Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 272): Dear brothers and sisters, It’s a new day and I thank God again and again for this opportunity to share His love and mercy with so many people. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your messages, I wish I could answer all of them.

Yesterday morning Sergey had a call from Paul, our youth leader who is fighting now. We haven’t heard from him for a while and it was so nice to hear his voice, to feel his good mood. He is always optimistic and full of determination. He can’t tell much about their activities, we know that they move a lot now. We asked about his needs and answered his questions because he wants to know everything what is going on in the church. We miss him and he misses us.

We spent some time yesterday with Galina and Masha, our new refugees, Sergey helped them with transportation because they don’t know our town yet. Sergey took them to the social center where the refuges are registered to get help. As we talked with Galina, we noticed that she seems to do better emotionally, but her daughter Masha is still silent. We hope they will come to a group meeting this week.

November 21 is a Day of Dignity in Ukraine. We began to celebrate this day after the revolution of Dignity that started on this day 9 years ago. It was the time when Ukraine planned to join European Union and was moving west in its development. We felt the changes. For me as a teacher it was very vivid. I could see the improvement in our system of education and more opportunities for my students.

But the pro-Russian president Yanukovich decided to change the development course of the country, turning it to Russia. The signing of the agreement on European integration was disrupted. On November 21, 2013 the protests began, the students of Kiev universities were the first who started them.

The protests became massive all over Ukraine after the violent dispersal of the demonstration in Kyiv. The people stood for justice, for honesty, for the transparency of the government and against corruption. The more the pro-Russian government tried to suppress the uprising, the more people went out to Maidan, the main square of Kiev.

People stood day and night for several months despite the beatings and execution until president Yanukovich shamefully fled to Russia. We call all those who died in the confrontation with government the Heavenly Hundred, although there were more than a hundred deaths. Russia immediately took advantage of the vulnerability of the country without a president and took over a part of our territory.

Eight years later the evil empire started an open war against our country.
In the life of every country, as in the life of people, there may happen difficult periods. May the Lord bless all our countries and help us during trials to stand firmly on His Word with faith and hope.
In Christ,
Lyuda