Local Slavic church provides holiday help for refugees trying to escape Ukraine war

By RACHEL WULFF

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    SACRAMENTO (KOVR) — The largest Slavic church in the country is located in Sacramento, and they are asking for your help in serving the thousands of immigrants here and overseas trying to escape the war in Ukraine.

Volunteers at Bethany Slavic Missionary Church prepped gift bags for immigrants. Many of them are immigrants themselves.

“This is a copy of what we do every week,” said Viktor Yevchenko.

He is one of the pastors there behind a program that began when the war in Ukraine began. It’s called “Help Your Neighbor.”

“Like Jesus said, I was thirsty, he gave me drink. I was hungry, he gave me food. I needed clothing, he clothed me. This is exactly the core of this ministry,” Yevchenko said.

Each week, they provide basic necessities to hundreds of families, but it’s more than just a giveaway.

“It’s a community. It’s a fellowship. People come, they make connections and they communicate with each other beyond this event,” Yevchenko said.

They have a team of more than 50 people who connect with immigrants to meet their resettlement needs, including people like Nadia Lichtar.

“I came 26 years ago to the United States,” she said.

Lichtar studied to become a teacher and now speaks English, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and a little Spanish. The first thing immigrants need is housing.

“It is very expensive. Also, we need apartments for them. Some people, they are sleeping outside,” Lichtar said.

She knows that all too well. This single mother of five went through the same thing.

“I had difficulties before, and with God’s help, my church helped me to stay in a house,” she said.

Lichtar said Americans helped her and now she is returning the favor. Her longtime dream “was when I had enough money, I will help a lot of people,” she said.

Bag by bag, volunteers help each week. Church leaders say, with the harsh winter in Ukraine, they need to energize support to send generators.

“We want to give them some kind of power, wooden stoves and we package them and send them out to churches, to houses and big families,” Yevchenko said.

The church hopes to rally even more support during a holiday dinner where immigrant families will receive their gift bags. Organizers hope there will be other financial donations, furniture and even cars.

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