Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 223): Dear brothers and sisters, We had a good day yesterday. We are very much encouraged by the advance of our army. There are more and more liberated places. The occupants are trying to escape bearing serious losses and leaving their transport and weapons behind. It was reported in the news that Russian military units were left without their internal communication ( their network was destroyed) and their commanders tried to use Messenger to connect with other units and call help. Yesterday evening we had problems with the internet and we think this was done deliberately by our forces in order to complicate the situation of the surrounded Russian units.

In the morning we had news about Russian ships in the sea approaching the shore but by the midday it became windy and the sea became stormy, so it did not allow the ships to come closer.

Yesterday we organized a tour for our refugees to the fortress which is an interesting sight of our town. The place where we live has an interesting history. The first settlement here was founded in the 4th century B.C. by Greeks. In the course of history many different nations lived here, the town was conquered by many different countries, it used to be a part of Roman Empire in the first century A.D., it was a part of Bulgarian, then Moldavian kingdom.

In the middle ages a mighty fortress was built to protect the town from the invaders. It was a good protection but in the 14th century the Ottoman Empire that was very strong at that time took the fortress and ruled our area for long 300 years. In the beginning of the 19th century our area became a part of Russian Empire, then after WWI it became a part of Romania and finally it was taken over by the Soviet Union after WWII.

It should be noted that our fortress is a unique monument of defensive architecture of the Middle Ages, one of the largest fortresses of that time in Eastern Europe.

We had a very interesting tour, the guide told us the story of the fortress then there was an opportunity to climb the walls, walk around and take photos. We had a lot of fun imagining the scenes of the past that the walls of the old fortress might have witnessed.

There was one lady in the group (Galya), who used to come to our breakfasts but she never attended a group and was timid to communicate. Last week I talked to her and insisted on her coming to the group. She visited the support group on Saturday and during the tour yesterday she came up to me and said how much she is thankful for becoming a part of the group. After our fellowship on Saturday she began to feel so much different.

We thank God for giving us this opportunity for ministry and we thank all people who help and support this ministry. We hope that the center that we plan to organize in Odessa will help us to expand our ministry and will give us many new opportunities.

Please, pray with us for organizing a refugee center in Odessa and for a facility where the center will be located.

We ask to send the donations to Pathway Ministries organization:

E. Langston Haygood,D.Min.,Ph.D.
Pathway Ministries, Inc.
288 Huntington Parc Circle
Birmingham, AL 35226
(205)835-3325
http://www.pathwayministriesinc.com

In Christ,
Lyuda