Ukraine Relief Efforts

March 17, 2022

Dear campus community,

In recent weeks, our prayers and heartbreak have focused on the destruction, injury and death that have accompanied the war in Ukraine, which began three weeks ago.

Together, our prayers have particularly focused on all those in Ukraine, Russia and throughout that region who are impacted by this war, including the three million refugees who have fled their homes, as many as two million internally displaced people who are in Ukraine, and the tragic and growing number of those who have been injured and killed, including young children.

Our campus and our graduates are already directly involved in relief efforts. That includes our graduate Alex Bormatov, whose Go4Life Ukraine relief efforts are on the ground in Europe, and our Student Missions club has been selling T-shirts and stickers to help fund those experts.

John T. Boston II, associate director of our NAD Evangelism Institute in the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, is in Europe right now directly working with refugees from Ukraine. His work includes personally helping to provide transportation across three countries for hundreds of refugees, some as young as six months, to reach places of safety. At Chapel earlier today, Boston joined us by video for a conversation with Chaplain Bourget and Vice President Nixon that included the story of Dr. Katerina, a clinical psychologist who’s now a refugee in Germany. You can watch a recording of that Chapel service here.

Andrews University will continue to identify ways for our community to provide meaningful and direct support for those who need it most right now. We’ve asked Christian Stuart, our executive director of the Center for On-Campus International Student Services, to coordinate and help facilitate those options for our Andrews community. If you have a Ukrainian relief effort or idea you’d like Andrews University to consider, please send him an email.

We’re also committed to sharing periodic updates regarding Ukraine relief efforts in Andrews social media channels. Here are the updates for March 10 and March 16—and you can find upcoming updates on our Andrews University Facebook page.

As a community of God’s children that is committed to being effective World Changers for Him, we’re reminded of the heartbreak that is so often found in our broken world—Ukraine is one of nearly two dozen active wars and conflicts, ranging from Myanmar to Yemen, and the millions of refugees from Ukraine join the millions currently displaced from their homes in places ranging from Ethiopia/Eritrea to Afghanistan.

Thanks for your ongoing prayers and support for all affected by war and conflict wherever it is found and, in particular, for this specific moment of heartbreak, disaster and global attention that is focused on the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Sincerely,

Christon Arthur
Provost