From: Snezhana Kadian (wife of Pastor George at Covenant of Grace Church in Odesa)
It’s a very special event to celebrate Christmas during the war. Darkness, constant expectation of blackout, fear of being without electricity equals without heat, light, water, and depressing news from the front. In the middle of that, we were supposed to celebrate! It is not what we wanted to, rather we had to.
Our church “Covenant of grace” in Odesa decided to make Christmas gifts for soldiers. This was our “had to”. But it turned out to be the most wonderful solution for our pretty depressed state. It united us and brought much joy and excitement and feeling that our God is with us as He promised to be.
We had just two weeks to complete our plan. Women’s ministry, Sunday school and a small community of some mothers with kids were involved in the process. We decided that the best gifts would be those that we could make ourselves. Each gift contained a decorated gingerbread cookie, jerky meat, bead decoration, a postcard signed by us, and warm socks and warmers from Crates for Ukraine.
We made 90 gifts in total. And it’s 90 heroes to whom we sent our love and gratitude.
Voice of Ukraine 
4 responses to “1/14/2024 – Christmas gifts for soldiers”
Dear Snezhana,
Thank you for sharing!
The cookies look beautiful, and I am sure this gift of love meant so much to the soldiers!
And it is so good to know that included in this gift were socks and warmers from Crates for Ukraine.
Praying for you all!
Love in Christ,
Jill
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A year ago:
From Clay Quartermain-
Our friend directing from Odesa. Salve Ukraine!
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From: Sergei Nakul (pastor of Big City Church in Kyiv and military chaplain): Today was the usual service, with the usual songs, with the usual sermon, with the usual reading of St. John. Letters, with ordinary prayers, with ordinary donations, with ordinary church members, with ordinary pastor. But in all this seemingly ordinaryness shone the unusual, incredible, inspiring, grand, breathtaking unusualness of our extraordinary God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Spirit! He chose our ordinary to fill it with his unusual! And this is the unusual beauty of the ordinary worship!
God can do extraordinary things. And He makes them. From time to time. When He sees fit. But, at the same time, He acts in ordinary things to which we may get accustomed to and which may not impress us, though in their ordinary power. This is what our fathers in the faith called ordinary means of grace (ordinary means of grace) – the Holy Scriptures, mysteries, prayer. Faithful use, on a regular basis, of these ordinary means of grace, in the context of Christian koinonia, in our ordinary everyday lives, is more than sufficient. We can admire unusual things and expect them. The main thing is that we do not forget to admire the ordinary means of grace, and to appreciate them.
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One year ago-
From Ira Kapitoniva in Kyiv (Day 330)
… Today’s picture (credit unknown) shows an incredible rainbow seen in many parts of Kyiv today. A rainbow in January is a unique phenomenon, but I’m sure it was not accidental – “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis 9:17)
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