Local churches bring ‘Heat & Hope’ as Ukrainians shiver into fourth winter of war
LOVES PARK, Ill. — Ukraine faces a winter of “frozen peril” — a looming humanitarian emergency marked by power blackouts and bone-chilling temperatures as people struggle to stay warm.
For the fourth consecutive year, winter itself is being “weaponized” to cause suffering on a massive scale, with drone attacks crippling power plants and gas facilities, leaving millions without electricity or heat.
“You can imagine what that means for families already displaced and hungry,” said Eric Mock, vice president of ministry operations for Slavic Gospel Association (SGA). “No light, no heat, no way to cook food or keep warm.”
The Illinois-based mission agency has launched its winter Heat & Hope campaign — an effort to supply local evangelical churches across Ukraine with generators so they can double up as “warming centers,” providing warm places for people to gather, rest, and also find hope.
“My family in Ukraine stays without heating and light for half of the day,” said Oleksandra Abramchuk, a young mother from Kiev, currently living in the U.S. “Imagine families with kids in the winter — no heating, no light, you cannot keep your children warm, sometimes going days without a hot meal.”
Heat & Hope
In one northern village near the Belarusian border, Peter—a longtime SGA-supported pastor—has become a symbol of resilience. When his church received a generator after months in the dark, he hitched it to a trailer and set out across the snow. “I will not only provide power to my church,” he said. “There are two other villages where I pastor. Wherever I go, there is heat and hope.”
The need for generators — costing about $2,800 a piece — is even more critical this winter, Mock said, citing reports that major parts of Kiev, the capital, are likely to be without electricity.
Meanwhile, in remote villages near the frontlines, many families are living in homes badly damaged by explosions. Local pastors brave the danger to deliver firewood and coal, often sharing the Gospel in the open air as villagers collect fuel for fires.
“Even in the coldest conditions, people come to church bundled up in thick coats and blankets to sing and pray together,” Mock said. “They thank God they’re alive.”
SGA supports more than a hundred local missionary pastors across Ukraine, and its local evangelical church network has distributed more than five million meals since the conflict began.
Operation Winter Warmth
The organization’s winter aid extends deep into Far East Russia, including the coldest place on earth in the frozen tundra of Yakutia and remote Siberia.
Temperatures there in January plummet to -58 degrees Fahrenheit, or -50 degrees Celsius. At such bone-chilling temperatures, exposed skin suffers frostbite in seconds, and beards and eyebrows freeze solid.
Yet local missionaries, brimming with evangelistic zeal, don’t let the extreme Arctic conditions — or the challenge of crossing hundreds of miles of treacherous icy terrain — stop Operation Winter Warmth. SGA-supported teams venture along frozen river beds to deliver warm clothing, blankets, and share the Gospel with villagers who have never heard about Jesus.
“In these places, paganism and old spiritual traditions run deep,” Mock said, explaining that many still worship the sun, moon, and “gods of the lake.”
“When Christians arrive, bringing blankets and warm clothes with them, many are open to hearing the good news about Jesus Christ,” said Mock.
“In a world that is frozen and without hope, every flicker of warmth tells people they’re not forgotten.”
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Founded in 1934, Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) helps “forgotten” orphans, widows and families in Ukraine, Russia, the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel – caring for their physical needs and sharing the life-transforming Gospel. SGA supports an extensive grassroots network of local evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across this vast region.
