DeKalb pastor raising funds to help Kyiv

Pastor Phil Perez (Left), of the DeKalb Church of Christ, visited the Ukrainian capitol city of Kyiv in December 2019, right before the coronavirus pandemic hit. His congregation is part of the larger Chicago Church of Christ network which sends missionaries and develops partnerships with churches in the Eastern European country. (Photo provided by Phil Perez, shows from left to right: Phil Perez, Dima, Lena and Max Dubowski, Lena and Peter who invited him into their home in Kyiv for dinner, Dec. 2019)

Perez said he’s trying to raise money to send to Kyiv so that their sister church with a congregation of about 2,000 people can find safe shelter for their families. He said a hotel in Moldova, also of the former Soviet Union which borders Ukraine to the south east, has agreed to hold rooms for church congregants if they can make their way out of the country.

“Right now, our church is figuring out how to raise $50,000 to give 265 people a chance to flee if they need to flee and then feed them for a month,” Perez said. “But nothing’s organized yet. You can’t just throw money there when the country’s in chaos. I was told today they gave us a deal on the hotel rooms, but the bus ride to get there is now $3,000. That’s not great.”

For years, the Chicago Church of Christ network has donated money to its sister congregation in Kyiv and many other Eastern European churches, Perez said. In 2021, Perez’s own congregation raised $14,000 to donate there. The Chicago-area network raised $750,000 in total last year, he said. The money goes primarily to fund staff in the European churches, he said.

Read original article by the Daily Chronicle; February 24, 2022