Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 234): Dear brothers and sisters, It’s a nice autumn day, sunny and quiet. It’s not cold and the colors of the trees are beautiful. Our town looks nice, it looks almost the same as a year ago, but there are not many children around, very few kids play in the playgrounds.

Yesterday was a cooking day in our church. The time our church members spend together is also a good fellowship when they finish cooking they eat together, pray and then deliver the food to the military base in our town. Valya, the widow of Vitaliy, is our main cook. She comes to the church very early on Fridays and prepares the dough, then when other people come they prepare the filling and start making pies.

It was a nice day at our local defense center. Yesterday was a holiday and everybody wanted to congratulate our soldiers. Many people brought food and warm clothes to be sent to our soldiers who are fighting now in the war zones. Especially touching was congratulation of the children from local schools, they made pictures and wrote letters to the soldiers.

Today is a day of the soup kitchen in Odessa. Vika, her pastor Paul and some church members, cook food, do street evangelism and invite people to come to the church. There are some regular visitors who come every Saturday and then come to worship on Sunday. Some refugees began to come.

The young families of the church are in Europe now, this is what happened to many churches where mothers and children had to leave. Many families are separated. Pator Paul’s wife and daughter are in Austria now. When we hear about the advance of our army we hope that the victory is close and soon many people who had to leave will come back and families will be reunited.

I am preparing for a support group meeting today and I am thinking and praying about the topics that I choose for discussion.

I wish you to have a good weekend.

In Christ,
Lyuda