Jim and Millie McIlvaine currently work full time in the health care professions of Radiology and Cardiology as Technologists. Their careers span 30 years of dedication to their vocation. In 1996, the couple began taking short term medical missionary trips. They traveled separately as well as together from pathetic run state orphanages in Ukraine to isolated hurricane ravaged villages in Honduras. Their experiences were life changing and the couple quickly realized the desperate need for long term, ongoing relief to impoverished areas of the world.
" Millie and I observed that during the time our team was living and working in the cities and villages, there was a short-term increase in prosperity. We paid the nationals to translate, gave them medical and dental attention, and left the majority of our belongings and finances to them upon our departure. We knew however, that those supplies would quickly run out and their life would return to the previous level of poverty."
From their desire to help and obedience to what they believed God had called them to do, Life House Ministries was formed. Making local contacts in churches and the medical community, Jim and Millie began to establish a networking process with Pastors and Physicians both locally and abroad. Once in place, the couple began to collect, pack, and ship medical and humanitarian aid to the designated country.
Life House Ministries is a 501(c)(3) Christian charity registered with the Internal Revenue Service and incorporated in the State of Florida.
"Jim and I had an intense desire to help, which God answered when He called us into this work. As soon as we told God we would obey His will, He providing everything we needed to get started, and is still providing as this ministry grows. "
Jim and Millie have formed two partnerships in Ukraine. The first partnership is with "The Father's Home Church" in Kiev, Ukraine and Pastor Valentina Schevchenko. The church, under her direction, has used the supplies to meet the needs of its members and is now reaching out into the community through " mission projects. " A local nursing home and the Social Services Department in the Moscow region of Kiev are being helped with medical supplies, uniforms, winter clothing and shoes.
The second partnership is with a medical charity in Kiev, Ukraine called " The Road to Life." This charity operates under the medical direction of Dr. Slava Velychko, who is a trauma surgeon at the Regional Trauma Hospital in Kiev. Dr. Velychko receives the shipment of medicine and medical supplies and oversees the distribution. The charity is set up to help the indigent population with emergency medical support. All medicine and medical supplies are freely given to those who would otherwise go without medical intervention due to lack of funds.
HUMANITARIAN HELP WITH A GERMAN ACCENT
The names of Herbert Kräuter and Daina Freimane-Kräuter from Germany are well known to the people of the town of Boryspyl in Ukraine, and they are associated with the word ""patron". They have rendered much help to the Central district hospital and public organizations of the town several times for the last few years. The 20th of July was a joyful day for the hospital staff as they got an ultrasound machine from their old friend and patron Herbert Kräuter. Though the machine is not new, it is still in a good condition and quite reliable. This is especially important now as the hospital isn't provided with the state finances to buy the badly needed medical equipment.
A lot of special guests came to the hospital that day, among them Valeriy Dmitriyev, the mayor deputy, Ruslan Bernadskiy, the head deputy of Boryspyl district state administration, and Volodymyr Bondar, an adviser to the head of the district state administration and many others. They came to congratulate the hospital staff on the important occasion and promised to encourage the collaboration with foreign charities.
Vyacheslav Yevtushenko, the chief doctor of Boryspyl central district hospital, introduced Gregory Pashchenko, a translator and a good friend of Mr. Herbert Kräuter , who attracted the patron's attention to the urgent problems of the native town, as well as Vyacheslav Velychko, a doctor of the hospital and the president of the "Road to Life" medical charity who helped a lot in the difficult process of the custom house procedures.
"A lot of hospitals and public organizations of foreign countries function at the expense of philanthropists. The Ukrainian doctors still have to look for some humanitarian aid from abroad, although we have a lot of people here who could help hospitals" said Vyacheslav Yevtushenko.
