Ukraine: How to Help Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland

Our hearts are breaking at the unfolding crisis and war in Ukraine and we want to respond with urgency in practical support, prayer, and financial support.

A CO-ORDINATED VINEYARD RESPONSE

Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Vineyard churches from around the world have come together to communicate and coordinate a response in support of the Ukrainian Vineyard churches and those impacted by this war.

Click here for details of the co-ordinated Vineyard response

There are three key ways that you can continue to support those in Ukraine: Practical, Prayer and Financial.

1. PRACTICAL SUPPORT

Many of you will be looking for practical ways to welcome refugees into your communities and households.

Alongside the UK Government’s ‘Homes for Ukraine‘ programme our good friend Krish Kandiah is also assisting the development and acceleration of this vital provision for Ukrainian refugees through the Sanctuary Foundation.

Potential ways you could be involved include:

welcoming a Ukrainian family to live in your community
finding and possibly furnishing suitable accommodation
befriending and integration support through volunteering your time
raising of support funds.

For more information visit sanctuaryfoundation.org.uk

2. PRAYERFUL SUPPORT

Within the nation of Ukraine, the local church includes a number of Vineyard churches. In order to equip you with how to pray, we’ve collated some prayer points below. You can also download graphics to share online with your churches if that would be helpful.

Download Graphics

• Pray for a different story // Our politicians are predicting the biggest war in Europe since 1945, so let’s cry out God that he would write another story in our time; that he would tear down evil schemes and give wisdom from heaven to peacemakers seeking a less violent way.

• Pray against fear // Pray that God would rescue those who are vulnerable from the hands of their enemies.

• Ukrainian Christians // Pray for the church in Ukraine, a nation in which 70% of the population call themselves Christian. Pray that God would give them courage in this crisis, that they may proclaim the good news of the Kingdom, bind up broken hearts, and bring comfort to all who mourn.

• Salvations // Pray that God would save the lives of many people in Ukraine, bringing redemption by drawing many people to himself.

• Healing // Ask God to deliver Ukraine from evil. May he have mercy and heal this land. May he give Ukraine peace and the chance to develop as a nation that values truth, justice and freedom, all rooted in the goodness of God.

• Vineyard Family // Finally, pray for the Vineyard church plants and those who are part of our global Vineyard family who live in Ukraine.

The above prayer points include those from a prayer written by our friend Pete Greig (Founder of 24-7 Prayer).

Updated prayer points from Jeremy Cook (1st March 2022) “please also pray that the infrastructure continues to work, for peace, for protection, for mercy and grace, for provision, for the old and vulnerable (in Old Testament language: the poor, the widows, the orphans, the alien), for medical supplies doctors and hospitals, and finally that the gospel goes forth and we can demonstrate the mercy, grace, and power of the Kingdom of God at this time.”

3. FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Jeremy Cook is our partnership lead with the Vineyard churches in Ukraine. As someone with daily contact with the local church before and during the war, he has has written an update with further information, prayer points and how you can financially contribute, should you wish.

Dear Friends,

A number of you have been in touch to see how we can continue to help our Vineyard family in Ukraine at this time of war.

For those who aren’t aware, there are three Vineyard churches (Lviv, Kremenchug, Kyiv) in Ukraine and a ministry called Wide Awake International, who rehabilitate and house vulnerable and disabled orphans.

As a movement, we have been praying and fasting for the war in Ukraine using the prayer points on our website and joining with others around the world to intercede and petition.

Practically, there is also an immediate need for finances, so with this in mind, we are building a fund in the UK and Ireland, which we will use for the following purposes.

1. Immediate relief for our churches and any benevolence that they can practically express.

2. Extraction of certain people, particularly the vulnerable, women, and children from the war zone areas.

3. Partner with certain humanitarian organisations where appropriate such as Humedica, Tearfund, Red Cross.

4. Help in the rebuilding, post-war, of the churches and their mission in Ukraine.

The funds will be restricted, but we want to let you know that if it outgrows what sits comfortably within VCUKI, we will then want to be free to use such funds through other organisations which might have more structure on the ground for distribution, as we have done in the past with Tearfund.

We want you to know that there is no compulsion to give, but there has been a large number of enquiries to us, and we wanted to write to you all with the necessary information should you find it helpful for you and your church as you consider ways to respond.