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Timely aid for Kazakhstan
When we decided in the spring to bring financial aid to Kazakhstan this year, no one knew how desperately needed it would be. The unrest in Almaty and Nur-Sultan has only exacerbated the crisis.
In November, our brothers Nikolai Wall (Ramstein congregation) and Rudolf Witmaier (Speyer congregation) visited the congregations north of Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana or Zelynograd).
Thus, the communities in Nur-Sultan, Makinsk, Kökchetau, Shchuchinsk, Tayynsha and Petropalovsk were blessed with the word of God and generous help.
More than 3,000 families received assistance. This aid was distributed not only to church members but also to needy individuals outside the congregation. This enabled us to help people with health limitations, large families, and children in orphanages and nursing homes. The local brothers testified that they could not recall ever having carried out such an initiative in their region. Their hearts were therefore filled with profound gratitude to the Lord. On behalf of all the recipients, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for your active participation in giving and for your prayers. Only God can and will reward you with His blessing.
God is great! The congregations in southern Kazakhstan also received a visit with help. Our brothers from Bremen provided for the congregations in southern Kazakhstan.
Visited communities in Kazakhstan
Food parcels
This year has once again shown us how diligent the communities are when it comes to helping the poorer among us.
As every year, most of the FECG congregations collected donations particularly diligently. This allowed us to send three truckloads of food parcels from Cloppenburg to Romania and Moldova. In addition, the Cloppenburg congregations sent 600 shoeboxes to Romania and Moldova as part of the "Shoeboxes for Children" campaign.
The municipality of Pforzheim was able to transport 640 food parcels and approximately 360 shoe boxes to the Romanian cities of Bärlad and Negresti.
The Romanian communities in Petrila and Ternopil were supplied with approximately 2500 food parcels from Speyer.
Due to the coronavirus restrictions, we were unable to organize group trips in connection with the Christmas campaign. Our brothers and sisters from the congregations in Romania took it upon themselves to distribute the packages.
Thank God that we can bring joy to people at Christmas during these troubled times. Through these acts of kindness, many prayers of thanks are offered to God. In this way, our Heavenly Father, who provides us all with life, health, and resources, is honored in every way.
Until a package arrives at the person in need:
The mission orders empty cardboard boxes of the same size and distributes them to churches in Germany. Some churches use the mission meetings, which take place four times a year, to pick up the empty boxes in Speyer. Once the packages arrive at the churches, they are taken home. During their weekly shopping trips, the donors purchase the items described. When everything is carefully packed, the donors bring the packages back to the mission grounds via the churches. Here, the packages are loaded and then taken to their destination, which we determine together beforehand at the mission meeting. In our time, it is hard to imagine that even a package of basic food items can be a help. Certainly, a family cannot live on a food package for long. But anyone who has participated in distributing such aid in the poorer regions of Europe knows exactly how many prayers of thanks are offered to God when the recipients receive this simple help.
Looking back on this Christmas campaign, all we can say is: Thank you, Lord, for the guardian angel who accompanied our transports. Thank you that we were able to help at the right time and in the right place. Thank you for your ineffable gift.
CDH-Stephanus
Team Speyer
More information about the project: