Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda (Day 323): Dear brothers and sisters,
Yesterday, all our prayers were for the city of Soledar, which is attacked by hordes of evil, but courageously holds the defense. Then the news came that the military unit where our Dr. Anya serves moved to another place closer to the war zone. On the one hand it’s a good sign, our army is moving closer to the border but on the other hand it’s very hard for us to realize that Anya and other people whom we know very well are in a dangerous place. Our church ladies were cooking for the soldiers of that unit and we made good friends with them. The soldiers were on rotation which means that they were sent to battle zone for a month or so, then they came back for some rest and other detachments went to take their place.

Besides food, we tried to serve their needs in many ways. We delivered them a lot of stuff from the humanitarian help that we received. We got to know personally many of them. They told us that their food was good but they missed home-made pastries, so the pies that our women made for them was a good treat that gave them a feeling of home. Now our church cooks will decide what to do. We will investigate the needs of other military units that are located not far from us.

Please, pray for Dr Anya, her service and ministry and pray for her husband Vitaliy, who also serves in the same unit. Please, pray also for Lena, doctor’s assistant from our clinic, who serves there with Anya, for her husband who is fighting in the war zone and for her son, Dr Yaroslav, a military surgeon who works so hard now.

And pray for their unit in general for their protection and their spiritual state. For all these months we were witnessing to them of God’s love.

More and more news comes from the occupied territories and one of big problems they have is kidnapping children. Many children from the occupied territories were taken to Russia. We don’t know exact number but they say about tens of thousands of children. Some children were simply taken away from their parents, some parents were deceived by the offer to send the children to a rest camp for a couple of weeks, sometimes the children simply disappeared from the yards. Many parents are in despair, they do not know where their children are and there is no way for them to find them. It looks like our enemy does the same as Navudonosser who led the children into captivity with the idea of teaching them a new culture and make them forget about their God and their identity.

Sergey gets up early this week, before going to the church he visits a sick man in our neighborhood who is recovering after Covid. He returned from hospital home and Sergey helps him with some medical procedures he still needs to do. His name is Victor and he feels very lonely. His children do not communicate with him and we understand why. He is a former military man and is very strict or even mean it’s often hard to talk to him because he is full of anger. We met him two years ago when he on his bike hit Sergey’s car. Fortunately, it was not very serious. It was strange that then this man who was very unhappy and angry and never admitted his mistakes blaming others, did not direct his anger at Sergey and we became friends. He is in his 60s but looks like a very old man because his health is not good. We take him food every week, talk to him about Jesus and hope that his heart will become softer.

“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” Ezekiel 11:19

This is our prayer about many people in our society.
In Christ,
Lyuda

P.S. The photos of our hero, Dr. Anya, who works so hard now giving medical help to the soldiers and sharing with them a wonderful news about our Savior.