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Dear Friends,
This week saw the 1,000th day of this war pass. The devastation, cruelty, grief, and needless suffering that has happened through this time is immeasurable. Hundreds of thousands have been killed and many more seriously injured. Over 70% of all families have been displaced from their original homes. Men are living in fear knowing that a call-up to fight is like receiving a death sentence. The mental impact to families and especially the children, is horrendous and will have an impact for many years.
At the weekend Sumy region was hit by more bombs and missiles than at any other time. You may see some of the videos on the BBC app if they are still there. Bohdan knew of several friends who had houses and property damaged. The pastor of the large church in Sumy had his car damaged by a bomb blast. The city itself is like a ghost town, with once bustling streets empty with only rubble and damaged property to look at. Lebedyn still remains relatively untouched. The town is in a valley which makes it hard for missiles to reach, but drones are a constant threat. The biggest fear is for men in the town as road check points and soldiers walking the streets try to forcefully get people to go and fight, often ignoring exemption papers. This has meant that the work and ministry of the team has had to remain local.
Despite all the above, the team have, with ingenuity, been able to maximise this opportunity to help others. They asked people to come to the Centre, and more people came than expected. Power outages have been constant, but quite miraculously the bakery on Tuesday was able to operate and bake 350 loaves. People came to collect these and very soon they ran out.
While the heavy bombing was happening in Sumy city, the youth group still met at the Centre and spent time praying for their friends. The photos at the top and below show the during their time together. It was such a powerful image to see them doing this.
Home groups continue, as well as children’s & youth clubs, computer classes, Sewing ministry, puppet show practices ready for Christmas, as well as all the church meetings. We are thankful for the generators that enabled all of this to happen as they were used quite often!
People are still turning to the team and Centre for help and aid, although stocks are all but gone. However, the community rally together and a few remnants are found to give help (See photo below). Whilst we spoke together this week on our regular weekly video call, Bohdan’s phone went several times with people needing help. One of the neediest areas are the military families. After many months of searching I was connected whilst writing this update, to someone in Kyiv who believes they can help us access aid and get it all delivered into Lebedyn. This is a genuine offer, so we will now explore this further. We are not sure of the costs and details yet, but I feel genuinely encouraged after to speaking with them.
Another of the growing concerns is around the movement of funds into Ukraine banks. Bohdan had his bank account frozen a few weeks ago, and although quickly sorted, it highlighted a whole list of new regulations enforced. Now every account has a capped limit on what you can transfer internationally, with personal accounts being hit the hardest. As many people deal only in cash there is also a limit as to what you can draw out. This could cause some issues, so we are looking into this to plan for the future needs. However, all the funds are safe and it does not affect Hope Lebedyn’s UK or USA bank accounts. Please pray that we can sort this out as we think there are some good solutions available.
We also spent the past few days planning for the Christmas season. The plan is to hold a winter camp for slightly older children, and then have special day events for the younger ones where the puppet theatre will present a new show and a party for the little children. This is safest way to do this for this year. We hope to reach out to 100 children through the camp, and 400 children through the special events where they will all get a Christmas gift. As last year we expect this to cost between $11-12,000 as each gift will cost around $10. Already some funds have been received, and are being transferred to help with some of the cost, so we pray that these will all be able to go ahead.
Thank you all as well for the gifts that have come in since the last email with the needs shared. Everything has been covered which is amazing.
Lastly, in recent updates we have prayed for a young man called Egor. He is being mentored by Bohdan as he desperately wants to become a pastor of a church like Bohdan as soon as he is able! Wednesday he received news that his stepfather was quite seriously injured whilst fighting on the front line. All his comrades alongside him did not survive. Egor and Bohdan have asked that we pray for his stepfather to recover quickly. His name is Oleg.
Thank you all for your continued help, support and prayers. I know the team really appreciate it. We hope and pray that peace will come soon to Ukraine.
Every blessing
Peter Martin
Founding Director of Hope Lebedyn
