July 2024
Dear Friends,
I hope you are enjoying the summer. We have been so thankful to have our girls home from college and we don’t ever want them to leave again, but I know fall is coming when school begins again. So we are enjoying every moment with them this summer!
Our city of Kharkiv was heavily bombarded in May, but the Ukrainian army pushed back and the missile and bombs are more irregular again, which is a blessing. On June 30th, I received an email from one of our ministry partners asking, “Ron, if you could begin praying for us – we are beginning our camp for kids from July 1-5, and we are asking for you to pray that there would be no bombs going off, so the kids can have an enjoyable week.”
Doesn’t this prayer request just break your heart? It does mine! Please pray for no bombs, shells or missiles to go off this week and the kids can be kids!
Here is an update from Peter, another one of our ministry partners, whom we tasked to research the orphan situation in our region. Here is his update:
“Dear Ron, our summer has been very eventful and inspiring. We continue evangelizing both adults and children and I can only dream of getting some rest, since the needs are never-ending. I am now working diligently in Kharkiv and Izum. Izum is a town where heavy fighting occurred in the earlier stages of the war and the residents here are in desperately need for Jesus as their Savior. I am pleased to report that we baptized two groups of people since opening the church and clearly we can see that God is moving! Our church (Holy Trinity Church) believes that coming and providing one-time evangelism efforts/events and providing humanitarian aid keeps the people alive and makes a positive impact upon them; but we need a stable church to really invest in them consistently, if we are to bring people to faith in Christ Jesus.
My family remains in the city of Ivano-Frankovsk in western Ukraine because it is much safter and my kids don’t have to hear the constant sound of exploding missiles and bombs in Kharkiv. As you can imagine, I miss my wife and kids dearly! My children continue to go to school online.
Slavic Christian Ministries efforts to help orphans is a huge blessing within our area – thank you! There are 989 orphan children that have been placed in homes across our region. As you know, the government closed down all the orphanages, because the Russian military has been targeting schools and hospitals and our government was concerned about the safety of the children.
We are aware of ten Christian families who have taken in children from our denomination. The needs of individual families taking care of these orphans are unending and range from family to family. For example, one family may need beds, while another family may needs desks and filing cabinets to home school the children. Another family may need a washing machine, due to providing for several children. And many kids just need medical check-ups, eye exams, glasses, etc. Most children have not received medical attention in a long time. Here are some of the kid’s that your ministry has helped:
Bogdan
Bogdan is a six-year-old child with severe mental special needs that includes a neurological disorder, hearing loss, heart defects, and has the inability to speak. While six years old, he still must use diapers due to his mental impairment and he doesn’t understand basic communication. Unfortunately, his mother died two years ago and his father is from Iraq. Before the war, Bogdan was placed in an orphanage, but now is living with a family again. He needs a complete health examination and constant care.
Luba (Love in English)
Luba’s mother abandoned her at the maternity hospital when she was born, because she was an alcoholic and unfit to be a mother. Unfortunately, Luba never knew her biological mother and resided in an orphanage for the first few years of her life, until she was placed in a home and raised by the family she is with right now, who has loved and cared for her. However, Luba had a cleft lip and had to undergo two surgeries. During the first surgery, her vocal cords were damaged and due to this procedure error, Luba cannot speak very well. Because she is embarrassed about her speaking disorder, she is very shy and unfortunately has learning disabilities. She needs special help with her teeth.
Evgenia
Evgenia is an orphan since the age of five. After the death of her mother, she was raised by her grandmother and father, but a few years later both of them died too and Evgenia was sent to an orphanage. She is now living in a family-type orphanage with seven other foster children in this house, five of them are children with disabilities. Thanks to your support, we helped Evgenia undergo an examination by an ophthalmologist and bought her high-quality glasses.”
Dear friends, we sent $1,500 to help these three children and three others orphans too. We are committed to helping orphans like these initial six kids, as well as, any of any family who have desperate needs and come to our attention. For now, we have decided to only provide funds to the children’s needs directly – medical care, eye glasses, clothing, and other necessities. Our budget allows for $5,000 this year as we research the situation.
We will continue to gather information about kids and keep helping them on an individual basis, since there is no central orphanage for us to coordinate through at this time. If you would like to help us with the needs of orphans and children, please just let us know. If I can present an idea: If we gave each orphan child $300 for his or her needs, we would need $300,000. If God is touching your heart and you can give a large one-time gift, please contact me. For all of you who give sacrificially already - thank you for all of your prayers and support – you are a gift from God to so many people!
In Jesus’ love,
Ron
Comments