Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 314): Dear brothers and sisters, It’s a new day and new beginning, new plans and we continue doing all the work that we started last year. Our counselors continue working with their clients.

Some stories from Tanya
Last year in July there was a rocket attack on a resort settlement Sergeyevka which is very close from our town. Tanya was counseling some people who survived after the rocket attack. Some of them still meet with Tanya periodically from time to time.

Nika – sixteen-year -old teenager from Sergeyevka, she almost lost her arm when the rocket hit the building where she was sleeping. The doctors were not sure that it was possible to save her arm and talked about amputation, but after several surgeries the arm got back sensations and movements. Now she can use her arm almost without pain, but a terrible scar is still there and Nika calls her arm ugly and hides it even now when she wears a sweater. She feels that it is not just a scar on her arm but on her image and on her life. Tanya works with her every week now to helps her accept the reality of it without considering it ugly and shameful. There are changes in Nika, she does not hide her arm any more and is more confident while talking.

Sveta – 25 years old. She came from Kharkiv to Sergeyevka in summer and stayed in one of the beach hotels. Kharkiv was intensively bombed but in that resort settlement Sveta felt safe. It was quiet there. She made some friends who stayed in the same hotel. They could not go to the beach of course, it was forbidden even approach there, but they often went for a walk and had fun going to the cafes. That evening her friends met in the café downstairs and invited her to come, she went with them but didn’t stay. After having a drink she went back into her room and went to bed. She doesn’t remember well what happened at night and how she got out from the ruined building but she remembers very well the moment in the morning when she found out that her friends died in the café downstairs. Now, six months later, she can’t forget her new friends that she met only a week before it happened and she feels guilty for leaving them. She came for counseling because she understands that she can’t deal with her pain and it does not go away with time.

Olya- 17. Olya and her parents also were in the apartment building that was hit by the rocket that night in July. She remembers how the walls in her room were falling down and how she occurred under some furniture pieced that fell down. The rescuers helped her and her parents to get out. They had some scratches and bruises but in general they were fine. But some of their neighbors died and some spent a long time in hospital. Tanya met with their family then and they seemed to be fine, recovering from the shock and moving ahead in their life. Last week Tanya had a call from Olya who wanted to talk. She said that her life with her parents became unbearable. They live in a new place now and everything is different, her parents don’t understand her and are very mean. She regrets that she did not die then in a missile strike. Tanya started working with Olya and plans to have a session with her parents.

Please, pray for our counselors and for their clients.
In Christ,
Lyuda