From: Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 677):
You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
Psalm 77:14
I came across these statistics today. In 2024, Russia launched a total of 5011 missiles and drones. This number doesn’t say much to me. Is it too high? To me, even one drone launched as a terrorist attack is too high of a number.
Thankfully, our air-defense forces intercepted 71% (3543 pieces) of what was launched. This is great news — just think of the lives spared! This number is much higher than what we had at the beginning of the full-scale war, and this number shows why we feel relatively safe to stay in Ukraine. The percentage could have been higher if Ukraine hadn’t spread over this much territory. It’s about the size of Texas, two times bigger than Italy, four times bigger than Greece, and 14 times bigger than the Netherlands. It’s hard to predict where the enemy might strike with this much land, so our air defense has gaps Russians are taking advantage of. Oh, and there are some missiles that our air defense is helpless against. They are usually the ones bringing the most destruction.
An analyst said it looks like Russia might have revised its goal of sending Ukraine into a complete blackout because our critical infrastructure has been fortified since last year. However, they might have a different plan in mind, which means new survival skills to be mastered for us in store.
Today, while talking to our family outside of Ukraine, I noticed how matter-of-factly we were talking about all the sirens and missile attacks. Our son didn’t even know if there was anything to say about it. It’s part of our lives now, so it must not be a big deal. I need to remind myself that our “new normal” is not normal at all. That children shouldn’t be used to sirens, that people shouldn’t always have a “plan B” in case there’s an attack, that living a peaceful life is every person’s right and not a privilege.
I believe that one day, when God grants us victory, we’ll shake off all these newly acquired habits, and our children will be able to experience their childhood to the fullest. Lord, may this day come soon!
Voice of Ukraine 
2 responses to “1/2/2024 – I believe that one day, when God grants us victory, we’ll shake off all these newly acquired habits, and our children will be able to experience their childhood to the fullest. Lord, may this day come soon!”
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From: Lyuda Betina ( Day 677):
Dear brothers and sisters,
Happy New Year! We wish you a year full of blessings and joy! May God bless your families and your churches.
In our culture, New Year has always been a big holiday and people usually celebrated all night with fireworks and champagne. But this year, the first day of the new year is a day of mourning for us.
Massive attacks on our cities continued throughout the holiday season. Odessa suffered many blows. The drone attack continued all new year night and there are deaths, ruined buildings, and wounded people. This morning, the city is recovering from the attack along with the whole country.
In the midst of all what is happening now our church seem to be an island of safety and stability. We had a very good Christmas worship full of love and joy. Our church building is very warm and light due to the solar batteries we installed on the roof. The program that our youth prepared was wonderful.
We were glad to have Dr. Anya and all her family with us. Vitaliy, her husband was back home from the hospital and could come to the church. Now he is in hospital again, he has just had a surgery on his arm. Please, pray for the recovery of the functions of his arm.
Our youth decided to spend new year’s night in church, not so much to celebrate, but simply to be together. They cooked dinner together and prepared a movie to watch. Sergey and I came in the evening and spent some time with them. It is a great blessing to see them grow and mature.
Christmas is a good reason to visit people, greet them and bring them a good news. We made a lot of home visits last week and each of them was special. We also prepared Christmas programs for the groups we lead.
With a big joy the local defense group responded to the program we prepared for them. They listened to a Christmas story and we had some discussion of the events when Jesus was born, then we played hand bells and gave gifts. The volunteers and the soldiers there all joined our meeting and were very happy. I am so glad that the hearts of people are open for a good news now.
But the most exciting event happened when we visited our neighbor Victor on Christmas day. We have been caring for this person for quite some time. He is seriously ill and has been on the verge of death several times. He is very lonely. His adult children do not communicate with him, holding a grudge for having been abandoned by him in childhood. He does not know how to build relationships with people due to his tough character. It was very difficult for us to talk to him about spiritual things, because he didn’t want to listen about God. But we continued to visit him, bringing him food and helping with different things. Sergey gave him injections and helped with other medical procedures. At some point we saw him smiling, this was great progress for a man who lived in anger all the time. Last week we came to him on Christmas day in the morning, brough him some food, put a white table cloth on his table, we decorated his room to give him an atmosphere of Christmas. He felt very bad that day, he could hardly breathe and could not get up from his bed. Sergey gave him a shot and helped him to use breathing apparatus. I sat down on his bed and asked if I could pray for him, he said yes. I prayed and then I asked if he would pray with me. He wheezed that he would like to but it is very hard for him to talk. I told him that he can repeat after me mentally. I prayed the repentance prayer asking Jesus to come into the heart and he prayed with me. It was a miracle. When Sergey visited him few hours later he saw that Victor felt better, he could get up and eat. The next day he could talk better, he told Sergey he wants to go to the church with us. He is still too week to go somewhere but we ask God to strengthen him and give him this opportunity to go to the church and to see the atmosphere when the body of Christ meets together.
The situation at the front is very difficult. The enemy is constantly sending barrages of fire towards our positions. Our soldiers are very tired, but they are holding on with all their might. Paul Lukoshkin came home for two days last week, but we did not see him. He was so tired that slept almost all the time. We received messages of gratitude from the military to whom we sent the packages with gifts. We are glad that we were able to bring them at least a little joy.
Despite the fact that the situation is very difficult and it doesn’t seem like anything can change in our favor, we never stop hoping and believing in Victory. And Victory comes with the Lord.
Thank you for your prayers and thank you for you support.
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
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