Impact Updates from Around the World - August
Take a quick trip around the world with us and catch a glimpse of what God is doing through One Collective communities.
A Home Was Waiting
In 2020, no one knew what was coming.
A group of local leaders in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, had a vision to create jobs and teach construction skills to Rroma young adults who were often overlooked, while building affordable tiny homes in the Carpathian Mountains. Through the Visible Fund, One Collective provided seed capital to help launch Carpathian Homes alongside Catalyst Doug Landro and local partners. It was the kind of investment the Visible Fund was created to make: investing in local leaders with ideas that can create jobs, generate income and bring lasting transformation to their communities.
Then, on February 24, 2022, everything changed.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine, and millions of people were forced from their homes. In the town of Oleshky, across the Dnipro River from Kherson, three interconnected families woke up under Russian occupation. Their ordinary lives of work, school, church and family were suddenly replaced by military checkpoints, empty store shelves, power and gas outages, fear and uncertainty.
Over the next four years, war would scatter them across Ukraine and beyond. Some escaped early. Others endured years of occupation. One family traveled 2,800 miles through Crimea and Russia to reach freedom. Another survived the catastrophic destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and the flooding that followed. Sergey and Natalia remained in Oleshky the longest, growing their own food, digging a well and holding on as the community around them crumbled. Eventually, when their connection to a relative serving in the Ukrainian military put them in danger, they knew they could no longer stay. They fled with a backpack, eventually walking the final two miles across the border into Ukraine. But throughout their story, something else was happening.
Again and again, people of faith stepped into the gaps. Churches welcomed family members as they fled. Fellow believers provided beds, meals and connections in unfamiliar cities. In Uzhhorod, the Transform Uzhhorod Alliance, a coalition of churches and nonprofit organizations, surrounded displaced families with practical support and community. What these families found was more than shelter. In the midst of profound loss and uncertainty, they found people willing to walk alongside them and remind them that they were not forgotten.
The tiny-home project that had begun years earlier was changing too. Homes originally imagined as affordable mountain retreats were repurposed as permanent housing for Ukrainians displaced by war. In Veliky Lazy, near Uzhhorod, a new community began to take shape, offering families something they desperately needed: a safe place to begin again.
In April 2026, after four years of occupation, Sergey and Natalia finally arrived in Veliky Lazy. Their daughter Ira and grandson Anton had arrived only two days earlier after enduring their own painful journey. They had not seen one another in years. The trauma was still visible. Safety was new and difficult to trust but a home was waiting for them.
Today, all three families are together again. Sergey and Natalia live in one of the homes in Veliky Lazy. Their longtime friends Dima and Nina live next door. Sasha, whose construction business has become part of this rebuilding story, lives just across the creek. Pastor Pavel, his wife Helena and the five foster children they protected through the war are only fifteen minutes away. They have lost years that cannot be returned to them, homes and communities that may never be the same, and the sense of security they once knew. Healing will take time. But now they are safe. They are surrounded by family and community. After years defined by survival, there is room to hope again.
It is difficult to imagine that part of this story began with a Visible Fund investment made before the invasion began. It began as an investment in young people, job skills and a local construction business and then became something no one could have anticipated. The infrastructure, relationships and local leadership were already in place when the needs of the community changed dramatically. Carpathian Homes could adapt, and today its vision extends beyond individual tiny homes and has evolved into creating jobs, expanding construction capacity and helping Ukraine rebuild.
This is what the Visible Fund is designed to do: invest in local leaders and sustainable ideas that can multiply far beyond the original investment.
Sometimes we see the impact quickly. Other times, we invest in something today without knowing how God may use it tomorrow. In Ukraine, an investment in local leaders became jobs and skills. Those skills helped build homes. And in the middle of war, those homes became places where families could find safety, community and the hope to begin again.
These are just a few snapshots of what God is doing across the globe. Thanks so much for reading!
Lindsey Vanzant
Global Giving Advisor
Lindsey serves as the Global Giving Advisor for One Collective, where her primary focus is to coach financial supporters by connecting their goals, experiences and passions to the work God is doing on the front lines in communities where One Collective serves around the world.
Prior to joining One Collective, Lindsey spent 15 years in various business development and account management roles with Rubbermaid Commercial Products where she most recently led the healthcare division. For the past 11 years, Lindsey has led a local ministry support group for young moms with unplanned pregnancies alongside her local church.
Lindsey lives in Indiana with her husband and four children and loves to travel, explore new places, meet new people, cheer on Hoosier basketball, grow flowers, and spend time with family and friends.