Ukraine is enduring the harshest winter in 20 years. Temperatures have fallen to –19°C, and millions are without heating after deliberate attacks on the nation’s energy infrastructure.

Families are living in dark, freezing apartments. Elderly and disabled people are trapped in high-rise buildings with no lifts. Children are sleeping in coats and blankets. Homes are flooding as frozen pipes burst.

This is not simply a humanitarian crisis, it is a test of compassion.

“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26)

The need Is urgent. Freezing conditions are expected to continue for at least another ten days. Every night without heat places the most vulnerable at serious risk.

How You Can Respond Today:

• Give generously — as God leads you. Every gift matters.
• Share this appeal with your church, small group, and Christian networks.
• Pray earnestly for protection, warmth, endurance, and peace for the people of Ukraine and for those serving on the ground.

To donate now, visit the donation page on our website: Make a Donation – International Aid Trust  please use reference ‘Ukraine Winter’

Your gift becomes an answer to prayer, your donation will help provide:

• Generators to restore power to homes and shelters
• Gas heaters so families can survive the cold
• Power banks and inverters for light and communication
• Warm clothing and bedding for those sleeping in freezing homes

These supplies allow families not only to survive—but to hold onto hope. Putin seeks to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people through suffering. But the Church stands in the gap.

“Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:18)

Thank you for being the hands and feet of Christ in this moment.

Blessings, love and thanks

Bernard,
Rev. Bernard Cocker, Founder & CEO

The post Ukraine Is Freezing — The Church Must Respond appeared first on International Aid Trust.

Click here to read it.

With an encouraging message from our Founder and CEO, Rev. Bernard Cocker, Christmas closing times, links to videos of your shoeboxes on their journey and last minute gift ideas.

The Trustees and Staff of International Aid Trust wish you joy and peace, in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ this Christmas time.

The post Christmas Message 2025 appeared first on International Aid Trust.

Click here to download our Advent Reflection for 2025.

This year we’re looking at the journey of the Magi to seek Jesus, using the words of Matthew’s gospel, each day there is a verse to reflect on, or an area of our work to pray for, as well as a picture you can print out and colour.

We hope that in this busy season it will help you to enjoy time reflecting on the wonder of Jesus’ birth, and praying for the work being done today through our teams in the UK and around the world, in Jesus’ name.

The post Advent Reflection appeared first on International Aid Trust.

On Saturday 18^th October, 7.00pm (Doors open 6.30pm)

At Claremont Church, St George’s Road, Bolton, BL1 2BY

The Eden Singers present: A Tribute to the Beatles – taking you back to the 60s to hear some of their greatest hits – & A Little Bit of Country – a foot stomping, hand clapping, yee har kind of a show!

Tickets only £7 including refreshments, all proceeds to International Aid Trust. 

Free parking at the Salvation Army car park, just across the road from Claremont Church.

Please email julie@internationalaidtrust.org.uk to reserve your tickets or with any questions.

The post Eden Singers Concert – Saturday 18th October appeared first on International Aid Trust.

Our new furniture shop in Tarleton is now open!

The furniture store is next to our warehouse:
International Aid Trust, Briery Lane, Off Blackgate Lane, Tarleton, Preston, PR4 6UU
For all enquiries, please call 01772 283505

For Google Maps directions, click below:
https://share.google/vvBicEjagrD7imurt

Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 4.30pm
Saturday: 9.30am – 3.30pm

There’s lots of good quality secondhand furniture for sale at reasonable prices, including:
Sofas & 3-piece suits, tables & chairs, white goods & small domestic appliances, beds, office furniture, home decor, bric-a-brac, framed artwork, and much more…

We are now collecting furniture donations and undertaking house clearances in the following areas:
Southport, Tarleton, Hesketh Bank, Banks, Formby, Croston, Bretherton, Leyland, Ulnes Walton, Preston

Please call in, have a browse and meet Manager Michelle and her team.

The post Our new furniture shop in Tarleton is now open! appeared first on International Aid Trust.

As we celebrate Christmas and go forward into another year it is always good to look back at what God has done through our ministry during the last year.

Poor children rescued from the slums in India and West Africa and given an education and a reason to smile at our two schools in India and one in Sierra Leone.  When you see where the conditions they came from and see the joy on their faces now it makes all so worthwhile.

By the time you get this many thousands of gift boxes will have been sorted and shipped to some of the poorest people in the world.  Thousands of little parcels of love and kindness being given out by our volunteers in orphanages, hospitals, old people’s homes, poor remote villages and housebound invalids.

Containers of aid have been dispatched to hospitals and needy communities, saving lives and changing others for ever.

Most importantly the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached to untold thousands through our churches, outreach programs and ministry to prisoners who continue to be set free from their pasts and are looking to the future with hope instead of despair.

The true meaning of Christmas often gets lost in the commercialism, the shopping, the parties, the baking, and the wrapping of presents.  But the most valuable gift of the season, the greatest gift of all time is that God sent us his own Son.

Almost three thousand years ago God spoke though His prophets, one of them is:

Isaiah Chp 9: 6

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The gift of Jesus brings joy to everyone who receives him and the real purpose of Christmas should be to share this gift so the whole world will know the love of our Saviour.

Tinsel and gift wrapping last a short time, Christ’s love is a gift for eternity.

May God Bless you all for your support and prayers

Rev  Bernard Cocker

CEO & Founder

The post CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM CEO & FOUNDER appeared first on International Aid Trust.

Choose a date that suits you in June.

Keep it low key with a few friends in your kitchen or invite the whole village to a tea party in the church hall, go outside and add some games and turn it into a garden party, the choice is yours. Whatever you decide, every penny you raise will help us support people living in great poverty around the world.

Click  here for your free downloadable Afternoon Tea pack, including posters, planning ideas, cake recipes, stories from people your donations will help.

The post TIME FOR TEA JUNE 2019 – A GREAT CHANCE TO GET TOGETHER WITH FRIENDS, FAMILY, COLLEAGUES, NEIGHBOURS ENJOY TEA AND CAKES AND RAISE MONEY FOR INTERNATIONAL AID TRUST! appeared first on International Aid Trust.