Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a stirring speech tonight to Congress. He spoke about the ongoing genocidal war in Ukraine that is universally seen as a crime against humanity. Rockets, missiles and drones are cowardly directed at civilian populations. Russia's immediate goal is to subdue the independent nation of Ukraine by destroying key utilities and leaving people without electricity, gas and water. LifeNets has been doing its part with many others to provide relief in the wake of the outcomes of this brutal war.

As 2022 comes to an end, I want to thank you all for your compassionate support for the many vulnerable people. In this issue of LifeLines I'd like to give you the current status of our recent activity. We also continually report on our activities on our website at www.lifenets.org.

Along with others around the world, we have been responding to the largest refugee migration since World War II. Twelve million Ukrainians have abandoned their homes and have sought refuge in many places around the world. We have been actively providing relief as they transition through Western Ukraine to unknown places west. We work with people of like faith whom we have personally known, visited, and trusted over many years.

We are helping with war victims in the unspeakably barbaric war in Ukraine. We work with courageous Ukrainian workers who are standing firm in this crisis and helping others. The elderly, women and children suffer together. We have provided food, clothing and now with the cold winter, we are providing specialized stoves that not only cook food, but bring warmth to a living space.

We helped purchase a vehicle in Germany with the facilitation of our Ukrainian friends and help from our German UCG Office. With this vehicle they are able to ferry equipment and supplies in a ten-hour drive between Ukraine and Germany.

In spite of these added stresses on our resources, we have been able to continue our other ongoing projects such as scholarships, food and water security, wheelchairs and more.

We are also thankful for the greater and robust role that LifeNets Australia has taken on which is reported on later in this newsletter.

We also find ourselves ,when called upon, helping with U.S. natural disasters.

We send our newsletter to you so that you can see how your generous contribution and support make an important difference. If you choose not to receive future newsletters from us, you can unsubscribe at the end of this eNews.

We deeply appreciate your involvement in joining us to help others -- please let us know if you have any comments or questions.

We are now sending our 2023 Calendar to our donors and supporters. It features monthly photos of our array of activities. The calendar's cover is shown on the right.

Again we thank you for your support. We appreciate those who have made recurring tax-exempt donations. This is most helpful in our planning of programs. Please visit our donation page.

Thank you for your trust and for making LifeNets your charity of choice.

We love and appreciate all of you!

President and Chairman

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LifeNets is working in several dynamic ways in Ukraine to provide vital support with food, water, fuel, heat and transport.

In war-torn Chernihiv we are helping finance a borehole for water at the Centre of Rehabilitation of Disabled Children. Work at the center goes on but the municipal water is unreliable for the needs of 100 outpatient children plus staff. We are also helping with rehabilitation and teaching equipment for the children.

We are also helping finance teams of volunteers going to badly damaged areas such as Kherson, Izyum and Kharkiv with humanitarian aid.

As the war in Ukraine approaches the ten-month point, great weariness and even callousness is setting in. Yet, some of the greatest atrocities and massive movements of refugees since World War II are taking place right now. A large cruel nation is attacking, killing, pillaging, raping and stealing at a scale that we in a civilized world cannot imagine. We don't want to entertain the thought of having to go through what these people are enduring.

Right now the people are just trying to survive the cold of winter. Months of cold ahead. Russia has destroyed more than 50% of the electric grid that supports life support for the elderly, women, and children who are the most vulnerable. Gas as well as water has been cut off. This is a war crime against humanity. We know that justice and deliverance will prevail, but this is so painful to watch. The Ukrainian people are heroic, resilient and not giving up. We have been so heartened by how the people are helping one another in this crisis.

A solution for temporary relief has been to set up by the Ukrainian government to provide thousands of warming shelters around the country. Here people can come in, get warmed up and get some food.

Please stay current with ongoing reports with many photos on our war blog.

Stories like this give us great satisfaction. Opportunity changes lives. This letter of appreciation from Malawi best explains the outcomes of our scholarship program:

I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the support you rendered during my undergraduate studies. I started my undergraduate journey on the 31^st of October 2017 at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. 

The COVID 19 pandemic slowed down things as the institution closed for months in 2020. Instead of completing my studies in 2021, we completed them in June 2022. On the 18^th of November I graduated with a credit in Bachelor of science in Human Science and Community Services.

The Developing Nations Scholarship Program is transforming the lives of young people in developing countries around the world. They will have an education and a degree in their own country that will help them with gainful employment. LifeNets has served students in the following countries since 2001: Armenia, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Ukraine, Philippines, Zambia, Malawi, Cameroon, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

Read more about our scholarship program on our website at https://lifenets.org/category/programs/scholarships/

Here is a report from our affiliate in Australia excerpted from the United News Australia:

LifeNets Australia Incorporated (LAI) continues to grow and it has been an outstanding last 12 months striving always to achieve its purpose of "helping others help themselves". Operating in conjunction with LifeNets International in the USA, and also independently, it has supported projects mainly in the less privileged parts of the world in Africa and South America but continues to broaden its base and remains open to needs no matter where they occur.

United Church of God congregations throughout Australia participate in the gold coin collection activity as well as contributing directly via bank deposit and through the LAI website. Collections are also conducted at Australian, New Zealand and Malaysian festival sites and at some sites in the United States. Individual donations made directly to the organisation's bank account have been a regular and increasing source of income and have now become the largest single source of donations in this past year. This has included an increasing number of very significant donations as part of the last will and testament of some.

Here are few of the projects in Zambia

Other projects were providing economic relief in Sri Lanka and India. Also, two projects initiated locally were for building up facilities for the Church and Community in Vanuatu. The other was to provide funding for training of a seizure alert dog for a family. Also, a contribution was made for Kentucky tornado victims. Thank you, Australia!

For more information please visit https://www.lifenetsaustralia.org/

If you wish to contribute to this project, donations can still be made to www.lifenets.org\kyflood.

Report from Roman Grynyshyn (pictured on left with his wife Lesia and children)

Since February 24th every Ukrainian has been trying to help the country in any possible way. So our team here started a program World to Rebuild Rural Ukraine aiming to support the least protected stratum of our society - small family farms.

Please listen to our podcast with LifeNets board member Don Turgeon who talks about his 18 years on the LifeNets Board of Directors and his special interest in our Scholarship Program. Podcast is located here.

Please visit The Kubik Report for a wide variety of podcasts, many dealing directly with our charitable work.

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