People in Fairview, Vancouver pray and raise money to support loved ones in Ukraine

FAIRVIEW, Ore. (KPTV) -- People in our area are gathering to pray and raising money to support family and friends in Ukraine.

“We started the baking process 24/7 today. We deliver to children’s hospital here,” Andriy Vasylenko said in a daily video update Sunday.

His nephew in Vancouver, Ivan Sobovoy, shared with us that his uncle’s been delivering to hospitals, people fighting, people bound to their homes, and anyone else who needs it.

Vasylenko works for a company that provides raw ingredients to bakeries, so when so much of Ukrainian life came to a sudden halt, he knew this was a way he could help.

“A lot of tragedy, bomb scene, death is breaking the spirit, but when the people come out of the shelters and they see and they smell the fresh bread and they see people are volunteering making this, there’s hope,” Sobovoy said.

“These kinds of examples of people is really what’s turning the tide.”

And even while helping so many, the bakers have to protect themselves.

“There is danger in case of shelling, people can be hit so we are putting now bags of sand and trying to secure that,” Vasylenko said.

Because of the tragedy happening there, Sunday night more than a thousand people gathered at the Ukrainian Bible Church in Fairview to pray and fundraise for loved ones back home.

“We want to do whatever we can do for our people, for our nation, for our brothers and sisters, for whoever is left in Ukraine,” one of the pastors at the church, Dorel Maftey said. “We can pray because that’s the most powerful weapon in the world.”

Many Ukrainian and American pastors, and local city, school and law enforcement leaders spoke too, sending an important message to the people in Ukraine that they are not alone.