Voice of Ukraine

From: Lyuda Betina (Day 747): When I turn the pages of a calendar, I look at past weeks and months and certain events pop up in my memory, especially ones that stood out from the usual flow of days. Among the many events of this war there are those that are especially painful.

One such event that will remain in the memory of many people is the tragedy of March 2 in Odessa. Our southern city is constantly under attack, very often, day and night, drones and missiles fly to Odessa. At night on March 2 the apartment building in Odessa was hit by the drone that killed 12 people, including five children.

Among the dead was a young mother, Anna, and her 3-month-old son, Timothy. Anna was a member of the Baptist Church, she was a pastor’s daughter, a wonderful wife and mother. Social networks are full with her photographs, from which you can see how much love and joy there was in her family. In the photographs we can see that this young lady was full of love to the Lord and to her family.

Anna and her son died in their sleep and her husband and eldest daughter survived. And it was terrible that on the day of their funeral drones were flying to Odessa again. It is impossible to express all the pain that we all felt these days.

On March 6, the enemy attacked Odessa during the visit of our President Volodymyr Zelenskyi when he had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece. There was a strike on the port where the President and the delegation was at that moment, as a result of the shelling five people in his surrounding were killed and there are also wounded.
When a big group of missiles and drones fly at the city at the same time, our air defense shoots down many of them, but it is impossible to shoot down all.

On the front line the situation continues to be difficult, the enemy is using his advantage in aviation and their planes throw heavy bombs at our positions. Our soldiers are holding on with all their might we hear many stories of courage and endurance. It’s amazing what kind of heroes they are. We are especially trying to support them now.

We communicate with them by phone and in correspondence, we send them parcels to show them love and care. They really appreciate it and always respond to us. For the next parcel, together with food and other things we have prepared some crafts for them that they can carry in their pocket to have a reminding that God loves and protects them.

We don’t see many men on the streets of our cities now, most serve in the army, but we see more and more disabled people, these are young men who were wounded in battle. And now our society faces a big task to help these people adapt to life in their new state, accept them and give them the opportunity to be active members of society. This is also a new direction in counseling to help these people and their families live active lives.
The counselors of our center continue to work hard and help people. War aggravates many problems and it is difficult for people to solve them because they are often emotionally unstable and very vulnerable. The institution of family suffers the most. We see the problems in families of military who return from the combat zone; they return as changed people and their relationships are very difficult. Many families are now separated; wives and children had to go abroad while husbands remained in Ukraine. Not everyone’s relationship can withstand such a long separation. And even families who stay together have problems. Constant stress, emotional ups and downs, fear and panic attacks also greatly affect relationships. That’s why we decided to conduct a series of seminars on family relationships. We hope that this will help people improve their relationships and strengthen family ties.
Please pray for our country and for our ministry.
Thank you for your prayers and 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