A COVENTRY charity CEO has spoken of the ‘courage, pain and resilience of a nation’s struggle to survive’ after an eye-opening visit to Ukraine.
Last month, Feed The Hungry UK CEO Gwyn Williams visited the war-torn country to visit Pastor Yan Horsu.
Pastor Horsu works with charity partner Bread of Life in distributing food to Churches and communities across Ukraine.
Since the start of the war, Feed The Hungry has sent over 180 lorries containing over 3,000 tons of food and Aid into Ukraine.
During the visit, Gwyn dropped off groceries to villages which had been devastated by the war.
He witnessed the devastation in the country including houses, rubble and craters caused by bombings.
Gwyn said: “When you walk through the rubble of Bakhmut, you see its courage, its pain, its resilience, its tears, its struggle to stand for what it holds dear, all of which I saw in the eyes of a lady in red.
“She stepped out of a cellar door amongst the devastation to greet us – and as the bombs dropped around us she stood in silence for a moment, in defiance of what they faced, then turned and disappeared into the cellar to make us a cup of fruit tea.
“For me that moment in time made me understand the heartbeat of Ukraine.”
In his second drop-off, shells began to pop around him and he took shelter.
“In the stillness after the blasts we took the opportunity to retrieve the food and then we had a few more blasts, closer this time, and received the order to bunker down. We all headed to the cellar.
“A barrage of shells were thumping around us while we were in the cellar, I watched the people’s faces and saw a twitch in the corner of their eyes when the shelling got close.”
On Sunday, Gwyn visited a church and said he was met with an atmosphere of hope mixed with the pain of reality.
“Still I could feel a longing hope for victory, not resolution.
“I spoke of love in desperate places and how God’s provision was being stored up for his people in Ukraine even before the war had started.”
Visit https://feedthehungry.org.uk/ to donate to FeedThe Hungry’s Ukraine appeal.
