Twin Cities Faith-Based Org. On Front Lines In Ukraine To Help Civilians: 'God Will Change Something'
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (WCCO) -- A faith-based organization headquartered in the Twin Cities is on the front lines in Ukraine helping people in need.
WCCO's Reg Chapman spoke with members of Steiger International in Minnesota and in Ukraine.
From his office in Eden Prairie, Aaron Pierce coordinates members of Steiger International's team in Ukraine, Poland and Belarus.
"We were there, we had the network, we had the people that were ready to move and mobilize," Pierce said. "And so I think we were just positioned to meet the need really quickly."
Steiger is not a traditional humanitarian relief organization. It's a global Christian organization that is now using its resources to provide, food, shelter, transportation and fuel to people in Ukraine.
"They decided to leave a group of people in Kyiv to really minister to the needs of the people in the city themselves who couldn't escape," Pierce said.
Valera Ryabokonenko leads the team in Ukraine that visits bomb shelters and subways providing supplies and prayers.
"Every hour I cry, then I close my eyes, I pray, I take my tears out and I start working again," Ryabokonenko said.
He also works with teams in Poland, which is the drop-off point for supplies from the West.
"We are mobilizing the whole Christian world here to not stay and just pray, but to do actually do something," Ryabokonenko said.
His team gets those supplies across the border, and helps Ukrainians escape to safety.
"We're relocating people to take them from the really hard places and take them to the west Ukraine," Ryabokonenko said. "We give them food, we give them medicine."
Back in Eden Prairie, Pierce scrolls his thread of workers who check in with updates about what is going on in Ukraine.
"Russia is starting to use vacuum bombs, which is so devastating," said one Ukrainian volunteer. "They're smashing cities."
All are asking for prayers for not only Ukrainians, but people from Russia and Belarus who don't support Vladimir Putin's aggressive stance.
"We believe that the world will help us, and we believe that God will change something," Ryabokonenko said.
Many of the people mobilized are split from their families, as women and children leave the country and men stay behind to help or fight.
