“The war Russia started with Ukraine becomes very personal for us,” shared Sister Eliane Ilnitski, SSMI, Provincial Superior ofSisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, who resides at their American motherhouse in Sloatsburg, New York. “Our sisters throughout Ukraine suffer as they attend to the refugees fleeing their country. Our sisters stationed in Kviv and Odessa have fled to other cities such as Lviv struggling to help feed the refugees, and flee with the stranded women and children to Poland. Our sisters in Poland welcome the suffering homeless refugees, the wounded, the young and old.”
Sister Eliane continued, asking, “How do we who look on from a distance in the free world help them? We who have our own families and relatives and Sisters Servants as well as those millions of innocent people fighting for freedom, running for safety, how do we help them?”
The efforts of their North American sisters to help those in the Ukraine started small. “It all began with a medical doctor from Mexico who wanted to offer her services in Poland. Her visit to our sisters in Poland created the fundraiser of sending medical supplies of ten suitcases on Delta airlines alongside her as a passenger,” Sister Elaine recounted. “St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Riverhead, New York Prescription Center and hundreds of generous people have contributed their ‘gift of love’ to bring healing to those in need.”
The plight of the Ukrainians, and the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate’s efforts in helping them, inspired another non-profit organization to get involved. Sister Debbie Blow, OP is the executive director and cofounder of the North Country Mission of Hope (NCMOH), located in upstate New York. She explained that “Since the beginning of the NCMOH, 23 years, we have always served the poorest of the poor in Nicaragua. But we have also always assisted when we can in local needs or disasters or other areas. For example, we shipped a container during hurricane Katrina, and we have assisted in Haiti and Puerto Rico, multiple containers, with the fires in the west, with earthquakes and tornadoes—in our own country—the children at the border. We’ve done monetary collections for the Philippines during the tsunami, and we collected shoes one year for the children in the school in Madagascar. The history of our organization is to always try to serve, but equally important is that we believe very strongly that we have to have someone we can vet, that we trust, who’s going to be on the ground or facilitate the distribution of whatever it is, whether it’s funds or material, equipment, supplies.”
Sister Debbie went on to explain that, since one of the NCMOH board members, Holly Borzacchiello, is now working with the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, “This was a good fit. [The money will be] a constant assistance for them for as long as we receive the funds. We’ve all been captivated by the depth of the Ukrainian people’s faith, of their joy and of their love for their country, but also their love and joy for their children. All of that is a model or example for us. But, to be frank, whether they were Muslim or Jewish or Catholic or Christian, that’s secondary to responding to the need in the moment as best we can and that’s what we’re doing. We’ve never asked ‘what faith are you?’ because Jesus didn’t walk up to somebody and say ‘what faith are you?’ So, we’ve always just done it because it’s the right thing to do. I like to say we do what we can, when we can, where we can. That’s really at the heart of why NCMOH is involved.”
“Sometimes we get a bit arrogant as a people and a culture, so I think that we’re being modeled to very well by the Ukrainian people,” Sister Debbie related. “What they’re doing for each other, as well as the sacrifice, the communal sacrifice that they make is so consistent with those of us who believe and say we believe. It’s about, in a sense, putting your money where your mouth is, and saying, ‘if you really believe that Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, Jesus didn’t say just to love your neighbor who is next door to you. He didn’t put geographic limits on our call to be loving. And so neither can we.’”
“I think the Ukrainian people are inspirational,” reflected Sister Debbie, adding, “Even in their suffering, even in their struggles, they have not lost their hope nor their joy. We see music coming out all over the place, we see the young child singing ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen in a bunker. And all of that is an example to us that when we walk that struggle of suffering we don’t walk it alone. I think that journey is something that we need to be on that walk with them.”
Sister Debbie emphasized stories of courage that have emerged. “People are sacrificing for each other. It’s not just that they are walking that walk to save their own children. Very dear friends of mine told me about their nephew, an American around the age of 30. He had been living in the Ukraine for at least five years and was teaching in a high school. He had gone over there for experience, but decided to stay because he loved the beauty of the people, their culture, all of it.
“He was going to stay there, but his Ukrainian friends said ‘no you need to go because if you stay here and you get captured, you’re an American, so you know what that means.’ He lived near Kiev and began the trek to Lviv with a backpack, bike, and an apple. And pretty soon he didn’t have the bike because he gave it to a family who had little ones. He got close to the border when this gentleman stopped to offer him a ride and said ‘I need to ask you a favor. Are you going into Poland?’ He said, ‘Yes, I am.’ The Ukrainian man said ‘Will you take my daughter? Will you take my daughter across the border for me and take her to family in Poland?’ The young man couldn’t believe it, he was like ‘You’re entrusting your daughter to me?’
“That was the kind of trust that this desperate Ukrainian father had to have because he couldn’t leave, he was fighting age. A lot of times in these situations, the women have to stay with elderly parents who aren’t mobile. We don’t know if that was the case in this situation. But, the young man said that it was such a heart wrenching experience to watch the father have to say goodbye to his daughter, knowing that he may never see her again. And yet, he trusted her life, he trusted his most precious possession—his daughter—to this young, American man, because he sensed he would do the right thing.”
For more information or to send donations for the Ukraine, please contact:
The North Country Mission of Hope
3452 State Route 22, Peru, NY 12972
Office: 518-643-5572
Cell: 518-572-4246
Email: info@ncmissionofhope.org
Email: dshope2@charter.net
ON THE WEB
Website: www.ncmissionofhope.org
Instagram: @NCMissionofHope
Facebook: North Country Mission of Hope
Venmo: @NorthCountryMissionOfHope
PayPal: North Country Mission of Hope
Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate
Website: www.ssmi.org
Religious podcaster Matt Fradd visited the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in Poland and discussed his visit in a Youtube video. Watch that at https://youtu.be/Ch7hmNGZUKU
