Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 193): Dear brothers and sisters, It’s a nice day the start of a new week and we are on the way to Odessa.

Our center is gradually resuming the work in the office after mostly working online. Our plan now is to start the groups of refugees in Odessa and to move in the same direction as we work with the groups in our town – we deal with emotional trauma, help people to adjust to a new place and accept new reality, then we go to spiritual level and share gospel to people. It’s very important to have contacts with a church and bring people into the fellowship of saints.

We have very good contacts with the church of our counselor Vika, and her pastor Paul. We are ready to plan some new projects together. The soup kitchen has been working for three months already and we see several groups of people who are regular visitors: 1) refugees 2) elderly people 3) there is a street market close to the place where the soup kitchen is, so some occasional people from the market come to enjoy the food, to listen and to talk. Vika does most of the cooking and she also buys the medicines for the old ladies.

We continue looking for a building for a refugee center where we are going to implement all our ideas and plans. Please, pray for the building that God wants us to have and for the provision of funds for it.

We had a good worship yesterday. It was nice to see Ixxxx and Lauren who came back from the trip they had to the Carpathian mountains. More refugees from our group come to the church,

I was glad to see Lena, a young woman from Kherson. We worried of her more than of others. She was always depressed and gloomy. When others in the group began to show the signs of revival she stayed silent and depressed, she didn’t want to talk during the meetings, she never made notes and never answered the questions we asked. It looked like there was no progress in her. She is a teacher of music, she plays the piano. She told that she hasn’t played since February. After our worship was over, I introduced Lena to our church musician, they talked a little bit and then Lena went to the piano and started to play. I watched her and noticed that her face expression became different. We told her she can come and play during the week.

Sergey had a Zoom meeting with our Ukrainian pastors last week. Many churches today distribute humanitarian help to people and serve refugees, give help to hospitals and work with needy people in their communities. The churches in Kharkiv, Kherson, and Nikolayev need our special prayer. Kherson is occupied, the church members who are still there try to be in contact with each other and support old and sick people. Most of church members of Kharkiv and Kherson left but ministers keep contacts with people who are still there and try to fill their needs. They also help people of the community and people in the villages.

Please, pray for the ministry of the churches who are in a very difficult circumstances.

In Christ,
Lyuda