Dear Faith Community Nursing colleagues,
It has been awhile since we communicated with you, and we hope all is well with you and the congregations and communities you are caring for.
We are excited to announce that we will be having our next FCN seminar here in Kiev June. 19-21. Our last seminar was held last November, and so much has happened since then. We had hoped to have a seminar in February 2015, but due to the unrest and violence in the east, it has been hard to plan for additional events.
In addition we have less space at the center and time and financial resources are at a premium. It has been difficult for our out-of-town nurses to be able to travel to Kiev from different parts of Ukraine.
The planning is well under way for our June seminar, but we know that this seminar will be different, and we all are going into this with heavy hearts. As you may recall, just weeks after our last seminar in November 2014, we lost a very special part of our Blago team. Professor Kulenchenko, our beloved friend and mentor, died from injuries sustained in an accident. He was a vital part of our team, teaching at the seminars, and he graced us with his humble, gentle and kind strength. He truly understood faith community nursing and the positive impact it has around the world. We will be dedicating this seminar to Professor, remembering our friend, mentor and colleague.
Faith community nursing is still new here, but it is catching on. We have 2 emerging leaders who have come out from these seminars, and more are following! Pray that we can reach the nurses and volunteers that God brings to us for the seminars. Pray that they too catch the vision of FCN and that they can bring it back to their own communities where they have the potential of impacting hundreds of people. Our one FCN, Lilia, is a nurse in Zaparhozia, and is doing tremendous work caring for the addicted, poor, homeless, and those with HIV/AIDS. In addition she is working with her pastor and church lay ministers in caring for refugees and soldiers injured in the war zone. She is beginning to teach others how to provide holistic, Christian care to those in need. Sister Raphaela, a nun through the Greek Catholic Church in Lviv, Ukraine, is in the process of acquiring a building which will be home to the elderly who have no where else to go. These 2 women are doing extraordinary things in Ukraine, based on the teachings they have received from the FCN Foundations seminars here in Kiev!
We would love for you to be a part of our seminar! We know that you are not able to travel here to participate, but there are many other ways that you can be a part of the work we are doing here in Ukraine. Of course the most important way you can help us is to pray! We desperately need your prayers for this ministry. We are also looking for nurses to help give financial support to Blago (Association of Christian Nurses & Volunteers-Welfare). Each seminar costs around $4,000, including printed materials, food, lodging and travel for Blago members. We need 100 nurses to donate $40 each to the seminar. This could either be individually, or a group of 2-3 nurses could go in together to sponsor a nurse at the seminar! This would give you an opportunity to become connected with the nurses and volunteers here! We encourage you to write to us and let us also know what you are doing in your ministries! The nurses here are hungry to know how FCN work looks like in other countries, and they are praying for you! We would love for you to send this letter on to your colleagues so that they also can be a part of this exciting work that God is doing here in Ukraine!
You can send donations to the following:
EFCA/Reach Global
901 78th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55420
Account # 2500-5907
Blessings,
Pam Dandre, RN, FCN
Pam.Dandre@efca.org
Faith Community Nurse Coordinator of Ukraine
Association of Christian Nurses & Volunteers- welfare (Blago)
Mary Martin, RN, FCN (U.S. Representative)
marmar5@comcast.net ~ 763-331-5592
