Aliyah update from Ukraine - The Zolotarev family

Quite recently (at the end of August, 2015), we helped one Jewish family Korobka, five people in total, to make Aliyah.They fled from Luhansk in the East of Ukraine and lived for two and a half months in our 'shelter' in Kiev before all their paperwork was done! On the day of their departure, the Korobka family told us they would love the other part of their big family to join them in Israel.

Due to the current state of affairs in the occupied zone, there’s no legal way to leave that territory – either by bus or by train! Praise God for volunteers, who take up such a challenge. The driver picked up the Zolotarev family and another woman: so, six people in total. The driver was only able to drive them to the Russian border without leaving the territory of the Russian Federation. To tell you the truth, it was a short scenario of a big operation.

The driver picked the olim up in Luhansk, made it to Russia by crossing the non-official border crossing point (for there are no official entry points left at present), then he drove 700 kilometers to the closest official entry point to get into Ukraine again through “Goptivka” to meet us there. We were about to come from Kiev (1,100 km), make it to the customs station, cross the border and enter Russia. Trouble is we had no phone connection with the volunteer-driver, who was driving olim (immigrants to Israel) through Russia. We cut a deal to meet at about 1 a.m. near the Russian customs station.

In addition to that, we addressed the Holy Spirit to coordinate all our steps and arrange our meeting. When we (Nataliia and Nikolay) came from Kiev to the Russian customs office, we had to wait circa 8 hours. No doubt about it, we were anxious about the people who were waiting so long to cross the border. Also there was a bedridden passenger (epileptic and weak-minded) and a little girl, Dasha of 4 years old, who has had stomach surgery about a month ago. Finally, in spite of all difficulties, we successfully crossed the border with the Russian Federation.

And you know there was a miracle: the moment we entered Russia, we received a call from the driver telling us they had just reached the customs station. By the way, it was 7 o’clock in the morning! They also went through the ins and the outs when crossing the Russian border from Luhansk (Ukraine). When we met, the luggage as well as all the people went to our van and again we headed towards Ukrainian territory.

We were informed that there could be some difficulties while crossing the border, because everyone knows there is no official entry from Luhansk. However, we knew that a lot of people were currently praying for us. Having passed the papers to the border guard, I was warned that right now every passenger will have to fill in the report, pay a big fine and I personally as a private carrier will have problems. I told the man at the border: “We are ready to wait, to sign any paper and do whatever is necessary, but please be charitable – we have a little kid and a bedridden passenger”. And quietly added: “We didn’t want this war to start. The civilians must not suffer. They fled the shelling to get to a safe place”.

Then I softly went away from the walk-up window and again committed the whole situation to God alone inside my heart. That day there blew a really chilling wind and it’s been 16 hours since both cars (one from Luhansk and one from Kiev) left their homes. We all froze badly! But there happened another miracle – the border guard called me, gave back all passports and said in a low voice: “Have a smooth journey home!”

That time our gratefulness to God was just limitless: we quickly got into the car, went to the closest gas station and had a truly good breakfast together. All our passengers were full of delight (like infants) of everything they saw – a lot of cars and people walking around the streets. They got out of a habit to observe such things. The moment we drove them to the shelter in Kiev, they couldn’t actually believe their eyes! From this very day we enter the stage of processing the papers for the Zolotarev family. On the 16th of September they pass the consular check and with God’s help they will make Aliyah shortly.

Big “THANK YOU” to every person standing in prayer with us! Jeremiah 31:8 "Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here."

We’ve truly seen God’s powerful hand upon this situation and we sensed He was Himself fighting for His nation that night!

Nataliya Krizhanovski

Providing transportation to the Israeli Embassy and airports.
More and more people want to prepare their documents in order to be ready to leave Ukraine and go to Israel. Because of the long distances that people have to travel to reach the embassy in their district, Christians for Israel facilitates their transportation by our own transport or renting small and big busses to drive groups from that area to the Israeli embassy and airports in their region. The average cost for one person is € 135 / US $ 150.

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