Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 284): Dear brothers and sisters, When I woke up today I saw snow from my window. It’s a real winter.
Yesterday I went to the market. The most popular place for shopping in our town is outdoor market. It is rather big and you can buy everything you need there and the prices are usually lower than in the stores. The market was always crowded and noisy and each time I went there I could meet a lot of my friends and acquaintances. But now it’s not crowded any more, there are less sellers and less buyers and the mood of people is down. As I talked to some people I know who work at the market they did not smile and did not feel like talking. How much I want to see these people in our church where they would feel the atmosphere of Christmas, the real Christmas and have joy that does not depend of circumstances of our life.

In the afternoon we had our group meeting in the café and we had a good time together. Because this dark season brings depressions and people are not open to talk we decided to have an art therapy. I asked them to draw their current situation of the one half of the sheet of paper and how they see their future of the other part. There was silence for a while they were thinking and drawing and then they began to share. It was nice to hear that they all see their future very positive and happy.

Lena (a blond lady in the photo) shared how her life and her mood changed when she joined a group of volunteers. That group collects warm clothes for refugees and invites people to come and choose what they need. Every day Lena meets people, talks to them and tries to cheer them up. This work helps her so much, she says there is no better remedy for depression than helping people.

Some new people joined our group due to Lena, she invited them to come.
A new lady Vera shared how she misses her daughter and grandchildren who went to Germany and how she hopes to see them soon. Vera met other people in our group and talked a lot to Nina, a woman who happened to sit next to her.

At the end of our meeting both ladies said that they became good friends within a short time, they found out that they have so much in common.

When our meeting came to an end the people were parting, hugging each other and went home with a good mood, good spirit and positive thoughts.
We wish you a good worship, good spirit and a good day.
In Christ,
Lyuda