Ward was introduced to several Ukrainian pastors on a visit in June, after Pastor Marcel Dascal, a church leader in Moldova, told Ward of their plight. Dascal began serving as his translator, connecting him with churches that, in turn, could help displaced Ukrainians. The work, Ward and Dascal say, has become more dire as the temperatures are at their coldest and the war is nearing its one-year mark.
“It’s really freezing,” Dascal said, of temperatures that can hit -10 Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) but feel like -20. “Even if you are really dressed nice, if you stay outside for a long time, you’re getting frozen.”
In Uman, a central Ukrainian city where a church has set up a heating center, the results of Helping Ukraine’s support are visible.
“They have bread, they have fellowship, and they can charge their phone,” he said of the centers. Uman residents bring clothes for displaced people who have arrived from other locations, such as Mykolaiv and Kherson, which have both been under attack for months.
Ward recently left the U.S. for his fourth relief mission with Helping Ukraine.
His ministry colleagues compare him to well-traveled biblical figures.
Mark Huckaby, a fellow Georgia resident who joined Ward on his January trip, recalled a woman who had a list of the people most in need of the dozens of cast-iron wood-burning stoves they purchased through Helping Ukraine.
“We want to help them stay warm,” said Huckaby, a chaplain and vice president of the homeless ministry Ward helps lead. “We want to help them survive.”
Speaking in late January with Helping Ukraine staffers and supporters via the videoconference, Ward said he felt uncomfortable tucked into his “good sleeping bag” on the floor of a church office or borrowed space in a home, given the cold nights Ukrainians are facing.
“I thought about the people in the village: All they’ve got is a piece of plastic on the roof and they might freeze,” he said.
He remembers the faces he saw in the little village hit by Russian artillery after its desperate residents heard his vehicle’s horn and gratefully received the blankets they were offered.
Ward said he had learned a few words in Ukrainian and Russian to say to the villagers: “God loves you. Jesus loves you. I love you.”
“It comes down to this: He has a heart to help people,” said the Rev. Greg Cater, a hospital chaplain who leads the homeless ministry in Georgia. Cater calls Ward a modern-day John the Baptist who can jump on a table or levee to proclaim his beliefs about “what God has done.”
He answered a similar spontaneous call to help when the war broke out. “Ken didn’t know anything else to do but go and help,” said Cater. “That’s how he’s wired.”
Pat McGivaren, a retired veterinarian who joined Ward on church-starting trips to eastern Moldova and western Ukraine starting in the 1990s, marvels at his colleague.
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“I’d compare him almost to Apostle Paul,” said McGivaren. “Self-sacrifice to the kingdom of God. That’s what he does.”
But Ward’s longtime mentor is concerned about his friend’s can-do spirit.
“I told his wife that he needs to rest,” McGivaren said as Ward embarked on his latest trip after spending 54 days there since November. “He burns the candle at both ends. How long can you do that?”
Ward’s wife, Debra, said in a statement that she trusts her husband to “God’s hands,” just as she did when he served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ward said he and Debra had a pact that, when he departed on a combat mission, he would email her with “Psalm 91” in the subject line. The biblical song includes the verse “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.” She would then pray with their six children for his safety.
“When I returned, the email would only say in the subject line “Psalm 91″ — meaning I returned safely, praise the Lord,” he told RNS. “We now do the same thing while I am in Ukraine.”
Ward told the dozens on the January conference call, as he made plans to work with a growing number of teams, that his goal is “to fight to survive winter and rebuild in the spring.”
He added: “Giving up, quitting is not an option.”
This article originally appeared here.
