A mom-and-daughter duo from Australia is helping together in Jesus’ Name.
Serving in Ukraine with the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has been a uniquely rewarding experience for Tricia Miller and Ebony Hewett—all the more so as this mother and daughter from Australia work together at our Emergency Field Hospital in Lviv.
Ebony Hewett from Australia said it was an honor to serve with her mother helping hurting families.
Tricia and Ebony have stood side-by-side representing Samaritan’s Purse in Ukraine—helping to meet the critical physical and spiritual needs of families impacted by conflict. Ebony has offered her skills as a paramedic and assisted our doctors by providing care in a moment’s notice at our Lviv hospital. Her mother, Tricia, has spent countless hours serving onsite as a lab technician, conducting critical tests that ensure our patients are diagnosed accurately and able to receive appropriate treatment.
“My mum…means the world to me,” Ebony shared while taking a break from her shift at the underground medical facility in Lviv. “She’s one of my closest friends and most important people in my life. I love her to bits and it is super special that we get to spend this amount of time together in Ukraine of all places.”
Tricia, a DART veteran who previously served with us during the height of the COVID outbreak in Cremona, Italy, softly smiled as her daughter shared her heart—proud and grateful for the amazing opportunity to help together in Jesus’ Name.
A Mother’s Call for Prayer
Tricia’s perspective while helping in an active conflict zone is filtered through a devotion to family. As many of the women we are assisting have forcibly fled their homes alone with their children, the mother’s heart within her has been greatly touched. “Seeing all the young women, with their little children with their suitcases…” she paused as tears filled her eyes, “our words are not big enough really to express the emotions you see here. Having Ebony here—it has brought more joy to a situation that is tragic.”
Tricia served as a lab technician among other roles while daughter Ebony used her training as a paramedic.
Tricia went on to say that she has been greatly encouraged by the fellow mothers and women responding to this tragic crisis, both those coming to help from abroad and those local Ukrainian women who’ve chosen to stay and serve in any way they can.
She emphasized the importance of prayer. “I think it is a mother’s heart to continuously extend, not just to your own children, but to others as well. I know that my mom prays for me every day, and I cherish that. I think that that love, that bond, and that drive that it gives us to pray continuously for our children—it has such a big impact, because God answers prayer.”
Please do remember this Mother’s Day to pray for struggling Ukrainian mothers, those who remain in country and those who’ve fled. Pray for them and for their children, that their physical needs would be met and they would know the love of God for them.
Happy Mother’s Day to “Mums” Everywhere
It is right to thank God for mothers. From their loving counsel to their tender affection, our moms help make us who we are and enable us to do what we do. As they pray for us and support us, we praise God for them!
“My mum is one of my closest friends and most important people in my life,” Ebony said. “It’s super special that we get to spend this amount of time together in Ukraine of all places.”
