Voice of Ukraine

From Lxxx ( Day 139): Dear brothers and sisters, Greetings from Ukraine! I am at home and I am happy to be home, though I already miss my daughter and my grandchildren very much. My trip was very smooth. Bob Burnham, a faithful missionary and our good friend took me home together with a pastor from Nikolayev and two more people.

It was a long driving, but there were no troubles or delays. We crossed two borders of Romania and Moldova pretty fast. We had to go slow on some parts of the road though because there were hundreds of trucks waiting to cross the border from both sides. Because the ports in Ukraine don’t work now, the trucks carry all the goods most of which is wheat grain through the border. It looks like they have to stay for weeks in long lines on the sides of the roads and move slowly towards the border before they are able to cross it and go on their route. As we watched them we felt so sorry for those poor drivers who had to stay in the heat waiting for so long.

We were not stopped at every check points in Ukraine as it used to be before. Few times they stopped us and looked at our passport, the soldiers were very friendly to our American driver and even tried to speak English.

We had a good talk with pastor Axxxx, who came to Brasov to visit his wife and four children. He told us about his ministry in Nikolayev now. The city has been under heavy shelling since the beginning of the war. Most of their church members left, some old people who are still in the city can’t come to the church because the public transport doesn’t work and it’s not always safe to walk there. But Axxxx and four men from the church meet and worship every Sunday. Their main ministry now is helping people with their needs. They have contacts with volunteers who bring them help, sometimes they travel to other cities to bring food and suppliers and deliver them to the places of the most need. He says that villages around Nikolayev were severely destroyed and people there have no electricity and clean water. They stay without food because their little farms are destroyed and some of the livestock was killed and some animals ran away during the bombing. So, many people in that area need help. Please, pray for this people and for Axxxx and his helpers who travel regularly in the area which is constantly bombed.

Sxxxx met us at a cross road of two ways one of which leads to Odessa and the other one is the way to our town. He took me and two other ladies to Bilhorod and Bob and pastor Axxxx went to Odessa where Andrey was supposed to get on a bus to Nikolayev.

My parents were glad to have me back. We had dinner together and then Sxxxx and I went for a walk in our neighborhood. We met the girls from our church youth group who were heading to the stadium to play frisbee, talked with them a little bit.

Today the morning started with air alarm at 6 a.m. But nothing bad happened, praise the Lord.

I plan to talk to our counselors on the phone and I will meet with Txxx to plan our work with a group on Saturday. Txxx worked so hard during my absence I want to unload her a little bit now.

Thank you for your prayers and support, we appreciate your help so much.

In Christ,
Lxxx