Ukraine Appeal — We Carry On
A story of flourishing in Eastern Europe
Maria is a psychologist from Ukraine who works in Poland. “The trauma I am seeing in children is terrible. It is a very different type of trauma, hidden trauma. In the first days after the children escaped their towns in Ukraine, such as Mariupol, Izium, and Deobropillya, they did not say anything. They just sat in silence. There is nothing worse than the silence of children when they hear certain words that remind them of the war or of their hometown. They fall silent and just stare into nowhere.”
When The Outreach Foundation’s team was returning from Kyiv, we sat at the Poland border for several hours, knowing we would get back into the country. One of the buses we saw was filled with many young children and their mothers from Eastern Ukraine. What we saw on that bus was exactly what Maria describes: children just sitting in silence. It was painful to see.
Maria is among the psychologists recently trained for trauma healing through a six-month advanced course at the College of Theology and Social Sciences (WSTS) in Warsaw. She and several other counselors provide trauma counseling to Ukrainian mothers and their children at the recently developed Novus Center, which is on the grounds of WSTS. Maria reports, “Children are feeling the heavy burden of displacement, uncertainty, fear, loss, and tragedy.”
What makes Novus Center unique? “Here in Poland, there are a number of public and private institutions offering psychological support to Ukrainian refugees. Some of these offer free support. What makes us different? THE GOSPEL. We are the only Christian trauma counseling center in Poland offering professional psychological support to refugees in Ukrainian and Russian.”
WSTS continues to host 17 Ukrainian refugees whose homes are in Russian-annexed territory, and they have helped nearly 400 refugees transition to apartments in Poland, locate jobs, receive language instruction, or return to Ukraine. A second course of training for trauma counseling is set to begin soon with a focus on pastors who are increasingly on the front lines of this important work, yet have no training.
WSTS is helping people carry on, but leadership sees well beyond this current situation through the creation of South American cooperation. Piotr and Stasia Nowak (WSTS president and director of Novus Center) and Aneta and Pablo Montano visited Argentina and Bolivia in January. WSTS is working with Hebron Theological Seminary and Bolivian Evangelical University to help students in South America receive education with European accreditation. This is invaluable to them and reflects the heart of mission at WSTS.
THE OPPORTUNITY
They are asking for our prayers for peace in Ukraine, as the war is having a terrible impact on millions of people. Thanks to donations, The Outreach Foundation helped fund the new trauma counseling training cycle focusing on pastors in small churches. Let’s pray for these pastors. And pray for WSTS leadership, Piotr and Stasia Nowak, Aneta and Pablo Montano, and the rest of the faculty and staff who are building WSTS into a gospel-bearing center for Eastern Europe and now South America.
WSTS and Novus Center are incredible education-based ministries run by people with servant’s hearts in one of the most difficult places in the world for the gospel to flourish. If you wish to support WSTS or NOVUS CENTER financially, please do so HERE.