Voice of Ukraine

From Lxxx (Day 169): Dear brothers and sisters, There was a thunderstorm at night and we reacted to every sound of the thunder. We knew that it was thunder but still had some strange reaction. But it’s much more pleasant to be woken up by thunder than by the siren.

The day is cool and it’s pleasant to go to the market, where our local farmers sell their products. The market is not as crowded as it used to be in summer and the prices are higher but it’s good to be able to buy some fruits and vegetables. But as I go through our market I think and pray for the farmers of Kherson region who can’t sell their products and have to give them almost for nothing to the occupants. And I think of the farmers of Nikolayev region whose farms are destroyed.

Our counselors Vxxxx and Axxx, who are in the city of Montpellier, France now, work with refugees there. They started a support group, five people came to the first group meeting, they hope there will be more. Each of these people came with their stories. This is one of them:

Rxxx is from Mariupol. When the war began she didn’t want to leave their city, every time the shelling started, she ran to the basement. But then the war came to the point when the shelling never stopped and she had to stay in the basement of her apartment building all the time. It was dirty there, there were rats running around. Almost all her neighbors stayed there, they slept there, ate there and did their toilet there. Some residents of the basement brought alcohol with them and were constantly drunk. The food was running out but it was impossible to go out because Russian soldiers fired at whoever they wanted. For them, it was entertainment. People began to die in the basement, the smell became unbearable.

Rxxx decided to go out, but the shelling started again and she began to run stumbling over dead bodies in the street, she saw the bomb hit her building and heard the cries of her neighbor who refused to go to the basement and stayed in her apartment, her apartment was in fire. Rxxx ran, the people around were running, too. Some of them fell, some continued to run. Rxxx was able to get out of the city, she went through several Russian check points, then walked through the fields where she saw many burnt cars and buses. She remembers one of those buses with a sign “Children” and with burnt bodies inside.

Rxxx walked long before a bus that was picking up people who were able to get out of Mariupol stopped and took her. The bus was going to Poland. Then Rxxx with other people travelled to France. Now she is comfortable and safe but she cries a lot and she can’t sleep. She came to the group meeting and she will have individual counseling. Vxxxx and Axxx are working with people like Rxxx.

Please, pray for our counselors as they work with deep traumas.

In Christ,
Lxxx

P.S.