Ocala ministry headed to Poland with relief

File photo: Crossroads Alliance & Ministries organizing relief effort. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2020.

Ocala-based Crossroads Alliance & Ministries, a faith-based non-profit with a nearly 20-year history of aiding people in need, both in the U.S. and abroad, has mounted a large relief effort for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. 

Nearly four million people, mostly women and children, have fled war-torn Ukraine for its western neighbor since Russian troops invaded the country Feb. 24, causing a critical need for humanitarian aid. 

Crossroads is collecting donations of non-perishable food items, especially canned meats, as well as toothpaste, bar soap, and shampoo, along with camping supplies like tents, stoves and sleeping bags for distribution to the refugees. 

 “We’re trying to get the word out and let people know we need donations,” said Steve Ewing, founder of Crossroads, before traveling to Poland Wednesday to begin the groundwork for the relief effort. 

“We know Ocala and Belleview and the Villages have enough good people that will help us with the supplies that we need,” he said. 

The organization hopes to fill five shipping containers with donations, roughly $300,000 worth of supplies, during Phase One of its Ukrainian refugee response and get them to a port in the Baltic Sea in northern Poland by June.  

Once there, the donations will be distributed to the needy by other groups. 

“The reality is millions of people in Ukraine have lost everything,” said Ewing a native Floridian who founded Crossroads in 2004. “We cannot sit and watch TV and see what’s happening and not do something.”

“We do this because of what Christ has done for us,” he said. “To be a compassionate person requires actions.” 

Ewing said he plans to meet with a group in Poland to devise a plan for distributing the donations to those who need them most.  

“We’re going to meet people on the ground and one of the groups includes 125 churches on the westside of northern Ukraine so we need to figure out how to get supplies to them from the east side of Poland,” he said. 

Photographers Dave Miller and Meagan Gumpert of Maven Photo and Film in Ocala are traveling with Ewing and will document the organization’s relief efforts. 

Other donations needed include blankets and anything baby-related including diapers, clothes, and formula, said Ewing, who served at an out-of-state non-profit before founding Crossroads shortly after Florida was hit with four major hurricanes.

Since its inception, Crossroads has sent essential supplies to hurricane-ravaged countries including Honduras and The Bahamas, to earthquake victims in the Caribbean and to Africa for famine relief, as well as to disaster sites here in the United States. 

It also does mission work and has built schools, clinics, churches, and orphanages in Central America. 

As for the war in Ukraine, Ewing said Crossroads will continue its mission to help victims as long as the need is there and as long as people here in the States want to help them out. 

“We’ll continue helping the Ukrainian refugees as long as we can keep people involved,” said Ewing. 

Donations can be dropped off at 195 SW 33rd Ave, Ocala. For monetary donations go to: crossroadsam.org.