Gods Hidden Treasures<\/a> is a ministry founded by Nita Hanson, a member of Emanuel Presbyterian Church in Thousand Oaks, California, though she now resides in Florida.<\/p>\nIn regular recent updates, Hanson keeps an upbeat tone while speaking of the desperation in Ukraine. Two staff drivers are making regular trips with the organization\u2019s \u201cblue van\u201d and \u201cwhite van\u201d to Ukrainian border towns with Poland, Romania and Slovakia, transporting people fleeing the fighting and returning with food, medicine, clothing, and other supplies. She says people want to leave the areas of fighting, but many don\u2019t want to remain in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1UkraineRE.jpg\")
\u201cMany praises to God and many thanks to all of you for the prayers for the safety of our mini convoy to Kramatorsk,\u201d she wrote on April 11. \u201cEveryone was safely taken from Kramatorsk – many of them wanted to go to Dnipro which for me was hard to understand because it is not a safe place either – right now safer than Kramatorsk, but not for long if Russia has its way.\u00a0I can\u2019t tell you how relieved I am that they are safely on their way back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
After arriving back to the ministry\u2019s headquarters in the town of Fursey a day later, she wrote: \u201cIt was an interesting group of people we picked up – not one of them wanted to go to a different country.\u00a0Many were taken to Dnipro, several to villages near Kiev or Bila Tserkva – some to the village of Squirra and so forth.\u00a0\u00a0We still have one man who hasn\u2019t decided where he wants to go.\u00a0Praise the Lord that we were able to help close to 100 people get to safety!\u201d<\/p>\n
The war has made delivering services more difficult and medical supplies harder to get. Five staff members have left the country temporarily and one has relocated to western Ukraine due to the conflict. Other staff are coordinating with partner churches in conflict areas to help assess and deliver needs when the pathways are safe.<\/p>\n
A recent purchase of iodine and water purification tablets is ready for distribution \u2013 iodine in case of nuclear attack or contamination, water purification for municipalities who\u2019ve had their water supplies sabotaged by Russian troops. Over 7,500 people in God\u2019s Hidden Treasures\u2019 network will receive the pills in addition to a quantity to be distributed to Ukrainian soldiers.<\/p>\n
These disruptions are on top of COVID protocols that put off some of the ministry\u2019s services. Rather than in-person customized wheelchair fitting, technicians have had to help people remotely. Home visits have been curtailed and social workers have provided life-saving social support for clients and families over the phone. Referral services continue to assist those with special needs and, when possible, staff provides direct aid and medical support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have any people with disabilities\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nHanson first visited Ukraine during a three-week church mission in 1995, only four years after the country had gained independence from the Soviet Union. While she describes the Ukrainians she met as \u201cpoetic, heartfelt people who take you into their hearts and that\u2019s where you stay,\u201d she was shocked by the conditions she observed in orphanages and in the care of people with disabilities.<\/p>\n
She entered her first Ukrainian orphanage, Veloshka, within the first two weeks of her arrival. There Hanson found several children languishing and unresponsive. The orphanage, like so many in the region, had adopted the Soviet-era methods of caring for children, especially those with special needs, which involved little more than feeding them and providing a place to sleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first went there, even a newborn baby was fed with a bottle propped up on a blanket or something \u2013 they weren’t held ever,\u201d Hanson remembers. \u201cThat affects your physical and emotional development forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
With little to no physical or mental stimulation, and no loving touch, Hanson could see these children \u2013 about half with mental and physical challenges, others merely handed over to the state by their parents \u2013 were never going to receive the necessary therapies to live lives outside of a clinical setting. She also learned that a panel of experts evaluated children when they turned three \u2013 classifying many as \u201cimbeciles\u201d thereby sentencing them to a life within the walls of an institution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would go in there and hold all the children, and [the orphanage workers] would get mad at me and say, \u2018When you leave, all the children cry,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Well, good, at least they’re not sitting there rocking back and forth to soothe themselves.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/3UkraineRE.jpg\")
Moved to action, Hanson returned in 1996 for volunteer year with the co-mission in Ukraine. She made her first solo visit in 1997 and started to build the relationships she cultivated in subsequent annual visits leading to the formation of God\u2019s Hidden Treasures in 2000. For the first 15 years of the ministry Hanson says she spent more time in Ukraine than in the U.S. and just prior to COVID restrictions was spending half of each year there guiding the work.<\/p>\n
