PCCR News and Updates

Turkey/Syria 🇹🇷🇸🇾 Today was a storm of events, working to establish contacts in a new country. We met with one government organization in a town in eastern Turkey. They informed us that the needs here are well covered. There are towns and villages further west that seem to be in worse situations. Tomorrow, we’ll travel there to assess some of these areas and hope to start the work. Overall, the international response to the catastrophe here has been good. The government has a system in place to ensure all areas receive assistance, and many large global organizations are working with their system to do recovery, rescue, and food supply. We are monitoring the situation in Syria and continue to seek opportunities to go there. It still is a very complex situation with little to no access. Pray for our team tomorrow, that we could find the needs and bring help and hope there. #Syria #Turkey #earthquake #CrisisResponse #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #hope #PCCR

Ukraine 🇺🇦 The last three weeks, Pete and I had spent hours and days together. We were working on setting up the evacuation network and during that time, he became one of my best friends in Ukraine, outside of our immediate and extended team. Last week, we were planning a trip where we would go into Bakhmut together to meet with local people about the evacuation needs in the city. We weren't able to go in together so Pete and his team went in to have these meetings. They didn't show up on time. We soon got a phone call that their team was bombed in the city. Pete died and three others were injured. The only person that had not gotten injured was the guy who called us. Five hours later, we were told that Pete was found alive in the back of an ambulance, but the next morning, I found that the rumor was false. A military unit went into Bakhmut to track down his body and they found him and confirmed he was dead. Pete's death was like a punch in the gut for me. We enjoyed working together and were excited at the prospect of doing that for a long time. There's also the aspect that I was planning to be along when this happened. It makes me think deep things… He died doing what he was passionate about. They were driving through the city while it was being bombed. They came upon a vehicle that had just been hit and was on fire. One person was laying on the road beside the vehicle and another injured person was sitting nearby. In true Pete-style he whipped in with his vehicle and jumped out to provide medical care. What he didn't know is the Russians were waiting till rescuers come. Once Pete and his people came to the patients, the Russians dropped another bomb and killed him. Pete must have heard it come screaming in, since he was killed shielding someone else. This person survived the blast. Pray for his family and everyone involved. #Ukraine #UkraineWar #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #HumanitarianCrisis #Hope #PCCR

Turkey/Syria 🇹🇷🇸🇾 We are deploying a four-person team to Turkey. Our objective is to assess the needs that are showing up on social media forums and to assist where needed. At this point, we’re expecting to start with medical and rescue operations. The latest reports are of 11,200 dead, but that number is expected to rise to over 18,000 in the coming days. The region is still experiencing massive aftershocks and buildings are collapsing, in some cases while the search for survivors is ongoing. We are also assessing the needs in Syria. The situation there is harder since the most severe damage is in areas that are not easily accessible. We are looking into opportunities to work in these areas. Pray for us as we navigate through this situation. 🙏🏼 Photo source - BBC #Syria #Turkey #earthquake #CrisisResponse #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #hope #PCCR

Haiti 🇭🇹 Imagine that you only make the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour (a total of $58.00/day), but one gallon of fuel costs $145.00. Or that you had to work nine days just to buy a bag of rice for $522.00 that lasts only seven days for your family. This is the reality of Haitian families that have jobs. Two thirds of Haitians are currently unemployed. Most employers pay only the minimum wage $3.22 a day. In the current crisis, one gallon of fuel cost $8.00 and a bag of rice that last 7 days can be bought for $30.00. The average employee has to work nine days just for a bag of rice. What about clean drinking water or other basic needs? It all became very difficult. The situation is compounded with an estimated 96,000 people who were displaced do to gang violence (statistics by UN). Where are these 96,000 people? We don’t have refugee camps or countries that are allowing Haitians to flee into other countries. They all have moved to rural areas of Haiti, living with family members and friends, making an already difficult situation impossible. Think about 100,000 people displaced, without a single refugee camp. In spite of this, Haitians are incredible at opening their doors and taking care of each other, even if it means harder living conditions for themselves. #Haiti #CrisisResponse #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #hope #PCCR

Haiti 🇭🇹 Imagine that you only make the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour (a total of $58.00/day), but one gallon of fuel costs $145.00. Or that you had to work nine days just to buy a bag of rice for $522.00 that lasts only seven days for your family. This is the reality of Haitian families that have jobs. Two thirds of Haitians are currently unemployed. Most employers pay only the minimum wage $3.22 a day. In the current crisis, one gallon of fuel cost $8.00 and a bag of rice that last 7 days can be bought for $30.00. The average employee has to work nine days just for a bag of rice. What about clean drinking water or other basic needs? It all became very difficult. The situation is compounded with an estimated 96,000 people who were displaced do to gang violence (statistics by UN). Where are these 96,000 people? We don’t have refugee camps or countries that are allowing Haitians to flee into other countries. They all have moved to rural areas of Haiti, living with family members and friends, making an already difficult situation impossible. Think about 100,000 people displaced, without a single refugee camp. In spite of this, Haitians are incredible at opening their doors and taking care of each other, even if it means harder living conditions for themselves. #Haiti #CrisisResponse #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #hope #PCCR

