Hello friends of Open Arms! It’s been a while. Our last blog was right before all this coronavirus business got so crazy. But despite the silence over here and the fact that life has really slowed down in a lot of ways, we have had an increase in the needs we’ve seen in the village. Melissa has been keeping me (Anika) updated on how things are going over there. This is a quick update from Melissa that she sent on May 1st.
One morning this week, our dogs started barking and we thought it was the Ded [Ukrainian for “grandpa”] coming for some food. When Sasha opened the gate it was a woman. She said she lived down the street. She had just gotten out of prison and had heard there were some Christians who lived here that might help her. We said we could get her some food and if she needed help getting her field ready for planting, we could help. Here we’ll call her Miss O.
We got a call that one of the guy’s we have been helping, we’ll call him V, will be in the psychiatric hospital for 6 months. Just like the prisons here, they need food and other supplies. So we were able to purchase some food and drop it off for him.
[As a side note… Some of the things we do are hard to share in detail or post about on social media due to sensitivities of people’s personal and private lives and stories. If you would like to follow a little more of an inside look at some of our outreach you can request our private Instagram account @THISisopenarms. We started that a while back as an attempt to share more in a private space without risk of anyone in Ukraine seeing it. If you send a request and we don’t allow you right away, shoot us a message telling us who you are. Now back to the main point.]
So even though most of us have been staying home, even in staying home there have been opportunities to help. Melissa and Sasha have been to visit the friend V in the hospital and bring him food and necessities multiple times. Our new friend and neighbor Miss O comes by regularly for more help and has been working hard to set up her house and establish her life now that she’s out and home. She’s been sharing with Melissa about her past, her mistakes and regrets, and how she’s working to change and get by now. Just today while I was talking to Melissa and Sasha, they told me they’d been at her house 3 times today between bringing her a mattress, trying to get an antenna hooked up, and dropping off some bags of cement that she needed. Then there’s Ded Yura, who we’ve known for a few years now, who comes by anywhere from 1 to 3 times a week in need of some food.
It feels like the orange fence is a bit of an informal food bank for those in need. We’re excited that we’ve had new chances for reaching out to our neighbors and community in this way! With all this in mind though, we have a new need for budget growth to help provide in this way. We need to raise $1000 to help cover these costs right now and would love it if you can join in with us. If you would like to give you can use the link below to click right over to PayPal Giving Fund to donate.
paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/2305015
Or you can always donate on Facebook or by check sent to us at PO Box 1148, Oakley, CA 94561
Thank you!!