“We’ve just done it locally, within the church and the people we know,” Pastor Jay said of donation efforts. Source: Chuwar Baptist Church.
Chuwar Baptist Church may be over 14,000km away from Ukraine but the 100-person congregation of this church knew they had to help out.
Nestled in a suburb some 10 minutes away from Ipswich, Pastor Jay and his humble congregation felt an immense need to do something for refugees of the Ukraine crisis.
“We were thinking what can we do? ”
It was important to Pastor Jay that their money go to an “organisation on the ground” so to avoid admin fees and the wondering of where people’s hard-earned money had really gone.
Then a member from his church came up with an idea that Pastor Jay called “genius”.
“There has been a huge humanitarian crisis that has been put on especially Poland, and so why don’t we donate to an organization in Poland that is actually doing something for these millions of refugees who have gone in there.”
With that in mind they got in contact with Chelm Baptist, a church that sits within 25km of the north-eastern Ukrainian border.
“Refugees were going from Lviv and through a not so little place called Chelm in Poland,” said Pastor Jay.
“That was there first port of call because a lot of them would make their way onto Warsaw.”
Members of the Polish church detailed that they were inundated with people and were in desperate need of food, water, clothing, and other essential items. They mentioned that one of the biggest issues they faced was crisis accommodation and that more permanent housing was needed.
With news of such desperation, Pastor Jay and his church set up a fund back in March to start collecting donations.
In just three months, about 100 people have managed to raise over $5000 which he’s called a “privilege to do so”.
“We are small… but it’s something we can do.
“We haven’t advertised, so it’s just been through the church, you know I think people still have a heart.”
He added the more donations the merrier and mentioned “we’re just going to push it through”.
Chelm Baptist has said they’re “very appreciative” of the donations and have put the money towards crucial disaster care.
Pastor Jay also told NewsCop that it’s important to keep the crisis “before peoples eyes” citing the dwindling news coverage.
“A lot of it [media attention] has died down but the crisis is still there, those people are still there, they still need feeding, crisis care, counselling services and things like that.
“You know we are so blessed in this country, we have so much and I can’t imagine the horror they’re going through.”
It’s not the first time Chuwar Baptist has led such efforts to help in a crisis. Back in 2020, they launched a fund to support victims of the Beirut explosion in Lebanon, while earlier this year they raised more than $1200 for displaced people of the Queensland floods.
If you’d like to make a donation, follow this link, and mark the donation ‘Ukraine Crisis’: https://chuwarbaptist.com/giving
