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Dear Friends,
The image below is taken from the Kyiv Independent newspaper showing the devastation of Sumy city on Tuesday night. This is Sumy Hospital ablaze, after being bombed along with another hospital in the region. The borders of the county are being heavily hit and several villages have been taken. Lebedyn is still OK, but every day is noisy with military activity. Sadly, on Wednesday night Samotoivka was hit by 5 missiles with one directly hitting the school which is opposite to where Pastor Andrew lives, and less than 100 meters away from their house. We are working closely with them to work out what is next for them, as it could be too dangerous for them to stay.
As I write this update, we still have complications trying to get the aid from Lviv to Lebedyn, and are desperately trying to find a viable solution, because the law states it must be delivered within 12 days of arriving in the country otherwise there could be serious ramifications for the recipient. Please do pray for this.
Calls for help are growing and where we can we are helping. The bakery keeps very busy with supplies of bread, and other food has been baked for the soldiers who seem to be getting increasingly hungry. There has been a really cold spell of weather with snow again, so blankets have also been provided. All the seeds donated early in February had been given out, but there were many who still requested some, so we have cleared out stocks from local suppliers, and distributed these to many of the workers like teachers living in some of the outlying villages. These will be the last seeds we can purchase for this season.
Camp registration went really well, with numbers being over subscribed in just a few hours. The team, as always, have held back some places for refugee children coming into the area and for those that have been orphaned in the war. There will be new puppet shows, new craft making activities along with all the games they love so much. We are thankful that a new supplier of food has been found, but this has meant that there are increased food costs.
In the kids and youth club this past weekend the team made homemade hamburgers for them all. This was a huge hit! In the last teen home group Bohdan started to talk about God the Father, and what a father should be. The majority had not seen their father since the start of the war, some were orphans and some had never known a father. Many of the children felt abandoned and hurt that they had no relationship with a father. Bohdan said it was a tough meeting hearing the hurt and need of these young people.
Oksana (second from left in the photo below) has now officially adopted the 2 children, Nastia & Katya into her family, which is wonderful news after been forced to give them back to the authorities early this year. The church have fully got behind this and are supporting her.
In other team news, Pastor Sergey remains weak and unwell. He overdid things post his operation, and whilst out and about he has contracted flu quite badly. Lyuba is going on a long journey to visit her parents and her sister Alla. It will be the first time they have met in 3 years, so please pray for safety for them.
Bohdan received a call this last week from another Sergey. He is a young man that left shortly after the war with his parents, and has ended up in the Netherlands. Sergey went to the Centre to the clubs and attended a few camps where he gave his life to Jesus, and Bohdan had the privilege of baptising him before he left. He is now running the youth work in his church in Holland, and has asked Bohdan to help train him and let him have some of his resources! The same thing has happened in Greece with Nastia, who again is helping to run the youth work in a church near Athens. Even when people leave the area the legacy of this work continues.
Please do keep praying for the safety of the team and all they are doing. There is no doubt that things are tough, but they are not downhearted and continue to press on in this season of war. As always we really appreciate your support and kind gifts that have been coming in. These make it possible to send out extra funds so they can cover all the additional activities.
Every blessing
Peter Martin
Founding Director of Hope Lebedyn
