When Sarah and Dave Goodrich watch coverage of the war on Ukraine, they’re haunted by the possibility that the fleeing refugees—or soldiers—are someone they met on a trip to Schoharie Reformed Church’s sister church in Lodz, Poland 17 years ago.
In 2006, the Goodriches were one of three local couples—Tom and Dusty Putnam and Sam and John Wilkinson were the others--who made mission trips to Lodz after meeting Rev. Semko Koroza during his stop in Schoharie.
Rev. Koroza was traveling the country raising funds for the Reformed churches just beginning to step back out of the shadows after decades under Russian control.
“They were so afraid. They’d been through so much,” Ms. Goodrich said.
“And they had nothing.”
The scars ran deep.
In Rivne, Poland, the Goodriches met a Reformed minister sent to a slave labor camp in Siberia during World War II for the crime of being a minister.
In the Ukraine, they saw firsthand the challenges of the very rural, very isolated churches; with no cars or tractors and no gas, farmers were planting wheat by hand—in a region that’s considered the breadbasket of Europe.
“The soil was so black, so black, so beautiful,” Ms. Goodrich said, pointing to the irony: Schoharie County is called the breadbasket of the American Revolution.
Ms. Goodrich remembers Kiev as “a gorgeous city. It’s so hard to see the places we loved destroyed.”
Mr. Goodrich remembers the five- or six-year old boy he spent the day playing soccer and joking with.
Neither of them spoke a word of the other’s language.
“It didn’t matter,” he said.
“We had a blast.”
In 2007, Rev. Koroza brought his church’s youth group to Schoharie, and in 2008, the Schoharie Reformed’s youth group traveled to Poland.
The Goodriches have stayed in touch with Rev. Koroza ever since.
After Russia’s military invasion of the Ukraine began on February 24, Mr. Goodrich emailed Rev. Koroza asking him what they could do.
The answer:
Send money.
Rev. Koroza’s church is housing—at last count—seven Ukrainian refugees, all of whom need not just food, medicine, and clothing, but legal help recreating the IDs they need to get into the Polish health care system.
“They don’t have anything,” Mr. Goodrich said. “They left it all behind. They don’t even speak the language. Their past has been destroyed and they have no idea what their future is.”
Rev. Koroza estimates it takes $400 a month for every refugee they help and he’s been told to expect to provide it for at least a year.
So Schoharie Reformed has launched a major fundraising campaign to help; the church has raised $6,500 so far with their immediate goal twice that.
“And then we’ll see what happens,” Mr. Goodrich said.
The church is also planning a prayer service for the Ukraine for Wednesday, March 30. Details are still being worked out.
Donations can be sent to the Schoharie Reformed Church, PO Box 635, Schoharie, NY 12157. Put “Ukraine” in the subject line.
The church will also be putting a PayPal link up on its website, SchoharieReformedChurch.org.