There are many resources available to help you connect and interact with others who have an interest in or a partnership with mission efforts in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and surrounding countries. Here are a few of those resources to get you started:
Ellen Smith
Regional Liaison for Central and Eastern Europe
Ellen has more than 20 years of experience as a mission worker in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other Eastern European countries, and can connect you with agencies, churches and educators with particular specialties.
Contact her.
Invite Ellen to visit your church
A visit from a World Mission representative can inform and energize your congregation to expand or renew its mission efforts in other parts of the world.
Learn more.
Join the Eastern Europe Partnership Network
The Eastern Europe Partnership Network brings together Presbyterians from around the United States who share a common mission focus in Eastern Europe. The network facilitates building and maintaining healthy partnerships and provides a place for representatives of various PC(USA) partnerships to share information, learn from each other, coordinate their efforts and find ways to have greater impact together as a network.
Subscribe to the EEPN occasional newsletter. View the newsletter archives for more information.
Jean Waters, Eastern Europe Partnership Network Communications Director
(info@h2osemails.net)
Jean can add you to the email list to receive the Eastern Europe Partnership Network newsletter. She can also connect you to other members of the Eastern Europe Partnership Network Steering Committee.
Join the Eastern Europe Partnership Network Facebook group to see additional updates, articles and events of note. The group page is private, to provide increased security. EEPN also has a public Facebook page that provides updates and information that would not compromise security for any of our partners.
Attend the Eastern Europe Partnership Network Annual Conference
The two-day conference, both live and online, will include speakers, discussion groups and networking. See the Eastern Europe Partnership Network newsletter and Facebook page for details.
Prayer Cards
Distribute prayer cards for Ellen Smith and for the Eastern Europe Partnership Network.
Donate to the Eastern Europe Partnership Network
Connect with PCUSA Peacemakers
The PC(USA) Peacemakers group is engaged with partners in Lithuania for a study mission on peacemaking. The toolkit for this work provides more information and ways to engage.
Partners
Partners change through the years. It is important to contact Ellen Smith to connect with the partners, so that any security and coordination considerations are vetted. The partners know Ellen, so it’s necessary to have her make contact. Many of these partners have public Facebook pages or other information that can be accessed. We have many partners in Russia but will not list them at this time due to security reasons. Current partners include:
YMCA of Moldova
Facebook page: facebook.com/ymcamoldova
Reform Church of Poland
LCC International University
LCC International University is a private university with a four-year liberal arts curriculum and a strong and intentional theme of peacebuilding woven into the program and activities of the school. The student body of almost 800 students represents 64 different countries, and the faculty is international as well. The school actively recruits students from countries dealing with violent conflicts. There are challenges of sharing a dorm room with students from other cultures and sometimes from countries at war with each other, of course. Programs and activities at the school pave the way for good relations, however, and students find that their differences are “not really an issue.” For the most part, the students’ future plans are to use their chosen major, overall education, and networks to return to their country and make it a better place.
All students at LCC take four semesters in Bible study. There are students of all faiths and ones who are not religious or who are atheists or agnostics at LCC, but they all study the Christian Bible. In addition to the four-year curriculum, LCC offers a semester for “study abroad” students and short-term intensive courses focused on peacebuilding.
Hope Center in Vilnius
In 1994, Larissa was moved to provide a hearty meal for a homeless woman she encountered in her hometown of Vilnius, Lithuania. The experience awoke in her a keen awareness of the needs in her own community to feed the hungry, and she gradually found space and support to feed many people in need, expanding her mission over the years, until, in 2022, her service to the city was recognized and the city built a new building with about 30 rooms, space for a variety of services, and an industrial kitchen for her small organization to house and feed the homeless.
One week after they took possession of the new building, Russia invaded Ukraine, and suddenly Ukrainian refugees were arriving in the city. The new Hope Center quickly redirected their attention and took in these refugees, most of them women and children, until they were able to find housing and employment. Currently, most of the refugees have found other housing, but they still need help feeding their families. The Hope Center currently serves the homeless population as intended, providing temporary housing for some and meals for 200-plus people per day, while continuing to provide weekly food supplies to 350-plus Ukrainians. The services they provide with care and love are a monumental task carried out by a few employees and some volunteers, and they are sorely in need of funds to hire more staff.
Larissa describes this journey as a series of miracles; each time she reached a low point and feared the work could not go on, God provided just the right people or resources to help take them to the next level of care. Now, in her aging years, Larissa prays for another miracle, for God to provide the right people to take over the mission long after she is gone.
Sant’Egidio
Friends of the Poor is a nonprofit organization caring for those on the margins, including the elderly, Roma, youth and people on the move. Yuriy Lifanse is the leader. Facebook page: facebook.com/santegidio.ua
Grupa Granica
Grupa Granica/Egala’s Facebook page: facebook.com/grupagranica
Evangelical School of Theology in Wrocław, Poland
Zdorovii Gorod (the Refugee Center in Balti, Moldova)
This refugee center in the city of Bălți (pronounced Baltz) supports Ukrainian refugees, including Roma refugees from Ukraine, and the Moldovans providing accommodations for refugees, supported by Church World Services. Facebook page: facebook.com/zdoroviigorod