Dr. Gary Morsch’s Ukraine Travel Journal
Dr. Morsch and Global Care Force volunteers Dr. Jim Pettey and Bob Skinner, a former Ukraine missionary, traveled to Ukraine and Poland in May, delivering medical supplies and medications and meeting with doctors struggling to care for wounded soldiers and civilians.
Update #10: Our visit to Bucha, Ukraine
One of the most memorable moments of our visit to Ukraine was to Bucha, the small town near Kyiv that Russia tried to obliterate. Not only did they indiscriminately destroy houses, apartment buildings, and businesses, they are also suspected of torture, raping, and...
Update #9: Train from Kyiv, Ukraine to the Polish border
When we checked this morning’s latest news, it was a good news/bad news kind of thing. The bad news is that Ukraine has given up their long fight at the giant Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol. The good news is that the Russians have taken the 264 surviving soldiers...
Update #8: Cherkasy, Ukraine
Shocking is my word for the day. We were up very early this morning to drive nearly 4 hours towards the frontlines of the war, stopping in Cherkasy, a modern city of 300,000, and the capital of the Cherkasy Oblast (or what we could call a state). Early each morning we...
Update #7: Kniazhychi, Ukraine
Sunday was a day for attending church services, gathering together for communal meals, and, unfortunately, being reminded of the horrors of war. We attended Sunday morning services at the Evangelical Community Church in the village of Kniazhychi, Ukraine. The pastor...
Update #6: Irpin and Bucha, Ukraine
“There are no words….” As a retired Army Colonel, I’ve served in several combat zones in the midst of war, and seen its ugly aftermath. But never have I witnessed first hand the utter and brutal destruction of peaceful towns and villages as I saw today. Perhaps this...
Update # 5: Kyiv, Ukraine
We boarded our train in Przemysl, Poland, and arrived tonight after a 13-hour train ride. We made stops in Lviv and a few other large cities, before disembarking at the gigantic, but dark train station in Kyiv. The train was full of Ukrainians returning to the...
Update # 4: Przemysl, Poland
We’ve arrived near the Polish/Ukraine border, at Przemysl. We met tonight at “The Hub,” which is a storefront property near the train station that members of Poland and Ukraine’s Church of the Nazarene have set up, under the leadership of missionaries Jay and Teanna...
Update #3: Medyka, Poland
We traveled south from Warsaw today to Medyka, which is the major border crossing between Poland and Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have crossed this border into Poland since the war began. Now, many of the refugees are returning to their Ukrainian...
Update #2: Warsaw, Poland
Today we visited the largest refugee transit center in Europe. Ukrainian refugees, which the kind-hearted Polish people call guests, are brought by bus from train stations to the Ptka Warsaw Expo Center, which has been transformed into a refugee city that can house...
Update #1: Warsaw, Poland
With the help of the team from Church of the Resurrection, we were able to transport and clear customs with 6 large suitcases packed with medicines and state-of-the-art wound care systems. A pastor from the Church of the Nazarene met us at the airport, and Methodist...