Although Hanson has no medical or social services training \u2013 she worked in marketing before sensing the call to serve children in Ukraine \u2013 she was keenly aware of gaps in services received by these children, adults with disabilities, and other vulnerable people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was nothing there for people with disabilities,\u201d Hanson says. \u201cWhen I first went to Ukraine, I never saw anybody with disabilities, except if they were a war veteran \u2013 and even that was suspect\u201d<\/p>\n
Her Ukrainian contacts, who had never been allowed to visit an orphanage, didn\u2019t believe what she\u2019s seen. They told her, \u201cOh no, you’re wrong because we don’t have any people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Undeterred, Hanson brought her Ukrainian friends to see the children in their playground. They, too, knew they needed to extend the hand of Christian compassion to these little ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were the first ones to get people outside to see this and start encouraging them to think about providing services and tell these children that you can be somebody, you can go to school. You can!\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Two children who received care from God\u2019s Hidden Treasures have participated in the Paralympics. One graduated from the university in Kiev and is now a lawyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s amazing the changes because when I first started doing this everybody just said, \u201cWe’re going to die early and that’s our future,\u201d says Hanson.<\/p>\n
From its origins with orphans and children with special needs, God\u2019s Hidden Treasures has expanded its care network to include a wheelchair ministry that has delivered and custom-fit over 8,000 wheelchairs and mobility aids, diabetes detection and aftercare, a stroke rehabilitation program with an incredible success rate, and a meal program for economically vulnerable people.<\/p>\n
The value of partnerships in mission<\/strong><\/p>\nGod\u2019s Hidden Treasures primarily serves the needs of people living near its headquarters in the surrounding Bila Tserkva District in central Ukraine. The ministry delivers services and visitations to more than 1,700 families in 58 nearby villages and occasionally provides wheelchairs and referral services throughout the country.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2UkraineeRE.jpg\")
A shoestring budget of $200,000 per year provides for the needs of the 18 Ukrainian staff members, the purchase of wheelchairs, food, medical supplies, and organization vehicles. The staff includes three men who were helped as orphans along with a full-time doctor and nurse. Nita and her band of U.S.-based volunteers are not compensated for their work, ensuring all donations go directly to helping Ukrainians in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is run by the Ukrainian employees and I’m only there now to keep them on course,\u201d Hanson says of her role at God\u2019s Hidden Treasures. \u201cI\u2019m very, very careful with spending money. I feel that weight of responsibility that it\u2019s God’s money, not mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 80 years old Hanson, who has a daughter, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, shows no signs of slowing down, though she realizes the need for long-term planning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven’t found anybody to take my place and that\u2019s a big concern for me,\u201d she says. \u201cGod used me to be the visionary. My two top people are training someone and they\u2019ve taken over partial responsibility already. Our director has trained a new office manager, so we have some succession as that goes forward \u2026 God just keeps telling me, \u2018Just keep doing what you’re doing. I could raise up somebody in a day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanson says she\u2019s never sent a fundraising letter, relying on her presentations at U.S. churches and word-of-mouth to spread the news about God\u2019s Hidden Treasures and raise funds<\/a> for the services it provides. One such presentation inspired a team from the Presbyterian Foundation, including President and CEO Tom Taylor, to visit in 2012.<\/p>\n\u201c<\/strong>God told me when I started, you have two ministries, one to Ukraine and one when you go back to America, you need to tell people what I’m doing,\u201d she says of her initial calling. \u201cI was sitting out there in the pews and look what God has done.\u201d<\/p>\nHanson credits God\u2019s Hidden Treasures\u2019 employees in Ukraine for their creativity and ingenuity in responding to the ever-changing needs over the past two years and especially in recent months. The ministry\u2019s work has continued through these difficult times, and she has faith its work will adapt as needs arise.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can take credit for is that I said yes. What a privilege to think that God would work through me because I wouldn\u2019t have used me,\u201d she chuckles. \u201cBut it’s true, all God ever asks of us is just to be available.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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