When Daniel Gollan packed up and moved from Tasmania to Ukraine about 30 years ago, he was fulfilling his dream of working as a Christian missionary in the former Soviet Union.
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Last month, Mr Gollan's peaceful, small town about 70 kilometres south of Kyiv was turned upside down as it was hit by a wave of refugees, fleeing from the city as fighter jets and missiles began to regularly soar overhead.
"I've felt emotions I didn't know existed," he said last week.
"Let's say for now that it's been the most stress-filled two weeks of our lives. But at the same time, these two weeks have seen us witness the depths of love and respect that times like these often inspire - two weeks of horror mixed with two weeks of incredible closeness."
In the weeks since Russia's invasion on February 24, Mr Gollan, his wife Pris, and their young daughter have been collecting some of the thousands of refugees flowing through their town, giving them a place to stay and sending them on to Western Ukraine or across the border to Germany.
"We have been stockpiling in the event that Russia holds this territory for longer than a couple of months," Mr Gollan said.
"We have been making meals and taking them to the manned checkpoints that surround our town."
The family have been documenting their story online via a blog and YouTube, sharing regular updates with their friends and family about their safety and missionary work.
About a week ago, in a video named "Both a perfect and very imperfect morning", the Gollans shared the news that it was their last morning together.
"Goodbye as a family," Mr Gollan said, huddled together with his wife and daughter beside a perfectly still river.
"I'll just take a minute to show you the beauty out there that's been given to us this morning. Looking up the river towards Kyiv, looking out towards Boryspil and Brovary where there's so much suffering ... down the river there to Kaniv, where there is a dam that was reported this morning that the Russians are expected to try and take it out, with thousands and thousands of people lined up trying to get across before that happens.
"The girls are sorry to be leaving."
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Mr Gollan said his wife and daughter had since headed west to work at a refugee centre.
"I hope the boys in Kiev can hold the Russians at the borders of the city and things will calm down in two weeks," he said.
"If this happens, my incredible wife and 17-year-old daughter will return and join me here again."
In one of Mr Gollan's most recent blog posts, he describes a quiet town, surrounded by thousands of people "living in fear" with nothing to warm themselves.
"I have an extremely unwelcome suspicion that Russia is going to be shelling Kiev and possibly the two cities between us and Kiev in the next few days," he wrote.
"I wish to be 100 per cent wrong, but time will tell. If this happens, I expect that we will get another wave of panicked city-dwellers come through."
With hostilities still stepping up in Kyiv and a 35-hour curfew imposed on Tuesday night in Ukraine, Mr Gollan said wasn't sure what the effect would be where he lived.
"It is concerning from the perspective that there's probably going to be lots of people dying, who are going to be killed" he said.
"We shall be praying for courage for those men out there on the front lines ... for God's mercy. For Kyiv."
You can keep following the story on Daniel's Gollan's YouTube channel.