Only God can comfort us in our pain. The pain of war, death and injustice. We cry out to our Father for peace and forgiveness.
Our ministry is spreading to new countries as we are now working with Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Germany. We meet people, talk to them, and bring the Father’s love where it is needed most. We also stay to support Ukrainians in Odesa and Lviv by delivering food, transporting the displaced, and praying with people.
News from Novogradivka village:
Every time I share with you news from my beloved Ukraine, my heart overflows with joy and sadness. Joy that our service to God and people continues, but sadness from the fact that our people are going through such a terrible time of war. I remember the truth in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that we praise Him: “who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
Today I want to share with you what our Mark and volunteers are doing in Odesa, Ukraine. All summer we have held a Saturday camp for children. About 80 children came to a small local church where Mark and a team of our volunteers spent wonderful times with the children. Our goal is to help children survive this terrible time, to return to them some of their childhood that the war took away.
Some children moved from the cities where their house was destroyed by the bombing of the Russian army. The trauma that they are experiencing will be in their heart and mind for a long time, so our primary job is to embrace them with love and care. We do this through games, art lessons, Bible studies, delicious meals and sweets which all bring so much joy to these children. But we also have a very important class in wartime: a mine defense class. With the help of a special program and visual materials, we teach children how to behave during military alerts, what to do when they see bombs and mines, or if air bombing has begun. My eyes are filled with tears as I write about this horror, when I imagine for a moment the state of our children when they experience this fear almost every day. Lord, how long will they live in this fear? Lord, do not delay, please let Ukraine defeat the enemy as soon as possible!”
We are doing what we can to bring the day of victory closer as soon as possible. Each of us, every day we pray and work for God’s glory, so that these children see the love of God, so that they believe that He hears and loves them and will never leave them.We are going to continue this Saturday Children’s Camp twice a month during all year and we ask you to pray for us and the children. Please pray for wisdom for our team, and emotional healing for the children we are serving. Thank you for your partnership. We could not do what we do without your prayers and support.
Tanya Lewis (Kravchenko)
I am attaching a video link about our Saturday Children’s Camp.
Our team went to Novogradivka village:
Mark, with our volunteers, held a day camp where about 90 children of different ages (10-16 years old) came. It was an amazing time when children were able to forget about the horrors of war for a while. They talked with them about a just and loving God. About a good God, who does not leave in trouble and punishes evil.
Children now really lack psychological support, hugs and sports activities. Mark with our volunteers happily spent the whole day playing various quests, contests, singing songs and handing out gifts. At the celebration, they presented 90 children’s Bibles. For us children’s safety is so important, so next we are preparing trainings on pre-medical care and mine safety. We want to make these meetings with children a regular occurrence throughout the summer so our team can continue to love them, pray with them, and talk about Jesus who will never leave them. We want so much that in this terrible time, children have a childhood full of love, joy, and security.
Your prayers and contributions are helping to make these activities possible. Your tax deductible donations help us to do this as well as all the other programs that continue during this time of war. We are grateful to each one of you who supports us financially and prayerfully, and we ask that you please continue to help us meet the needs of Ukrainians, both young and old.
Thank you Dear Friends and God bless you richly as you share His love with the world.
Pain, Anger, Faith, and Love April 6th, 2022 from Tanya Lewis:
People have arrived in a safe place and they are surrounded by the help of the wonderful Polish people, but they are all still so confused and in deep sorrow. Everyone I met speaks of returning home soon, but I know this will not happen for most. Many of these women would prefer to be in Ukraine where it is dangerous and share the fate of the entire Ukrainian people, rather than to be in a safe place. They left to save children from the war. They wonder how they will live, and for how long, in a foreign country, not knowing the language, culture, or even the neighborhoods.
