Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda Betina in Belgorod Dnestrovsky (Day 455):

Last week was a mixture of many emotions and thoughts that were anxious and calm, joyful and sad at the same time. We are constantly monitoring what is happening at the front and waiting for the messages of the relatives and friends who are there. Paul Lukoshkin, Dmitriy, the son of our elder Valeriy, Dr Anya, her husband Vitaliy, Lena, doctor’s assistant from our Christian clinic and all her family. We think of them all the time reading the news and watching the video reports from war zones. Paul finally came for a few days home and we are so glad to see him. Our youth is especially happy to spend some time with him.

These few weeks we’ve had peaceful days but very restless nights. Rocket and drone attacks happen every night. But we see the difference in comparison to last year when most of them hit the target, now most of them are destroyed in the air by our air defense but some still bring so much damage. We appreciate so much the help of weapons our army receives from other countries.

Last week we had a day of vyshyvanka (the day of embroidery shirt). The variety of colors of the embroidered blouses cheered up and brought a feeling of holiday, which we need so much now.

Our counselors continue working hard, they do a lot of individual counseling but besides it they take part in many social events. Roman often speaks at the conferences and seminars. Last weekend he traveled to Nikolayev and spoke before the leaders of Awana clubs in Ukraine.

Vika taught a seminar at the women’s center in Odessa to young mothers on how to function normally in an anxious environment.

Tanya did game therapy with our group of refugees. George continues his work with soldiers doing group therapy and every day he talks on phone to the soldiers who are on the front line. Vova and Angela work with Ukrainian refugees in France, they do counseling and Angela leads a women’s group there.

On behalf of our counselors I want to thank all the donors who made contributions to the project of Refugee Center. Now, when we have the building for this ministry, your support and donations that you send through Pathway Ministries are especially important for us. We want besides charitable breakfasts and support group meeting to organize more events and therapy for refugees, we also plan to prepare living space for four families. We start renovation and one family will move into the building next month. With time we plan to move our breakfasts from the café to our territory of the refugee center and be more concentrated on evangelism as we do it in the church.

Sergey and Svetlana will be the first family who will live in our building. They came to our town last August. They are from Kherson region and their village is still occupied by the enemy. They had a house and a big garden. Their neighbors write them that russian soldiers live in their house and took out almost all the furniture and appliances. Their garden is destroyed. Soon after they settled here Sergey was diagnosed with cancer and was in a deep depression. He did not want to start treatment because he thought that it would not help. Svetlana was crying all the time. We met, talked and prayed with them, they started attending our church. Sergey agreed to go to the doctor and start treatment. They do so much better now. They were very happy when we suggested them to live in our building. They also are very excited about our project and are ready to help as they can with renovation.

Thank you for your prayers and for your love and care.
Please, send your donations to Pathway Ministries
E. Langston Haygood,D.Min.,Ph.D.
Pathway Ministries, Inc.
288 Huntington Parc Circle
Birmingham, AL 35226
(205)835-3325
http://www.pathwayministriesinc.com

In Christ,
Lyuda

P.S. There are photos of our counselors working with the groups and the photo of Sergey and Svetlana who will live in our refuge building from the next month.