Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda Betina (Day 374): It was a usual week full of air alarms, disturbing news and different activities. We are closely following what is happening at the front. Yesterday evening as we were having a video call with our grandchildren, our youngest granddaughter asked: “Did you have a war today?” Yes we did, we have this war every day. Yesterday we grieved about Zaporizhya where the rocket hit a residential building at night while people were sleeping. Deaths, wounded people and so much destruction.

We think and pray for Kherson, the city which is not far from us. It was so much joy when this city was liberated few months ago but very soon the joy changed into the constant stress and anxiety of the life under shelling and bombing. People die there every day. Bakhmut is another point of our attention. This city is like a mighty fortress that holds back a big pressure of numerous forces of our enemy. Several refugees in or group are from Bakhmut. We also think of Kharkiv and many other places.

We often talk with Sasha and Nadya. Last several weeks there was almost no improvement and Sasha was depressed and though the doctors warned that recovery can be very slow Nadya sounded so much down. Yesterday she called and said that she notices some movements of his legs and was afraid that something was wrong but then the doctor explained that it’s a positive dynamics that is a result of the work that the rehabilitation specialists do with him. Praise the Lord! May it be encouragement for Sasha and we hope there will be more improvements of his state.

Please, pray also for Vitaly, Dr. Anya’s husband, who is in hospital now He has a kidney problem and felt so miserable last week. Three stones were found in his kidney and now the doctors are doing different procedures to take them out. It’s hard for Vitaly who has never been seriously ill before.

Sergey and I began to pray with a special prayer for the people of our community. Due to our work and ministry we communicate a lot with church people, with volunteers, with soldiers and other people who have a very active position now doing everything to bring Victory. But we forget that in our Russian-speaking area there are people with pro-russian thinking, the people who watch Russian tv channels and are brainwashed so much that can not critically evaluate the current situation. We went to the local food store the other day and as we were buying vegetable the shop-assistant at the counter began to talk to us about the hardships of the war. We never miss an opportunity to talk to people now, we always try to encourage, give hope and invite to the church. But that woman was saying very strange things. She said that it was the fault of Ukraine that the war started and it was stupid that Ukraine decided to fight.

We had to surrender and accept all their conditions. Sergey and I were shocked but then when she began to talk in a very disrespected manner about our soldiers we could not stand and our conversation turned into an open argument that became like a fight. We were even more shocked when few other ladies in the store took the side of the shop-assistant. Later when we were praying about that incident at home we realized that we should be equipped for the spiritual battles like this and don’t get emotional. The only thing that comforts us is the fact that these ladies were of retirement age, they are not young. Our young people generation is different.

Please, pray with us for the people in our community and for our country in general.

In Christ,
Lyuda