Close connections and prayer opened the door for one Wylie church to truly “love one another” as they delivered humanitarian aid to Ukraine and its border countries last month.

Waterbrook Bible Fellowship members prayed for Ukraine during their Sunday, March 6 church service prompting Lead Pastor Jeff Denton to message some of his former students and missionary friends at Mia College in Romania and Word of Life Bible Institute in Hungary that afternoon, “to let them know we prayed for them.”

The return text he received was an appeal from them saying they wished he “could jump on a plane and come over here.”

“They had run out and weren’t able to get medical supplies,” Denton said, adding he was told that medical supplies from places in the U.S. “were going take three to four weeks potentially to get there.”

Denton was told if he’d visit and bring crates of supplies with him, his friends would have them within a week, “And that’s what began the conversation,” he said, of the idea to travel abroad.

“My wife and I talked about it,” he said. “I went in the office Monday morning, and I said to each staff member as they came in ‘what would you think if we did something like this?’”

The pastor said he was simply exploring the mission that week, like he told his friends he would, saying, “I’ll keep moving forward until God closes the door — and He didn’t — He just kept opening one door after another.”

The board of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship was concerned, said Denton, with the idea of him traveling abroad at that time.

For the full story, see the April 7 issue.