With the escalation of the war in Ukraine in Feb of 2022, life changed for a lot of Europeans. When Ukrainian families had to flee because their cities and villages were being bombed, someone had to take them in. Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia are among the top European recipients of refugees as they border Ukraine and have been very helpful and supportive in this time of need. But these countries couldn’t take in millions and millions of refugees on their own, and a lot of other European countries stepped in to help. As of late June 2022, nearly 7 million Ukrainians have fled their country, with more than half, around 4.3 million, going to Poland. No doubt Poland has taken in the greatest amount of refugees, but its not easy to house, feed and provide medical attention to an influx of over 4 million people by a country Poland’s size. Of course not all 4.3 million refugees stayed in Poland. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany and a few others bordering Poland have been helping relieve the burden Poland has taken on.
Pastor Slavik Mayboroda, being from Ukraine, wanted to help at least some the people fleeing his own country. He left Russia with his family, where they’d been doing missionary work in the Far-East for over 20 years now, and went to Latvia. In Latvia, he first served the Ukrainian refugees as a pastor and counselor, talking to people and praying with them. Most of them still had family in Ukraine. He later joined volunteers from churches to help bring smore Ukrainian refugees in to Latvia from Poland.