December, 17-24, 2023

Fastiv, 9.12-16.12.2023

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Yesterday, together with volunteers and forcibly resettled families living in our shelter, employees and teachers of our Center of St. Martin, we shared Christmas wishes and thanks for the year spent together in these difficult conditions. So many beautiful words were said, which become a source of inner light in the midst of the darkness of today. – The newborn Christ comes as a defenseless God in the Bethlehem manger, born to parents whom no one wanted to take into their home! But now there are so many families similar to the Holy Family, that sought shelter! For our own shelter, it is all the more important in times of war to accept the helpless, stigmatized, helpless, so that we share what we have with those who may have lost their entire previous life, and not just a roof over their heads.

This week, our volunteers visited Kharkiv with humanitarian aid and sent targeted aid to forcibly displaced families. Thank you, Nova Poshta, for your efficient support. An important component of our aid is the support of the military, recently we have handed over gas bottles, generators, warm socks, tourniquets, and tactical first-aid kits to advanced positions where our defenders are in dire need of our support.

This week, our children from the Catholic School of St. Martin de Porres and the parish of Fastiv joined the charity campaign Christmas gift for defenders and contributed sweets, energy bars, thermal socks and 450 tactical first aid kits to the military, we thank the parents for their support, the children for their active participation, they often gave up their sweets to share them with the soldiers. We would like to thank the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland and the Government Agency of Strategic Reserves for the humanitarian aid in the form of tactical first-aid kits, which we received in December.

Thank you, Charitables Freta and the Charitables Fund, for organizing a charity concert by Polish performers Jakub Józef Orlinski and Aleksandr Dembicz in support of our activities. Thank you for being with us.

In total, 1,971 basic food kits (16,000 kg of humanitarian goods) were distributed this week. Today Kherson was shelled by artillery, and yesterday Kyiv, remember in prayer for all those who are suffering. We continue collecting warm things, thermal socks, chemical heaters, generators, burners. Thank you for every help and extended hand of support!

With prayers

Fr. Mykhailo Romaniv OP