The first interview I did as an ABWE Storyteller Photographer was with Arthur. He is a husband, father and devoted follower of Jesus living in Poland. We met on a summer afternoon in August, in the quiet, sunlit sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Gdańsk. By day he works as a renewable energy consultant. Recently, he became an elder in the church and took the nickname “Special Task Force” for his fervent passion to bring hope to hard places, most recently those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Located on the Baltic Coast in northern Poland, Gdańsk itself is a city of just under half a million people. Because it shares a border with Ukraine, Poland has seen an influx of refugees from the conflicts plaguing their neighbor in recent years. The history between the two countries has also been complicated, shaped by longstanding disagreement over territory. Both countries also live with painful memories of violence amongst each other during World War II. Despite this, Poland and Ukraine have developed a closer relationship in recent years particularly in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Arthur has been a part of First Baptist since his wife brought him to the church during their university years. Though Arthur grew up in a strong Catholic community of Braniewo, Poland, he began to read his Bible when he was 17 and came to a saving knowledge and faith in Jesus. He was baptized as an adult 17 years later into the Baptist tradition when he could no longer reconcile his Catholic infant baptism to his understanding of the Bible.

“When I was 17, I started reading the Bible from Proverbs, because a friend of mine was struggling with some things. Ultimately, I realized I couldn’t consider myself to be okay. I had many issues and addictions. One day I couldn’t hold it back and drove to the next town to talk to the Father and really opened my heart to God. I sobbed. I was really genuine and on the trip home, I was a different person.”

Since 2014 Arthur and First Baptist had been serving rural Ukrainian villages on the border of Poland and Ukraine. From chopping wood for the elderly community to running Vacation Bible Schools for the Ukrainian children in these areas, Arthur found meaning and purpose in his work in these border villages. Before Covid, at its peak there were 90 volunteers traveling to serve over 500 children in VBS camps with a caravan of 15 vans and trucks bringing supplies.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The pastors from these border villages started sending women and children across to Poland and asked Arthur and First Baptist if they could receive them.

“The same hour when the bombs started hitting the country, they called me and said, ‘Look, we’re sending out kids and our women. Pick them up from the border.’ We were the first ones on the border waiting for them. And we saw the whole thing start, people coming from all over the country. People picking up women and children in good faith, trying to bring them to safety. It was amazing to see people really not organized but volunteering and ready to support.”

This very space where Arthur and I were meeting had been the sleeping quarters for hundreds of refugees in the early part of the war. First Baptist was one of the first churches to respond to the need to welcome their neighbors and help them find their way in a new land.

What had begun as loving their neighbors during peacetime quickly shifted to loving their neighbors during wartime.

As the war progressed, the need transitioned from receiving refugees to supporting those who remained inside the Ukraine, particularly the soldiers and the families on the front lines of the war.

From the volunteer work Arthur did during peacetime in Ukraine, he met a Ukrainian pastor named Petro. Pastor Petro asked for help from the Polish church to provide specific supplies for their soldiers, things the military were unable to provide and unavailable to buy inside the country. These items ranged from body wipes and dry soap to keep clean to dried food, tourniquets, gas stoves, and even bullet proof vests.

“I find suppliers to purchase these goods, mostly from China, and I make contracts with them. Then I find ways to transport the goods to the depot in Ukraine where Pastor Petro picks them up, sorts them, and distributes the packs where ever needed.”

Arthur himself makes the 10-12 hour trip in his van into Ukraine to bring the supplies to the depot in the city of Roznychi, Ukraine. Once he gets through the lengthy process at border control, there is still another 14-16 hour journey to the eastern front. However, at the depot, Arthur leaves the supplies for Pastor Petro and his volunteers to package for distribution to the soldiers and communities in the east.

