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Dear Friends,
On Thursday morning I received a text to say that overnight, drones had attacked Lebedyn. Sirens sounded for much of the night giving little sleep with the noise of explosions. Bohdan has ascertained that whilst damage to buildings has been done, thankfully there are no known fatalities.
The Centre and homes of team remain untouched, which is quite remarkable given the explosion happened just 100 metres from Farmer Sergey’s house. Sergey told me in a call that morning that the house “jumped around” and things fell to the floor, but there was no damage. Nearer buildings absorbed much of the blast. Despite what we are reading in the press, this war is far from over, and the Ukrainian people will have a distrust in this peace process, the comments made, and whether peace is sustainable. There has been so much loss of life which has hardened hearts and brought in hatred. There will much work to do for many years to come even if there could be some sort of peace soon.
Meanwhile, the team continue with all their work. The youth meetings and homegroups keep growing in numbers and both meetings at the weekend saw over 55 young people attend. (See picture above).
They also did a fun thing where the homegroups were all told to bring some food beginning with the first letter of their name, and they would then create a meal as a result. It was about learning how to care and share. Bohdan’s group found lots of things to create a small buffet, Valentine's groups had enough to use the kitchen, baking pizzas and a lovely meal! They were super organised! The young people loved it.
Bread was baked and given out at the mid-week service, where 140 people came this week. They delivered the rest of the bread to the elderly and known refugee families that are struggling at this time. Computer classes were held this week for the senior members, and musical Sergey said that many are asking some deep questions about faith and life as they struggle with this war.
The local college approached Bohdan for help, of which he has been able to give some, but there has been one other good development from this. The college has catering courses, but they struggle to get resources and now work placement. Bohdan agreed to take on 2 students to help in our kitchens for 3 months. They will help bake bread and to do the catering for the children at the Easter/spring camp that is now being planned. They started this week, and are already immersing themselves into church life and really enjoying everything.
Dasha is a young girl we have prayed for having lost several members of her family to the war, including her much loved grandfather. She helps to look after her grandmother and brings her to church, who now wants to help and being an experienced cook she too is joining the catering team. It is great to have this team strengthened as some have left after fleeing to safer areas.
Bohdan has asked that we continue to pray for Natasha’s mother Camilla. Natasha is in the youth group, came to faith, and was baptised in the summer. Her mother has serious and significant gynaecological issues which need medical intervention. She has been in hospital, but there is no room or the right medical care for her so they have sent her home. Many of the local doctors have now been seconded to the field hospitals or the special military hospitals to help get soldiers back on their feet again. Natasha is now getting very worried and has asked us to pray for a solution as her mother worsens.
Bohdan is still having problems with his exemption papers. They now want more medical tests done and these cannot be done for another 2 weeks, which as mentioned before is risky for Bohdan. He was due to meet the military commission today to explain, as they expect him to have these done in 48 hours but with all the military activity going on after last’s night attack on the town, it is not possible to do this. The delay is caused because at the Lebedyn hospital there is only 1 surgeon doctor left and he must do all operations, hold regular clinics and the medical testing. He apparently works about 15 hours a day, 7 days a week.
When Bohdan held his one to one meeting with Egor and Sasha this week they were talking about the sharing and caring theme of the youth meeting. Bohdan had explained that through Hope Lebedyn people had shared their love by giving their gifts and praying for them. Egor went home and researched our website and found his picture in a recent update. He came to see Bohdan and shared with tears in his eyes. “I see what you mean now! I saw myself and that people were praying for me. In Ukraine I am a nobody, but elsewhere people are praying and loving me this way”. Your prayers make such a difference to the team and the people we reach out to. Thank you all for your continued support in every way.
Before next week’s update we will of course mark the 3rd anniversary of the war. We hope to see as many of you as possible today, Saturday 22nd Feb, 4:00pm at Victoria Baptist Church, Eastbourne for a prayer service to mark this sad milestone. Please let me know if you would like a link to be there online. We will be streaming live. We will also have it recorded for those not able to do either. Please let me know if you would like this link at any time.
Thank you all again for your unwavering support for all that is going on in these tough times for the people in Ukraine.
Every blessing
Peter Martin
Founding Director of Hope Lebedyn
