From Lyuda Betina in Belgorod Dnestrovsky (Day 593): Last week was a week of tears and grief. I was reading Mathew 24. In such difficult moments you always think about the coming of Christ and expect His coming with great anticipation. On Thursday, russian missile hit a cafe in a small village where people had gathered for a memorial dinner after the funeral of a soldier. Fifty five people died including the family of the soldier. It happened in Kharkiv region and the next day early morning another missile hit the residential building in Kharkiv killing people who were sleeping.
Among the people who died in the cafe was Nick, the uncle of one of our refugees here. This elderly man was the mayor of the village, he survived the occupation. When the Russians occupied cities and villages, the first thing they did was arresting people in power, but the fellow villagers did not give away their leader. When the village was liberated Nick organized people to rebuild and restore ruined buildings, he was very active and optimistic about the future. But that day he was killed with many families of his village.
Night attacks do not stop in our region, in the vicinity of Izmail, where the enemy continues to destroy granaries and port facilities. They had to stop the ferry crossing across the Danube to Romania and this put additional pressure on the road, which was already very clogged with trucks.
Another sad event was an accident that Dr. Anya’s husband Vitaliy had returning home from Odessa. He was riding his motorbike and was hit by the truck on that road that is very dangerous now. He is in the hospital with numerous injuries and fractures. He faces several surgeries and has a long road to recovery. Please, pray for the healing of his body and please pray for his soul. In this wonderful, friendly and active family, he is the only one who has not opened his heart to the Lord yet.
And then on Saturday there was another shock. The news of the attack on Israel was the climax of all events of the last week. The reports of the news, photos and videos brought us back in our memories to February 24, 2022 when Russian army attacked our peaceful cities and villages. It is strange how terrorists act in the same way, following the similar plan, as if they were all from the same tribe. One photo simply shocked us. It was a road where there were many burnt cars and dead bodies were lying around. The road to Kyiv looked exactly the same in the first days of the war. The enemy of human souls comes to steal, kill and destroy, there is nothing new. And now, as we all unite in prayer for Israel, we ask for peace and strength and wisdom for its leaders and we also pray the same prayer for our country.
Although last week was sad and hard, we joyfully sang praises to the Lord during our worship yesterday and thanked Him for all the mercies shown to us. We are very pleased with our youth group, their spiritual growth and desire to serve. A girl from our youth group, named Lita, raised her voice during the congregational prayer, she prayed for our music group and thanked God for the ability to be a part of it. It was her first prayer in public. After the worship she came up to me and shared that she wanted to pray so much but she was afraid to pray in front of the whole church, finally she realized that her desire to pray was bigger than her fear and she prayed.
Lita started to attend the church when the war began, she was in a big conflict with her mother and her step-father. It was so bad that she used to leave her home and stayed with her friends while her family and police were looking for her everywhere. Now her their relations are better, her step-father and her sister come to the church regularly, her mother also comes from time to time. Our counselor Tanya worked with Lita and her parents. Lita is an active part of our youth group, she entered a new high school and enjoys studying there. It’s amazing how God works in her life.
Please, continue praying for our ministry.
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
Voice of Ukraine 
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John Bunyan, writer of “Pilgrim’s Progress”, and sufferer of many dark nights of the soul: “That Scripture came into my heart ‘This for many days.’ Indeed, I found it was so, for I could not be delivered or brought to peace again until 2 1/2 years were completely finished. Wherefore these words, though in themselves they tended to no discouragement, yet for me, who feared this condition would be eternal, they were sometimes as a help and a refreshment to me. I reassured myself with the thought that many days are not forever- many days will have an end. Therefore, seeing I was to be afflicted not a few, but many days, yet I was glad it was but for many days. This, I say, I would recall for myself sometimes and give myself a help. As soon as ever the word came into my mind, at first I knew my trouble would be long..”
from “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners”
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A year ago:
From Lyuda (Day 233): Dear brothers and sisters, We had a night without sirens. Praise the Lord!
It’s a holiday today – the day of Fatherland Defender and this holiday has a special meaning now. Many of my friends of different ages are now in the army, protecting our land. We are very proud of the guys from our church who are fighting for us. We are proud of the workers of our medical clinic, who are now serving in the army, providing medical assistance to our soldiers. I want to say separately about the army of chaplains who serve in the spiritual field in this war. They all are our heroes today.
Photos of Lyudmila, the plants she is taking care of and her cat
Among all things of yesterday there was a very special moment. Sometimes you know exactly that the meeting you have is arranged by God. On Thursday we have a Bible study for the group of refugees in our church, I came earlier to help Valeriy, our elder, who leads the Bible study, to set up chairs, prepare refreshments and drinks for the meeting.
One lady of the group, Lyudmyla, came earlier. Lyudmila is from Kharkiv and stays at the building of our Christian clinic and she loves taking care of the plants there, it brings her joy and at the same time is a recovering therapy for her. Her cat Marusya lives with her there.
It was clear that there was something on her heart. We began to talk and she said that she knew about God from her childhood, her grandmother was a believer and Lyudmila considered herself to be a believer, too. She used to go to the church on holidays was very respectful of church traditions, but now she feels that something was missing in her life.
Our elder Valeriy
She has been visiting our church for a while and could hear the gospel not just once. But she needed to have the personal talk with Valeriy and have all her questions answered. Some people have a special gift of sharing the gospel and they do it in a special way. I think Valeriy can do it addressing the hearts of people in such a way that they see this beauty of the gospel.
Yesterday I talked to our counselor, Roman. We were talking about our future refugee center and tried to see new directions of our work that we can start, we discussed the aspects of the work we all are doing now and how it can be integrated in one place.
We found a very nice place for the center with good location and if God blesses us to buy it we will start the work there right away.
Roman’s photo from Facebook with a sign “move from the problem to the solution”
Roman is busy like all of us. He does counseling in the office and online counseling, he is also an active blogger and you can see his videos on Facebook and Instagram where he addresses different psychological topics, gives practical tips for people with different problems and he teaches psychological self-help techniques (panic attacks, psychology of relationships, depression, anxiety, psychosomatics, urgent help for refugees, etc.)
Few days ago he did live broadcasting of a very important topic of today, he talked about survivor’s syndrome, when people who survived in mortal danger feel guilty thinking of those who died. Many people were able not only to listen but participate, sharing their experience and asking questions.
Roman with his wife Tanya
Roman’s wife, Tanya, works as a nurse in the intensive therapy of one of Odessa hospitals. She works very hard now and her work is hard emotionally. Roman asks to pray for her health.
Please, pray for our counselors, for the work we do and for us to bring fruits.
Please, pray with us for organizing a refugee center in Odessa and for a facility where the center will be located.
In Christ,
Lxxx
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