Many times our work here in Ukraine is carried out with the help of other organizations. The past few weeks, we started working with an organization called Global Outreach Doctors (GoDocs). Our project director Daniel was working closely with GoDocs country director Pete Reed in an effort to put plans in place to start evacuating injured civilians from active combat areas. Two days ago, Pete’s team of five people came under missile fire and Pete was killed instantly. Three of the other four volunteers were injured, the driver remained unharmed. Please pray for Pete’s family, his GoDocs team and the PCCR team as they come to terms with his death.🙏🏼💔

Ukraine 🇺🇦 Several weeks ago, while we were delivering wood stoves to a front line village, there were several Ukrainian mortar teams firing away at the Russian military positions four miles away. There were also occasional rockets being shot into the village, but nothing that was too close. As we were wrapping up the distribution, rockets started screaming in and exploding above us and beside us. Most of them were rockets that exploded in the air and rained down thermite. Thermite looks like fireworks, but it actually lands at 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It is designed to burn buildings and cause extreme pain and suffering to anyone it lands on. Several dozen of these thermite rockets came in and exploded. There were alse some other rockets that hit the ground and exploded. The main barrage was between 100 and 300 meters away. Our team and most of the locals with us went into a bomb shelter until it was over. When things had calmed down, we came out and found thermite burning on two sides of us. The closest stuff was fifty yards away. As we were preparing to leave, another rocket came in and exploded into the neighbor's house. We left as soon as we could. On our way out, another rocket barrage exploded in the ground, and several houses were hit and started burning. We sped through the smoke and thermite fires and headed back to the safety, warmth, and joy of the base, which was hours away. We had a warm house, a hot meal, and a hot shower waiting for us. The people living in that village had a cold, damp, bomb shelter to live in. The people appear numb and barely flinch when a rocket lands beside them. One lady told us she has already written herself off as dead. She has accepted that reality. Many of them live a miserable existence. Many of them now have a wood stove and heat for their underground bomb shelters. These stoves make their existence much easier to bear. The people received them with joy and gratefulness. Delivering the stoves came with some risk for us, but it was a blessing to work with these people. #Ukraine #UkraineWar #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #HumanitarianCrisis #Hope #PCCR

Haiti 🇭🇹 For me, it’s an opportunity to be a part of the work with Plain Compassion. In the mountains, where we have done food distributions, the people are very excited and happy about the food kits they receive. We have given people hope, even though there are a lot of areas we haven’t yet touched. In these rugged areas, the government doesn’t do anything to help the locals. They depend on the ground and rain to grow crops, and because they haven’t taken care of the land, it is mostly useless for raising crops. Many children are suffering from malnutrition along with many other sicknesses and they can’t go to school. The families have nothing left to give. When these people receive a package of food, they often start crying for joy and relief, even though the food won’t be enough for one week. The food kits have literally stopped people from starving to death and many of those that have received take the food and share it with others that did not receive any food, even if it’s just a little bit. This type of aid is essential to keeping people alive. If we were to stop, a lot of people would lose hope completely. People are counting on us and tell us again: “Thank you, thank you!”. God bless you and let’s continue to work to help those that are in need. Jacob Sainton #Haiti #CrisisResponse #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #hope #PCCR

Ukraine 🇺🇦 I am very sincerely grateful for what you are doing for our residents in the city of Avdiivka. You did not stay away from the needs, and despite the danger, you brought us woodstoves and firewood. If it weren't for you, we would probably freeze this winter. We had no source of heat before you came. God bless you and your team. - A thank you note from the WARM project #Ukraine #UkraineWar #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #HumanitarianCrisis #Hope #PCCR

We still have some spots available! 👏🏼 There are only a few days left to sign up for the January/February Training. We would love to see you there! https://plaincompassion.org/training-program/ #CrisisResponse #InternationalCrisisResponse #USDisasterResponse #HumanitarianAid #hope #PCCR

Ukraine 🇺🇦 In the last three months, our work has shifted from transporting and distributing food to Ukrainian churches and organizations to distributing firewood and wood stoves for the WARM project. We are still moving food, but the need has gone down during the last two months. The WARM project will be coming to a close in the next month. It has been our main focus and we will be shifting our focus to more food distributions, as well as several other opportunities that we are currently considering. We would appreciate prayer for wisdom and direction as we go through this time of transition. We'll keep you updated!! 😊 #Ukraine #UkraineWar #InternationalCrisisResponse #HumanitarianAid #HumanitarianCrisis #Hope #PCCR