Voice of Ukraine

February 16 (Day 358): Dear brothers and sisters, We are having a good morning but at night there was alarm all over Ukraine and more than 30 rockets were flying to our territory. Many of them were destroyed but there were hits in some parts of the country. A Russian ship fired 8 missiles from the Black Sea to our southern area and all these missiles were destroyed in the air by our air defense. God protects us.

Our little town leads it’s quiet life. There are less cars and less people in the streets, not many children around but the life is going on. Our two main factories work . There is a big shoe factory that used to produce nice shoes, now it turned into sewing factory and makes clothes and boots for our army.
We have a big bread factory that bakes bread and pastries for our area. The people who work there still have their jobs. It’s hard for people who were involved in a beach business, worked in the hotels and restaurants. There is no work and no income.

Our local market is a popular place to buy food because everything is cheaper there than in the stores. And when the buyer does not come to the market, the market comes to the buyer. Some people sell fruits and vegetables in residential areas right in the streets. It helps them to earn some money and people who live there don’t have to go very far to buy what they need.

Among our church members there are a lot of retired people, the pension they receive is not enough and many of them still work. Larisa, the elderly lady from our church sells nuts at the market. She is very sociable and enjoys to be around people. She can share her faith very naturally and talks to many people every day.

I found out that Oksana, the woman that I met in our church few weeks ago, has a mental problem and her situation is not as bad as she sees it. That’s good. I am glad that she comes to the church where we can accept her, give her love and feeling of safety.

Sergey visited Nadya’s children yesterday and brought them the food that our women cooked for them. They are doing well and take care of themselves.

We hope the rest of our day will be peaceful. We send you our greetings!

In Christ,
Lyuda

P.S. Some views of our town – Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Odessa region, Ukraine