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Dear Friends,
This week has seen the date which most of our calendars will tell us is the day of “love”- Valentine’s Day! War challenges the root of love. Many are grieving lost ones, many suffering life changing injuries, some abandoned, many away fighting away from home, and others living alone and destitute, longing for the care and love of someone around them. 14th February is a difficult day for them. The team continue to reach out to all these people and show God’s love in hopefully a practical way. To feed, share encouragement and often giving someone a hug!
The situation remains much the same, with sirens sounding with usual regularity, and bombs falling within the region. Today was the first day that Bohdan’s children have been able to go to school. However, many schools are now closed under quarantine to contain a nasty virus that is going round. The team had plans to visit a nearby school which musical Sergey does work with, but it was cancelled for this reason.
Last week they did manage to visit one school and took the puppet show. They took gifts with them for the children and they all listened intently to the stories told from the Bible. The Principal wants them now to go every month. In the photos below you will see the state of the roads in getting there, the new minibus and at the school.
At the weekend, they came across a new care home for the elderly, and decided to visit these and others on the way. Firstly, they of course went to the bakery to bake some smaller goodies to take to every member. They also stopped in a few villages to give bread and love to those in need. They also visited a centre for those with disability to bring them some encouragement. Getting food and supplies is becoming a big problem for some of these institutions.
Families still come to the Centre for help, and although supplies are limited, we still have larger sized nappies to help. Also, this week the bakery increased their volume of bread baked by 50% so at least those that came to visit had some food as well.
There has been news from Pastor Andrew who we support in Samotoivka. Everyone within 5km of the Russian border has been now asked to leave and abandon everything for fear of Russians attacking and trying to come over the border. Some are refusing, and one consequence of that is the government are taking away foster children from their homes and putting them back into orphanages. Andrew knows of several families this is affecting, and as Andrew lives outside of this zone he has taken two more children into his house. In total, he has seven children at home under their care, plus one who has been conscripted into the army, and one missing in action - presumed dead. They have another two boys arriving in the summer. The impact the war is having on families such as Andrew's is enormous, and yet he remains faithful to the work and ministry of the church in the area.
We have also heard form Larisa, and she has brought a few of the younger children back with her to Sumy. The older children remain in Vienna as some of the older teens are now getting to the age they can be taken into the army. Whilst Larisa has been away, her large orphanage was split into two to create a second orphanage. One houses newborn babies as well as older children. Larisa has got funding for a bomb shelter there which will be huge and will be built 4.5 metres underground. Temporarily, many of the children will be moved to a place called Shostka which is around 200km away in the north of the region, but there is concern as the impact of the war is greater there than Sumy at present. This is the only building suitable in the Sumy region that the government could house them all in. Once the bomb shelter is built then Larisa takes on management of both orphanages, plus those in Vienna. She will then have nearly 200 children under her care. Before the war she had 55 children. Many of the additional children are there because parents are away fighting or have been killed in action. Again, a stark reminder of the cost of war. Bohdan and team will visit and take bread and nappies for the babies, and I expect the puppet show will go as well with Bibles and treats.
I hope to see many of you on Saturday at the prayer service at Victoria Baptist Church, Eastbourne at 4:00pm. You can just turn up to the meeting. Some of you have registered to ask for a live link for the meeting and that has been sent. If you have not received that, please do let me know, and I will forward one on by return. Bohdan and some of the other team members will be joining for the whole meeting and speaking – war permitting. He will be sharing some of the key issues and prayer points with us I’m sure.
Thank you all so much for your support , prayers and messages of encouragement. They are greatly appreciated.
Peter Martin
Founding Director of Hope Lebedyn