“A lot of humanitarian aid has been wasted in the past so now we are always under suspicion that we are doing this for money. I always have to explain ourselves. Every time I go to the border, I have to prove to the officers I’m providing aid and provide evidence it’s really being used and distributed for humanitarian purposes. There are different guards or people each time. Depending how persuasive I am, it takes one hour or the quickest is 45 minutes to pass through.”

Supplies are not the only thing that soldiers living in the front lines receive though. Because Pastor Petro isn’t employed by a formal humanitarian organization, he gets very close to the front lines, at his own risk, as close as 500m in some places, to meet with the soldiers there. While supplies are crucial, Arthur says it’s actually hope the soldiers are desperate for. 

In his deliveries to the front lines, Pastor Petro uses the opportunity to listen, pray, and encourage the soldiers. It all happens very quickly, he spends minutes with them, not hours, because he has to leave before his activity is detected by drones.

“You meet people [when dropping off deliveries] and you may not meet them again in a week. This is the urgency that Petro and I feel, that we really need to respond, not just to bring food, but to bring the Gospel. To explain to people that you need to get right with God, because you never know what will happen next. There is a saying that there are no atheists in the trenches. Everybody has some sense of God. I’m receiving videos and pictures of soldiers being baptized in the rivers and lakes. It’s happening, people are really aware that their days are numbered.”

This is the motivation and what drives Arthur and his network of volunteers to keep doing what they are doing.  I asked Arthur what now is the greatest need that he and his network have.

“Awareness. I need people to raise awareness to help find more partners wherever they are, to help us at some level to keep the work going. I can’t do it myself, but I am witnessing God being faithful in that. I would have given up a long time ago, but he’s still providing us with people.”

The work of delivering supplies to the communities on the front lines has opened doors for Pastor Petro to listen to the people. Everybody is busy surviving. So nobody comes to really listen to those living in daily uncertainty and fear.

“[There was] a family that survived the first occupation—having endured the slaughter of their livestock and the blowing up of their farm by heartless Russian soldiers. The daughter tried to study online without a reliable internet connection. Out of despair, the father turned to alcohol and tragically took his life. The mother decided to send her daughter to relatives in a larger city. Now she is left alone amidst the ruins. Pastor Petro takes the time to listen to her while everyone around them scurries about in justified fear of the drones. There is no one else to listen to her. [Our work] isn’t just about food; it’s about God’s love and grace, in deed and in truth.”

Arthur has been to the front lines with Petro. He says they don’t always get to preach the gospel, but they always live the gospel out to the people they are serving.

“Sometimes the people call Petro asking him to come and just bring hope. It’s a very unique opportunity to listen to people and respond to what they feel. We get to say ‘I understand you. I hear you. I see you and I have the way for you to reach peace, not just for now but for eternity.’ ”

In the early parts of the war, donations came through much faster and frequently. Now, four years on, Arthur is struggling to have enough to pay for the list of needs coming from the Ukrainians. At times, Arthur spends his own money to meet their requests.

“Usually we load a van of products of the value of $5000-$8000 USD, depending on what we’re transporting. We need to add approximately $300-$400 USD of fuel cost to the round trip. There are tolls for transporting the goods as well. In the beginning, 2022-2024, we were blessed with a huge number of supporters and donors. In recent years, it has been less and less. We were running on our own reserves indeed. God continues to provide! We have individual and regular partners who provide financial support. We also have some new donors. In an extraordinary, miraculous way, the Lord is caring for this ministry. We simply cannot give up.”

I asked Arthur what he would like to say as a final message.

“We are people from the West who, for decades, have been portrayed as inferior and hostile [to Ukrainians in the east]. Now we have the opportunity to show them God’s love in action and in truth. No one is interested in them except people of faith. God is giving us a unique chance to bring them the Gospel. We are not carrying out a humanitarian mission; we give them their daily bread and proclaim to them a peace that surpasses all understanding—peace with God, eternal peace.”

If you have connections to wholesale suppliers or are interested in supporting Arthur and Petro’s work with Ukrainians on the front lines, contact Christine to get connected to Arthur.