Thank you to our friends with The Antioch Partners who are living and working with Shapoor in the UK. This story is just one example of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit among the Persian-speaking community, and we are glad to share it with you. Also, thank you to the congregations and donors who are making stories like these possible!

When we first met Mohammed, Parham, Soheil, Pouya, Artum, and Jabal back in February, their warmth, friendship, and desire to learn more about Christianity and Christ were evident. Soheil was already a believer and had fled Iran after his house church had been broken up by the religious police.

Thank you from Ukraine

Through the incredible generosity of donors and congregations, The Outreach Foundation has helped to supply critical medical support throughout Ukraine. The medical supplies originate from outside Ukraine, collected in Romania by our partner Beni Husarciuc (a Cru staff person) who drives them to another partner, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv. From there, the medical supplies are moved to the central hospital in Lviv and dispersed to a number of remote medical units. Because of the personal way this is being done we are able to receive pictures and stories.

Ukraine Appeal - Getting to Know Our Partners - Sanna of City Church, Lithuania

Meet Sanna Karosas, a dynamic, lovely, and joyful Christian woman who is Pastor Saulius’ wife. Today (April 29) she received the Lithuanian Award of Merit from the President of Lithuania for her sacrificial work with Downs’ Syndrome children!

City Church has three congregations, each one providing various forms of humanitarian and spiritual compassion to Ukrainian refugees. It has been a significant and time-consuming project, with job training, networking for employment, arranging for health care and education, and organizing a hotel that is managed by the Ukrainians themselves. They are an example of what a healthy partnership looks like.

Ukraine Appeal - Mission Eurasia - Anna's Story

Anna’s story: spiritual rebirth emerging from the ruins of war

Anna lived in Kyiv when the war broke out. She spent many days in her basement listening to explosions. When a Russian rocket hit her neighbor’s house, Anna and her family made the decision to evacuate. They didn’t know anyone in western Ukraine so they decided to take the first available train. That train happened to be going to Chernivtsi. When they arrived, they were met by the volunteers of Mission Eurasia's refugee assistance center, who helped her family find a place to live.

Ukraine Appeal - Lviv - Be Still and Know I am God

“Help!” Father Oleh Kindii of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv messaged me while The Outreach Foundation was visiting Shapoor and other partners in our Iranian diaspora initiatives in Liverpool. My focus briefly went to Facebook and I saw it: a long list of various antibiotics, prednisone, several thousand sterile compresses, and other specialized medical supplies. The need was urgent. Supplies in Ukraine had been depleted but doctors and nurses are flooded daily with new patients with life-threatening injuries. My head was spinning, but the Lord had everyone in the right place at the right time. “Be still and know that I am God.”

Europe, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationApril 13, 2022Ukraine, Ukraine Appeal, Europe Initiative, Europe

Ukraine Appeal - Warsaw - God Has Put These People Under Our Care

The Outreach Foundation is honored to connect U.S. congregations with our friends in Warsaw, Poland at the College of Theology in Social Sciences. This Christian college trains men and women for service to the church in Eastern Europe. No easy task in a context where sharing the gospel is likened to “plowing through concrete.” Today, administration, faculty, and students are actively involved in relief work for 37 refugees from Ukraine. “Each family, each person is a different story. But there is one thing all of these 37 individuals have in common: God has put these 37 people under our care.” Piotr Nowak, president of the college, took the initiative without knowing from where support might come. That same day The Outreach Foundation sent $15,000! During our recent visit, he shared, “The funds were a miracle.”

Europe, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationApril 11, 2022Ukraine, Ukraine Appeal, Warsaw, Poland, Europe, Europe Initiative

Ukraine Appeal - Relief Has Become Personal

Providing care to people from Ukraine is taking personal shape in Lithuania as people open their homes to receive women and their children. City Church’s pastor, Saul, his wife Sanna, and their three children have opened their home to Nastya from Mykolaiv, Ukraine.

Ukraine Appeal - City Church Lithuania Update

Our friends at City Church in Lithuania have been hard at work responding to the urgent needs of people fleeing Ukraine. The situation has been quite fluid and The Outreach Foundation has been following their efforts closely. We are pleased to provide you with a substantial update on their work.

The Importance of Showing Up

For many, a simple card of prayer is a wonderful and understandable expression of love and support from American Christians. Yet for the generation of Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans who were alive before 1990, other reactions rise to the surface, mainly fear and PTSD.

