FAIRCHILD, Wis. — “The bombs were flying as we were on the road, but I had a fantastic team with me. All of us [were] from Ukraine besides one. The driver was Polish. And we just felt such a desire, there was no fear. We were ready for whatever happens.”
These are the words of Ukrainian-born Valentyna Pavsyukova about her organization’s first emergency medical mission to Ukraine since the country was invaded in February.
She and her team at Chalice of Mercy, the missionary group she founded in Chippewa Falls, Wis., in 2007, were transporting about 12 tons worth of medical supplies via semi truck from Spain to Lviv, Ukraine, as an oil station was being bombed. They arrived at their drop off point just two hours after the oil station was hit.
“When we crossed all the borders — Polish border, Polish police border, Ukrainian border — When finally we were going to the place where we were going to unload the truck to a different truck, two kilometers from that area, just two hours prior, the oil station was bombarded,” she said.
Origin of the mission
Pavsyukova first came to the United States at the age of 18 after her name was picked in the U.S. Green Card Lottery in 2002. Soon after her conversion to Catholicism in 2007, she considered joining the Peace Corps but after reading writings of St. Mother Teresa, she concluded her mission territory would be her homeland of Ukraine.
“When I start coming to Holy Mass every day that is when I start discovering that God is calling me to something more,” she said.
“I realized my life was not just going to be working from eight to five. I felt that Africa could be my mission. It was just this book, Come Be My Light, and it inspired me so much. She was mentioning that everybody would want to come to Calcutta. Everybody wants to come to Calcutta, but where is your family? Where is your friends? Where is your country?”
For the first few years, until 2010, she served her mission on a part-time basis.
“I was working as a hairstylist in Chippewa Falls downtown,” she said. “I had a very, very good boss who understood my mission and understood that I am in the beginning of a very different stage of my life.”
But eventually, the work grew into a full-time mission. Her missions have included Medical Missions, Pro-Life Missions, the founding of a daycare, and leading several pilgrimages.
Eventually, she moved from Chippewa Falls to Fairchild where she currently resides when she is not overseas.
The current crisis
Despite the dangers involved, Pavsyukova said that the current crisis has only activated her.
“Escalation of the situation in Ukraine was obvious,” she said. “I was just in Ukraine in the fall, and I left December 1 back to America. I was preparing for a big fundraiser we have every year. We have a Ukrainian Christmas dinner, and the escalation was very, very hot. We did not know what was going to happen.”
She wanted to emphasize that “this war is not new. This war has been happening already for eight years, and I have been much involved in helping people in a former war zone. I do not need to turn on TV to understand what is happening to my country, because I have run into it, and it saddens my heart to the depth.”
She spoke about “dear friends” she has in Ukraine, doctors and soldiers she has worked with in the past.
“I have seen everything through their heart,” she said. “It is not conflict. It is a full invasion. This is a complete intentional decision of Vladimir Putin to annihilate completely my country Ukraine as a nation, as a culture, as a language, as its own independent country with its own sovereignty and decisions.”
She spoke passionately about the suffering of the people, the civilian victims, and the millions of refugees that have had to move to neighboring countries.
“So many of my friends are refugees right now,” she said. “This is not a regular fight. This is people fighting people. There are soldiers. There are military. There are professionals. But the whole country is fighting together right now. We are all one heart because we are defending our land. We are defending our future. We are defending the entire of Europe. In many ways, we are right now like a bulletproof jacket for everybody who is behind us.”
She expressed that the crisis has increased her mission. “So the second day of war, I was already organizing how we were going to be shipping medical, surgical supplies, and other supplies that our soldiers will need, and I went to Bishop [William] Callahan [of the diocese of La Crosse]. He knows about Chalice of Mercy non-profit organization and its mission for many years, and he’s always been supportive.”
With Bishop Callahan’s support, she very quickly began speaking to parishes in the La Crosse diocese, gathering volunteers and supplies.
“My friends would say, ‘Valentyna, please go and drink at least a sip of water,’” she said. “I had my phone break two times because of talking so much on the phone and organizing so many million things.”
Finally, this brought her back to Poland where she helped transport the first shipment of supplies to Ukraine.
“When we were at the border, so near to cross into Ukraine — I was still in Poland but only a kilometer away from my country — my only desire was to breathe the air of my country. Can you imagine? Just to breathe the air. What is the difference? It is the same,” she said.
“I feel that I want to give every minute of me, sincerely,” she said. “Someone said to me ‘But Valentyna, it is a drop in the ocean’, but if this drop is not there, the ocean is practically less or like — it is hard to explain, but it must be said. I’m not outside the ocean right now. I am in this ocean, and we are in it so much together. It is such a unity it is like we are all one body, one heart, one soul for me.”
Learn more and help
To learn more about Pavsyukova and her story of conversion to the Catholic faith, make sure to check out next week’s article.
“I love to speak this story,” she said. “Because when I was a child, my grandmother taught me how to say the Our Father prayer just because — in case God exists. So, she wasn’t sure herself.”
To learn more about Chalice of Mercy and to help, visit the website at www.chaliceofmercy.org
There you can learn more about the mission’s history and make a donation via Paypal or GoFundMe.