Thanks to your help, the employees of our mission, Vyacheslav Arterchuk and Arkady Slyoza, were able to make another trip to Donetsk region, in order to take humanitarian aid to the soldiers who defend our country in the Avdiiv and Bakhmut areas.
Our employees have meetings with men of various professions, most of whom were mobilized for military service the beginning of the war or volunteered for military service in connection with the beginning of the war.
In this photo, a meeting with the director of a shelter for minors from the Rivne region. Before the war, our employee Arkady and a team of volunteers often visited this shelter and held Bible classes there and provided assistance to children deprived of parental care. Now Serhii V. is at the frontline. Vyacheslav and Arkady came from Rivne to cheer him up, to hand over drawings from the shelter’s kids, and also brought help that was diligently collected by the churches of the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions, school students, and public organizations. For example, in the small village of Demkivtsi, Khmelnytskyi region, a group of women regularly prepares home-made dumplings, pies, pickles, which are packaged frozen in plastic containers so that these products can travel 1,000 km and remain intact, and our soldiers at the positions could heat up this food and at least occasionally enjoy real home-cooked meals.
Also, our ministers brought canned goods, fast food, simple household items, such as a change of underwear, socks, a dry shower and wet wipes. This is a great joy, because in field conditions, soldiers do not always have the opportunity to regularly bathe, wash and dry their clothes. On the last trip, they were also asked to bring at least some mosquito repellent, because in the forest’s trenches, insect bites became a real problem. Soldiers are also very happy when sweets and various goodies are handed over to them from territory free of occupation.
Over the past six months, our employees managed to make friends with many military personnel, and now friendly relations allow us to listen to the worries and pain of the military personnel, encourage them, pray for them and with them, because being on the front line is a difficult mental trial and psychological trauma for any person.
In order to meet with our employees and receive humanitarian aid, representatives of different brigades go two or three times to a previously agreed meeting place in the city of Pokrovsk and in the city of Kramatorsk, where civilians are allowed. There, they alternately have a short conversation with military personnel from several units. Among them are members of Christian churches, as well as chaplains.
This time, the first meeting was with the guys who serve near Avdiivka.
Oleksandr from Ternopil and Oleksandr from Kyiv region came under mortar fire this morning. God saved them! They sincerely look forward to meeting our employees. The last three nights, they got cold in new, but very cold and damp trenches. For them, the arrival of volunteers is an opportunity to briefly remember a peaceful time and be among ordinary people…
Taras is our brother in Christ, a student of the Rivne Bible College, and now a soldier. The position at which they were on duty six months ago was recently bombed, two soldiers were killed there… The boys are tired, but they do not lose heart and hope.
Ruslan from Pokrovsk and Vlad from Kramatorsk serve in another battalion. Both young guys, whose lives are just beginning, one and the other created families this year 2023. This time, they were very upset because two days ago their command post was blown up by the enemy with a guided aerial bomb and many of their comrades were killed…
Hennadiy and Yuriy came to the meeting from Bakhmut and thet were the most exhausted and very upset. Three days ago, their unit came under terrible tank fire, five survived. They have to travel 6 km under fire to the dangerous place of combat duty. Now their main task is to somehow remove the bodies of their fallen comrades from the battlefield…
They also met with countrymen from a separate battalion “Polyssia” (from the Rivne region). The platoon commander Mykhailo asked for a set of wrenches to repair the vehicle, because repairs need to be done constantly! Next to him is Anatoly, who has just returned from the hospital after being wounded.
Our workers share the gospel with soldiers and give out New Testaments to them that is the only source for hope.
Thank you for your participation in serving Ukrainians, in particular, people who were called up to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the war!
