By Mikayla van Loon
With the current situation in Ukraine it can be difficult to know how to help but one Lilydale church has taken it upon themselves to do one small act and host a fundraiser.
Having a connection to someone on the frontlines providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine, as well as a Russian speaking church in Melbourne, Glory City Church senior leader Liam Swaine said the need to help Ukrainian refugees in Australia was becoming more apparent.
“One of the pastors [at the Russian church] spoke to me and said, ‘we’re looking for accommodation for refugees that are coming into Melbourne’,” Liam said.
“At that time, he knew about 60 to 80 families that were coming in, it’s probably more now but they were needing clothing and accommodation and he asked ‘could we help with that?’
“So a bunch of our people at our church were like ‘I’ve got a spare room, I have a spare bed’ and were just putting their hand up.”
Knowing that should these people arrive in Melbourne, there was a big chance they would be without food, clothing, money and other essentials having fled their home country so quickly.
“Then that sparked the conversation of let’s at least do a fundraiser or do something where we can raise awareness and support these people in some way,” Liam said.
That discussion happened a month and a half ago and Glory City Church is preparing to host the fundraising event on Sunday 24 April, with auctions, food vans and other stalls.
Liam said “whatever we raise will be a blessing” and will help contribute to the organisations providing support to refugees particularly in Melbourne.
“It will go towards two organisations that we’ve been in contact with and then will be distributed out to families for food, clothing, medical needs and school needs.”
Although watching what was happening in Ukraine and understanding there would be some kind of need for these essentials, Liam said he doesn’t believe he or his congregation knew just how big and immediate that need was.
From what Liam can understand, it’s mostly women, children and older people coming to Australia, especially those with more serious health conditions.
“They could go to Poland or Germany or Australia, they had options to go different places and it seems to be those with more serious medical needs or who have kids that need to be in school or who have needs of varying degrees, seem to have come to Melbourne or Australia,” he said.
Even though Glory City is a second party to the support system, Liam said the church couldn’t stand by and do nothing after seeing how generous a Russian church was in helping Ukrainian people.
“We know we can’t do everything but we can do something. With this situation in the world that we live in, I think it’s taken everyone by surprise like, ‘oh, there’s a war, people are being evicted from their homeland’ and no one can really believe it.
“For us, what really touched our heart was this Russian church going, ‘we’re actually going to cross the division line here and show mercy and grace and love and take on these Ukrainian refugees’ and that’s, to us, the message of hope and love that we want to be a part of.”
Eventually Liam said he expects many of the people in his congregation will be helping to house these refugees in their own homes in Lilydale and Mount Evelyn.
“We wanted to be on the front foot with that and something I say to our congregation all the time is our city and our town should look better because we’re in it.
“That’s our heart, is for Lilydale and for our region to look better, to be a better place because we’re in it, because we’re here. We can’t just be a church that gathers in the four walls, we have to be alive in our community.”
The fundraiser is a ticketed event on Sunday 24 April beginning at 5pm located at 608 Hull Road Lilydale.