In March, three young brothers from local churches in Rivne, Vitaliy Bakunets, Georgiy Mykhaylov, and Andriy Katela, had a trip to the deoccupied Kherson region to deliver humanitarian aid, to meet people, share their grief, and comfort them with the Gospel.
Their first destination was a village which had been occupied for 7 months. The village head shared horrible and at the same time wonderful stories about what was going on there. She stood for her village and sometimes was so brave that later she was afraid she might be killed for her words and actions. Thankfully, the Lord kept her safe and when the brothers testified about Christ, gave her the New Testament, and prayed for her, she was crying and thanked for visiting her.
One boy told them that several days before, two of his uncles had been blown up on a land-mine. Unfortunately, it happens often in that area now. Dangerous zones are marked on the gardens, on the roadsides, near the river. They cannot step there because of possible mining.
The brothers were able to testify to many people who came to get some aid. hey received the New Testaments.
Next day the trip was even more dangerous. Two villages where they planned to deliver aid are located on the Dnipro river. Russian military are located on the other bank and they shell those villages constantly. One day before the brothers arrived, one village had been shelled 20 times from 9a.m. till 7p.m.
Having met military men, the brothers asked if they could keep traveling and the soldiers answered they could, but it was dangerous since in the open area they would be a good target for the enemy. Having prayed, the brothers decided they would go to the villages. When they arrived, it became scary from every loud noise. The military warned them it was very fast: start-launch-hit. In moments like those one prays fervently, but people also value any help much more and they are open for communication.
We were delivering a lot of ground cloth to the neighboring village as most of the houses lost roofs and people cover them with all they can. The Lord gave them some quiet time for the brothers to be able to unload the aid as well as to share the Gospel, to testify to the people who live in extremely hard conditions that Christ came to this world because He saw our spiritual need and wanted to satisfy it. However, not everyone was willing to listen to God’s Word. Some people are in depression or find comfort in alcohol after all they experienced and survived.
Let’s pray for Christ to be revealed to those people and for them to receive salvation.
By God’s mercy and thanks to churches’ prayers, our brothers returned back home safely, they are filled with thanks to the Lord for the saved life, and for the opportunity to be a tool in His hands.