EuropeThe Outreach FoundationMarch 22, 2022Ukraine, Ukraine Appeal, Eastern Europe, Europe, Europe Initiative

City Church in Lithuania to Aid Orphans from Ukraine

God has told us to focus on the orphans of this war. Pastor Saul of City Church in Lithuania joined The Outreach Foundation’s team visiting Iranian refugees in Liverpool. While with us, he shared that the elders of City Church have discerned its war relief focus will fulfill the call issued in James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

EuropeThe Outreach FoundationMarch 16, 2022Ukraine, Ukraine Appeal, Europe, Europe Initiative, Eastern Europe

Stories from Ukrainians sheltering in Lithuania

Churches across the USA and even some in Europe have been responding with generosity to The Outreach Foundation’s Ukraine Appeal. Through our partners, we have the privilege to bring a more personal face to the now 2 million refugees who have been unsettled from their homes. One of our fantastic partners doing miraculous work in Eastern Europe is City Church from Lithuania. The following comes to us directly from the Pastor, Saul Karosas. City Church has congregations in three Lithuanian cities, including the capital Vilnius, each of which are receiving refugees from Ukraine.

EuropeThe Outreach FoundationMarch 8, 2022Ukraine, Ukraine Appeal, Europe Initiative, Europe

A Roundtable with Church Leaders in Ukraine

The Church of Ukraine is diverse, though more heavily populated by the Ukrainian Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic, and Ukrainian Greek Catholic traditions. On Friday morning, March 4, the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv held a round table discussion between key representatives of these major traditions. Tom Boone, our Associate Director of Mission and staff point person for our European Initiatives, was honored to be invited to this dialogue.

The purpose of the round table was to present how their various traditions are responding to the war. Also, each provided insights into their traditions’ official positions regarding Moscow. It was inspiring to see these leaders take time to express their views openly even as they are enmeshed in this war. One of the leaders was delivering humanitarian relief to Kyiv and showed us the traffic crossing a bridge and activity at a checkpoint.

Ukraine Appeal Update: “Our hearts are very heavy"

More than 1.7 million Ukrainians have joined millions of other refugees in Europe. Among them, God has planted many Christians who are being faithful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They do so even as they cope with their own fear, exhaustion, and want to do something, but are unsure about what is next. The Outreach Foundation has partnered with City Church in Lithuania to provide shelter for families who have fled Ukraine, and we are pleased to share the story of one family.

Meet Sergii, Nataliya, and her mother Evgeniya.

To see their selfie from a few months ago they could be any of us! Today they are refugees of this war.

EuropeThe Outreach FoundationMarch 3, 2022Ukraine, Europe Initiative, Eastern Europe

Europe Initiative - January 2022 Update

Jesus, Bread of life, Multiplying Loaves and Lives in Liverpool

This story has been used with permission from Operation Promises.

Imagine fleeing from your home, cut off from family and friends, and facing an unknown future. This is the painful reality confronting many refugees. Layered on this trauma is the uncertainty and pain of the pandemic. Yet, there is hope and life to be found even in the midst of these distressing times. The Frontline Iranian Refugee Church, located in the heart of Liverpool, is a place where God is working and bringing about new life and a hopeful future for many displaced people.

Europe, Partnership, Projects, Middle EastThe Outreach FoundationJanuary 31, 2022Europe Initiative

Europe Initiative - November 2021 Update

Behzad and Sameh are Iranian Christians who live in Turkey as refugees. For many years they have had a calling to minister to the Iranian youth and mentor many of them in their walk with God. They especially have a tender heart for the youth that are struggling with issues of faith, identity, and hope about their future. Many of these young people (who are also refugees in Turkey) find Behzad and his family safe people that they can confide in and relate to as friends.

Middle East, Partnership, Projects, EuropeThe Outreach FoundationNovember 17, 2021Europe Initiative, Europe, Turkey

Europe Initiative: News from the European Diaspora

Many of us are reading despairing news out of Afghanistan and wondering how the Lord would have us respond. The Outreach Foundation has discovered that millions of people are fleeing their homes from places like Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran, Pakistan, and Central Asia and converging in Europe. And they are discovering that God’s promise to Isaiah is for them. “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19).

Those who have left homes with little to nothing are encountering the gospel in Europe through the bold witness of evangelists, pastors, and house churches. And not just refugees. People in Europe are hearing the gospel alongside refugees such as the evangelistic outreach in Poland pictured here.

Europe, Important News, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationAugust 19, 2021Europe Initiative, Europe

Partner Updates