the Ukrainian Military who asked me to teach tactical first aid to his soldiers with the approval of his commander.

The people of Odessa are preparing for an attack on their city; they have a curfew from 9 pm to 6 am, many of the people who could leave have left. The military has started building fortifications on and off the highway at least 70 miles west of Odessa. The city is filled with steel barricades to make choke points for the enemy providing ambush locations for the Ukrainian military to attack the Russians if or when they come.

I was sad to see 18-year-old young men carrying AK-47s with three magazines and makeshift uniforms and kits. Fully trained soldiers move and take their weapons in specific ways, and there is a noticeable difference between the two. Both groups have the same heart but not the same experience.

What now? To love is to act. Pastor Kadyan cooked a great scrambled egg breakfast this morning, and as we ate, we discussed the doctrinal differences between Presbyterians and Baptists. I found out that we have much more in common than I thought, but the central connection is love, and that love means choosing sides and acting defensively and decisively. Sometimes words aren’t enough.

It is why I am here, and you are here with me. New Life Fellowship Church in Arkansas County, Arkansas, USA, wants the Ukrainian people to know that we love them and support them in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord wanted them to do that in person. It is the central theme of our existence whether, in Mexico, Romania, Israel, Honduras- Jesus is greater.

I plan to finish here, return to Romania on Wednesday, and be with you again on April 10th.
Please be praying that I can reach everyone that the Lord has for me to reach and that this war will be over before any more lives are lost.

See you soon.
Preacher


From: Billie Ullrich <billieullrich@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 8, 2022 at 5:06 AM
Subject: Romania Update to foreward to those interested
To: Cindy Ullrich <cindygail65@gmail.com>


Sorry to take so long to write but I needed to type on my iPad rather than text.

The first of the refugees to leave had some money and passports and cross the border if they have a car and travel to another country in Europe.

Now the border has cars backed up for miles. Many of the people who are leaving now have little money, abandoned their cars and husbands, sons, and family that could not or would not leave, and are crossing the border on foot with whatever they can carry in 25-degree weather. It is a mountainous region where this border is in the north.

As they cross the border they are greeted by national/international aid NGO’s to give them some hot food and drink but they keep them moving into buses that will take them through Romania to their final destinations if they have money.

We stand at the border crossing and interact with the Ukrainians to discern their condition. Many are exhausted from the journey and just need rest and time to reorganize. Those refugees come to stay for the night to rest because they have been traveling for days. They usually leave the next morning after breakfast and continue their journey.

The others that the Lord sends are those who have only what they could carry and are desperate. They have little money and lack travel documents especially for minors because they were not prepared to have to leave because of war. Elderly, handicapped, children, and babies in strollers who have been on foot for hours. They all have the same heartbreaking expressions of desperation.

Servants Heart Ministry provides a roof over their heads and slows everything down for them. The 4th floor offers 10 or 12 hotel-style rooms for them to rest and shower. The 5th floor is more open but has many couches and places to sleep.
Once everyone is settled Costel, Rodicka, and their staff work out travel problems and arrange to get them where they are going by bus or plane.

As the days go by the desperation continues to grow. We had an interview process with each group last night about 10 in all. The stories are all similar. For example, one woman left with her two children from Kyiev leaving her mother, sister, and husband to save the children because the bombs were falling everywhere around their schools, hospitals, neighborhoods. She has two elementary-age children but they have no passports so they are stuck here until we can find a solution.

I see pictures of sons and husbands who are soldiers, from mothers who have no idea where they are or what their condition is. These mothers and wives cling to the images in their phones as the tears stroll down their faces.

To be able to help provide hope in an otherwise hopeless situation and watch them respond to that hope with renewed strength is not only life-changing but reveals the necessity of the priority of love.

On a personal note. I have dealt with the chaos and destruction that results from tornados, hurricanes, typhoons, floods, and other natural disasters. We accept those because they just are part of life. A person cannot fight or be angry at an inanimate force of nature.

The disaster we are facing now though has a face and name-Vladimir Putin. He has done this. The simplicity of this situation is terrifying. Although the world has seen this before I have not. A megalomaniacal tyrant just decides to invade a neighboring country without cause. At will, he changes the course of millions of human lives. Destroying families, ruining childhoods, taking everything including life from people who once lived in peace.

Why does he do this? Because he has a nuclear arsenal and he can. So the Ukrainians stand between world powers armed to the teeth but due to mutual destruction have had their teeth removed. Everyone cheers for Ukraine but does nothing that will stop this serpent and make him retreat.

Yes, if it were possible I would cross the border and give aid and fight if necessary but right now the bigger battle is spiritual. I must remain confident in the sovereignty of God and that we will make good come from evil for those who love him. As much as would love to shoot Putin in the face the judgment of the Lord will much more definite and painful.

Your brother in Christ,
Preacher