Since 1997, Nita Hanson has been serving vulnerable Ukrainians including orphans, people with physical and mental disabilities, and stroke patients.

A member of Emanuel Presbyterian Church in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Hanson started God’s Hidden Treasures in response to the needs she saw in and around Bila Tserkva (White Church). The ministry has partnered with the Presbyterian Foundation to utilize its online giving portal for contributions to this work.

Now, with 20 staff and counting, the ministry continues to provide meals, wheelchairs, health services, diabetes care, and expert medical support even as the war rages on.

Hason was a guest of Pastor Tom Stephen on the September 25, 2024, episode of Door to Peace – her third appearance on the show – where the two talked about Hanson’s work and the challenges of experiencing the peace of Christ in the darkest moments. Stephen is Senior Pastor of Monte Vista Presbyterian Church in California.

“Over the last year, contrary to what you see on the news, every day it gets worse,” Hanson began, speaking of conditions in Ukraine following the February 24, 2022, Russian invasion and escalation of the war that has been ongoing since Crimea was annexed by Russia in February 2014. “People are starting to get war weary and none of us can see an end in sight at this point.”

Hanson told Stephen that God’s Hidden Treasures has been “uniquely positioned” by God to make a difference in peoples’ lives when they need spiritual care as much as they need daily provisions.

Citing examples of her chaplains who travel to locations near the war’s front, she told the story of a food distribution where a man was being disruptive but when offered a Bible, his behavior and attitude changed. The man later brought the chaplains homemade honey as a gift.

“He treasured the Bible more,” Hanson said. “He thought we would bring food, but he never dreamed someone would give him his own Bible.”

For Hanson, the affects of the war are heartbreaking. “Everyone in Ukraine, including me, has PTSD,” she noted.

Yet, Hanson continues to feel called to the work despite the challenges and ever-present danger. “My people are there, and they can’t leave, so why isn’t it important for me to be there… This is where God has sent me and wherever he sends me it’ll be OK, and I’m OK with that,” she said.

Hanson explained how surrendering to God had been a pivotal part of her life and an ongoing process. She’d always searched for a closer connection to God – “hungering for more of God than I could find” – but always ended up lacking. The turning point, she said, was when she “let go of everything” and found a “real relationship with Jesus Christ” and a beginning of her service in Ukraine.

Turning the discussion to the eponymous blog title, Stephen recalled another conversation in which a guest said, “We are always in process of experiencing peace… Because we’re not going toward peace, we’re going toward God who is the dispenser of peace. And the closer we get to God, the more peace we experience.”

Hanson, reflecting on this statement, “You’ve got to go toward the one who is the giver of peace.”

On the topic of sacrifice, Hanson said she doesn’t consider her work a sacrifice, even if giving up her old life and what many assumed would be a retirement filled with time spent with her immediate family and friends.

“I love [my family] with all my heart, but the place in my heart and life was put in proper order,” she said, speaking to following her call to mission in Ukraine, and the people who have become family to her. “I get to partake in their joy.”

Hanson said a recent gathering for families of deceased soldiers was a key experience of that joy. There is little support for the parents, spouses and children of these veterans killed in action, so God’s Hidden Treasures sponsored a picnic this summer where approximately 50 families gathered to find common connections.

“One of the mothers stood up and said, ‘You’re the first people who have even reach out to us,’” Nita recalled. Friends and neighbors, this mother said, had shunned them because they didn’t know what to say.

“It’s like they were healing each other as they reached across the table to touch one another,” Hanson said of the power of the gathering.

Asked to offer closing thoughts on her ministry and work to listeners at the end of the podcast, reflecting on the themes of surrender, sacrifice and service, Hanson concluded, “Don’t be afraid to trust God because he’s always trustworthy, he’s always faithful and you can rest in that.”

The full episode of The Door to Peace featuring Nita Hanson can be found at this link. To donate to God’s Hidden Treasures and Hanson’s work in Ukraine, please follow this link.