August 2024
Dear Friends,
I hope you are doing well and enjoy this summer. I know that this is my favorite season of the year. I love the warm weather, so I want this season to last forever! Not only are we enjoying the warmth of summer, but even in the war torn parts of Kharkiv, our minisry partners are making sure that the kids who are living in the war zone are having a few moments of joy too! Yes the bombs and missiles continue to explode with regularity, but the Ukrainians will not allow themselves to live in fear.
In this prayer letter, we are highlighting a few joyful moments this summer. Please see some of the happy faces as the kid’s enjoy their summer camps (similar to our vacation Bible school). There were a couple hundred children blessed by you and your dontations through four of our partnering churches, so thank you very much!!! Here are a couple of testimonies from two of the four pastors whom we partnered with this summer:
WE DIDN’T HEAR ANY MISSLED EXPLODE DURING THE CAMP!
From pastor Zhenya: “Thank God, by his great mercy, we were able to hold our children's camp for about 40 children. The children included kids from our church, our town, and some newly displaced children from areas where their parents had to recently abandon their homes due to the Russians advancing/bombing their villages. All the children felt the love of God, learned about the Bible, had fun, and by some miracle, we didn’t hear one bomb or missile explode during our summer camp. It was a huge gift from God. Please pray for two of the children: Daniel and Zlata – their parents were killed in the war, and they are being raised by their grandmother in our village. They need lots of prayers. Please thank everyone for helping make this camp happen this summer!!!” – Zhenya
From pastor Vlad: “You and all your partners may know by now that we are passionate about helping the villages that were severely destroyed by past or current battles. So many poor families don’t have the ability or the means to move out of the destruction zone, so we go to them. This summer, we felt compelled by our Lord to go to the village of Bezkyitnoe, which is in our state of Kharkiv. Instead of just one event for kids, we have come back multiple times, just to give these beautiful children hope. It breaks our hearts, because this town was left destroyed, they are in extreme poverty, and the living conditions are horrible – even by war standards! We wanted to help these children!!
We have also engaged in children’s camps in the town of Monochanivka too, which is in the Kupiansk region, a bit further away. This area is under constant attack and the sound of bombs seems unceasing. However, we were able to put on weekly kid’s programs this summer. It isn’t elaborate, but the kids have had lots of joy learning the Bible, playing games, etc. Please thank everyone for helping us make these kids camps/programs possible. These children have so much joy, because you help make this possible! God bless you all!” – Vlad
Dear friends, I want to thank you for blessing these kids and churches. I will post more photos on our Facebook page, since there are so many photos! Until this war is over, you are helping keep hope and faith in Christ alive!
If you have been following us for any length of time, you know that we try to bless our ministry partners in several ways – two of the fun ways are through the summer camps and Christmas outreach/programs. Of course we do much more throughout the year, but these are two more enjoyable times/events, and I wanted you to have some joy too, so it isn’t always bad news.
Thank you for blessing so many children every summer! In upcoming months, I will share about additional churches we have begun helping. We have released one church, who isn’t communicating and added two more.
We didn’t get much response to our orphan additional gifts last month, but what came in will be going out to orphans very soon. Thank you for your sacrificial giving, prayers, and sincere love, dear friends!!!
In Jesus’ love,
Ron
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