So many questions with very few answers at this point. It is hard to convey my feelings from what I saw and heard, and even harder to feel these feelings all the time. Pain and anger, faith and love have been with me constantly since the beginning of the war. They are righteous and it is these that motivate me to help people. It is these feelings that now unite the entire Ukrainian people in the fight against our enemy. Pain and anger over the horrible, wicked, destruction that this enemy has caused on our innocent people. But also FAITH in God and our victory, because He is with us and will never forsake His own. And love for our Ukraine – for her freedom, for her beauty, and for her people filled with amazing resilience and bravery.
Together we are saving lives, April 1st, 2022 From Oleg Batsik:
Dear brothers and sisters.
The war came to my home, to our Ukraine. Thousands of people have been killed by the godless Russian army. Thousands more people have been left homeless and millions of people are leaving Ukraine. Women save their children, while men stay in Ukraine and defend their homeland. Many with weapons in their hands, and many providing everything necessary for our army, women, children and the elderly. The child cries, the parents cry, and I cry.
What I and many men from my church do is to take women, children, the disabled and the elderly from the most dangerous regions of Ukraine to Poland or western Ukraine in our own cars. Mariupol, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye – I think the whole world already knows the name of these ruined cities. But there is nothing more valuable than life, so now we must evacuate as many people as possible. The roads are destroyed by Russian bombs, and sometimes we have to drive even under fire from the Russian military. My heart completely breaks when we do not have room for all in our vehicle. It is almost unbearable when parents will hand us their children alone, with notes and phone numbers put in their pockets, and ask us to get them to safety. Children hear and see things that even adults should not experience.
I want to thank you for the financial assistance with which we are able to buy gasoline for cars, and also use this money to repair them. Thank you very much for your prayers and gifts! Hundreds of lives are saved because you help us, because you feel our pain and share in our suffering. We will rebuild our beautiful Ukraine again when this war is over but for now we will continue to help support our brothers and sisters in their need as you continue to support us.
Thank you for being with us in these terrible and dark times. We believe in victory because God is on our side. Thanks to God! Glory to Ukraine!
News from Poland March 16th, 2022 from Tanya Lewis:
I have been in Poland for a little more than 1 week. At times it feels like only a day, other times like I have been here for a year. It is very difficult but necessary that I assess what is going on in Bydgoszcz and not just run in and start my work. I want to save everyone right now but is needed that I instead set the ground work for the success of my team when I leave. Leave – Right now that word sounds impossible. I have no idea how I will separate from my family and friends and mission here. I will trust that the Lord will provide even that strength. Every day I see hundreds of faces each with its own story, but each the same. There is a sense of lostness in their eyes.
But there is also much good happening here and across Poland. The ICF church that invited Tanya Nikitina to this city is amazing. Every day they provide food and encouragement to the refugees. And they have given us an office room in the church where we will do crisis counseling for any who need it. I see hope, or at least relief in these faces as they receive food for the next few days.
My name is Narine. On the 24th of February I was in Kharkiv.
For a month I was under shelling and bombing, but what I wanted most was to be useful, to volunteer and to help in any way I could. I was well looked after and, of course, no one would have praised my decision, so when I arrived in Odesa, I knew exactly that I would immediately volunteer, because at that time there was no peace in Odesa.
And it turned out that I did not even have to look for a place to become useful, because on Instagram, on the YMCA Odesa page, I found out that they needed help… That’s how I met Mark. At first we were collecting food aid. At that time there were only three of us – me, Mark and his mother, and I could only hear the voices of the people we were helping. I was very happy that I could now do something good. The next time I went to drop off the products, I was even happier because I could see the faces of the people we helped. Happy faces, grateful faces. Then I went through the clothes, packed them. And everything was accompanied by a friendly atmosphere, laughter, patriotic music.
I’m very grateful to the YMCA Odesa for being a part of this organization and I’m grateful to Mark for becoming a part of the volunteer movement, because nothing makes me happier than helping others!
Children hear and see things that even adults should not experience. Every day, children see tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other equipment, hear how missiles arrive and air defense works.