On January 4th and 5th, peaceful protests in Kazakhstan turned into mass riots, including the arson of government buildings and looting. A state of emergency was declared - first in some regions, then throughout the entire country. For several days, there were Internet outages, leading to interruptions in the work of cashless payments. On January 6th, the regime of the anti-terrorist operation was announced, and the cleansing of the protesters began. The situation was especially difficult in Almaty, where many shops were looted, markets and bakeries remained closed, and many were wounded and declared missing.

Church members and ADRA Kazakhstan volunteers immediately began to provide all possible assistance to people in need. First of all, these are low-income, large families and veterans.

Immediately, on January 6th, ADRA volunteers began to collect food packages and deliver them to those in need, despite the danger on the streets of the city.

On January 9th, members of the Almaty communities, headed by the leaders and employees of the South Union Mission and the South Kazakhstan Mission, cooked pilaf in large cauldrons and took it to the 4th City Hospital, feeding 140 people.

I would like to note the well-coordinated joint work of the department of chaplaincy and the leaders of the South Caucasus Church, members of the church, and volunteers of ADRA Kazakhstan, who, in the shortest time possible, showed the character of our merciful Savior and provided timely assistance to people in trouble.

Thank God that many brothers and sisters helped in the purchase of products and in the preparation and delivery of food packages to people in need. The Adventist Relief and Development Agency around the world is responding quickly to such tragedies and is providing all possible assistance on behalf of the worldwide Church through local communities, proclaiming the gospel of love and the soon coming of Jesus Christ! Within a few days, assistance was provided to almost 300 families and two hospitals in Almaty.

We express our gratitude to the Director of ADRA EAD, Baratov D.V. for his leadership, prayers, advice, and help.

Let's continue to serve people so that everyone can live according to God's plan and accept Jesus as their personal Savior!

This article was originally published on the Euro-Asia Division’s news site.