From: Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (754th day): Last week we celebrated Briana’s second birthday! The days leading to it, I kept rereading my two-year-old posts that were coming up in FB Memories and remembering how stressful that time in 2022 was. Anticipating the arrival of our first granddaughter could have been the happiest of time in our lives, but we were filled with heavy anxiety – ruzzian troops were in the suburbs of Kyiv, the roads were clogged with the traffic jam of kilometers-long rows of ruzzian tanks approaching our city, air raids forced us to spend most of our days and nights in a bomb shelter, maternity hospitals were bombed, war horror multiplied by day.
We kept wondering silently and sometimes out loud why God was bringing our grandbaby into this world at a time that was so dangerous and difficult. We found out the answer as soon as she was born! Her parents gave her the name Briana, which means strong, and strength was what she brought into our lives at the time when we needed it the most! And Briana keeps giving us strength, joy, light, warmth and hope!
One of Briana’s favorite t-shirts says, Jesus Loves Ya, Honey! He sure does! And the perfect gift of Briana in our lives is a daily reminder that Jesus loves us too!
Thank you, friends, for your continued prayers for God’s protection and for the Victory of Ukraine!
Voice of Ukraine 
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One year ago-
From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (389th day): While I was making my way from the States back to Ukraine a team from our church made another humanitarian aid trip to the east of Ukraine, to Lyman and village Zarichne, both very close to the front lines.
Here are the photos and some stories from Valera:
Before each trip, we pray and ask the Lord to direct us to people who desperately need help. So it was now. When we were giving out food packages to people, a man approached us and asked if he could get one. I replied that “yes, of course.” I wondered why he asked such a question. He replied that he was from the village of Zarichne and went to Lyman to make a phone call. The distance from Liman to Zarichne is 10 km, and in their village, there is no electricity, no water, no communications, no shops, no medical care, nothing since they are at a distance of 2-3 miles from enemy positions and communications are destroyed by constant shelling.
This man said that the people who were still there also needed help, and because the situation on the front lines is constantly changing, help rarely comes to them. We decided that if they let us through at the checkpoint, we would go to Zarichne. The checkpoint let us in, having instructed us about the dangers that might await us there and how to behave, where we could go, and where we absolutely could not. People greeted us very warmly and were sincerely happy. They were grateful for the help, for food and bread, and for not being forgotten; we told them about how many people prayed for them and cared about them.
We prayed with them for a victory of Ukraine to be won soon, for the protection and love of God. For security reasons, staying in one place for a long time was impossible, but people did not leave after getting food packages; they saw us off. Everything happened to the sounds of an artillery cannonade; it was the first trip when we did not remove our bulletproof vests the whole time. Despite the danger that is around, people do not lose hope, they are trying to improve their homes and gardens like it was in civilian life, but the fields around will remain untouched, as they are littered with the deadly metal of landmines and unexploded rockets. Thank you for your prayers, for your support, and for the opportunity to serve people who are in desperate need.
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