Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 293): Dear brothers and sisters, We had a good day yesterday. There were some alarms at night but nothing happened. Praise the Lord! And we had electricity all day yesterday.

I was glad to have a call from Vika, our counselor from Odessa. They have electricity several hours during the day. Vika was glad to be able to cook for soup kitchen on Saturday. They have people who come regularly now and some new people and they do street evangelism. It’s a special day for Vika, she loves her ministry in soup kitchen.

Besides counseling, Vika teaches at Christian university. Now her students are scattered all over the world – Baltic countries, Poland, Romania, Germany, Austria. But they all come for online classes. Some of the students work and come to the class during the work, they warn Vika that they will be able to listen to her class but they won’t be able to respond. At the beginning of her class Vika asks when it’s a good time to demonstrate the materials she wants to show them on the screen and they decide when they all can take time and look at the materials.

In spite of all this turmoil the lectures were going smooth and last Monday Vika finished her course and the last lecture ended at 1.30 p.m. and at 2 p.m. a massive attack began. Main electric units were destroyed and all city was left without electricity. The pumps that supplied water to the city could not work and there was no water and no heating. It was depressing but Vika was very glad that she finished her course and taught all her lectures before the blackout.
At home they had some supply of technical water and they bought the bottles with drinking water in the store. When their phones discharged they used power banks and then went to the nearest cafes to charge them there from generators.

The bakeries in the city did not work and Vika was afraid she would not be able to buy bread for soup kitchen but on the way there she stopped by the bakery and there were three last loaves waiting for her. She was very happy.

I was glad to talk to Vika. They have heating and water now and I hope that we all will cope with electric outages. There is a saying which everybody repeats to encourage each other “ When there is no electricity, remember that we have light in us”. Yes, we should be the light to the world in any situation.
Love in Christ,
Lyuda
P.S. There are photos of street evangelism near the soup kitchen and the photos of the sea that Vika made.