Voice of Ukraine

From Lyuda Betina in Belgorod Dnestrovsky (Day 628): The new week starts well, it is quiet. We lived through the evening and night without alarms or shelling. The beginning of a new week is an opportunity for new beginnings. As usual, there are many plans.

But the mood is not positive. The war situation is not good, there are a lot of sad information in the news and hope for the end of the war is gradually fading away. What is happening now is called positional or trench warfare, a war in which armed struggle is waged mainly on continuous, relatively stable fronts (positions) with defense in depth. This is very bad for us, because such a war exhausts us, but for the enemy it is good, because it gives him the opportunity to accumulate weapons and forces for an offensive. Winter is coming and all our thoughts are about the soldiers in the trenches.

Last week we were glad to see and communicate with two of our warriors for whom we constantly pray. Paul Lukoshkin came home and had a small vacation while the car that his group uses was being repaired. He was in the church, met with a youth group and we were very glad to see him. But he wasn’t very talkative, sat separately in the church and we did not insist and let him be himself.

We also were glad to see Dmitiy, the son of our elder Valeriy. He had a short vacation and decided to come to see his parents and his wife also came with their two children to have a family reunion. Dmitriy is serving as a combat medic but he often acts as a regular soldier taking part in the fights. He was also quiet and reserved.

When we meet with our psychologists, we often talk about how to help our military and how to be prepared for the moment when the war ends and they return home. Our counselor George works in Veterans Hub organization in Odessa now. He works with soldiers, their families and even with the staff of the organization because they have a lot of secondary trauma rendering help to the soldiers.

I continue leading support groups and also do individual counseling. The group of volunteers in the local defense center continues their work making camouflage nets and now the soldiers who are on rotation also come to help because there is a big need in those nets.

“On rotation” means that they return to the military base here for a while to renew their strength and get some more training and then they go to the front line again while others come back here. The soldiers joined our support group very easily, did all the exercises with enthusiasm and participated in discussions. At the last meeting we studied techniques on how to act in crisis situations, I know these skills will be useful for them.

I also had two counseling sessions with the people from this group. Nina, a woman who is Russian by nationality but has lived all her adult life in Ukraine. Her husband is a military man, both her sons who are teenagers want to be soldiers in the future. Her parents are Russians who also has lived in Ukraine for a long time. Her biggest pain is the conflict with her parents who want Russia to take over Ukraine. Because Nina and her family stand for Ukraine her parents told her: “We have no daughter now and you have no parents”. It’s sad that we have many families in this situation in our southern region.

Another story is about a young man who came with a request to help him establish communication with his father, who is in a military. It was difficult for them to communicate before the war and now it has become even more difficult. It is very important now, when there is so much pain and division, to help people find common ground, build bridges of relationships and show love.

One more prayer request is about the renovation of our Refugee Center building. It’s a big project and though we see much progress already, still there is a lot to be done. Two construction workers were doing all the work in the building. Although we wanted the repairs to go faster, we are very pleased with the quality of the work and the attitude of the guys towards their work. Last week one of them was drafted into the army and we are looking for another construction worker who would be well-qualified. It’s difficult to find construction workers because they are men and many of them are in the army now. Please, pray for us to find a good worker.

Thank you for your strong prayer support and for your help.

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