By a pastor in Ukraine
War
It doesn’t knock at your door modestly and gently. It breaks in with the bang, pulling in its crater comfortable housing, barely mobile old people or young couples and even infants peacefully sleeping in their comfy carriages. In the blink of an eye it turns everything into ruins. And the once cozy housing turns into a mountain of construction debris.
It is not interested in the fate of those to whom she unexpectedly broke into. Someone silently, without saying a single goodbye word, went to the other side; someone groans under the rubble, someone sheds tears over a close and dear person. Which of them it is easier for? for the ones who shed tears, or the ones who no longer see them and do not distinguish the groans of their relatives. Grief and devastation, screams and horror, roadblocks and abandoned equipment filled the city. In the midst of all this chaos and human madness, cruelty and godlessness, God preserves His church and guides it to the very firing points of collapsed hopes so that it shines with its kindness, participation, compassion, prayers and gospel.
Seeing such terrible pictures is beyond the power of human consciousness, and twenty days of war impose a layer of cruelty and villainy that exceeds all conscious life to this day. To cope with this is not easy not only for believers, but even more so for non-believers.
At the sight of all this, fear overcomes even the bravest. What can be said about doing some service in the midst of all this? Ears ring after shells explode nearby. But what is impossible for man is possible for God. Thanks to the unity of the people of God and their sincere and strong prayer service, ordinary brothers and sisters distribute food, medicines, Bible verses, smiles from their eyes and kind words of hope: “God bless you!” wherever the Lord makes it possible.
Wonderful Christianity
Having learned about the tragedy of hostilities, calls began to arrive from different parts of the world with one question: “How can we help you?”. The heart fluttered from every unknown call, but some Christian voice on the other side asked the same question: “How can I help you?”.
True children of God looked for any way to love not only in words but also in deeds. The horror of war changed and weakened as soon as the first heroes of the faith said: "We are bringing help to you."
We were glad for the sacrifice of friends, common spirit, unity of understanding of goals, and most importantly, mutual support. We are grateful that churches and hundreds of Christians from different parts of the world have shown sincere brotherhood from the first day and are still with us, providing support with finances, products and, most importantly, prayers. Hundreds of churches have opened their doors to refugees from Ukraine, many drivers transport people from East to West almost without rest.
The received aid reaches starving people in bomb shelters and basements, in apartments
without doors and windows, people who have not seen bread for several days. Today, when another batch of dumplings made by the sisters of the church was handed out in plastic buckets, people returned the washed buckets in the expectation that tomorrow they would receive the same food. In this situation, we are especially worried about friends, who stayed, who did not leave - will they be able to withstand all this situation, will there be enough faith, patience. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, I am writing this so that you increase your prayer for friends who cannot sleep because of the explosions of shells, who have to see the severity of everything that happens, who, often without thinking about themselves, go where they will be unsafe.
In these circumstances, physical illnesses have become aggravated in people, and here they also seek help from believers, since there is no hope of standing in line at the pharmacy and buying the right drug, but who will help the soul? Therefore, again and again we ask the Lord for strength to convey words of hope and comfort.
Dear readers of this note, I beg you, pray for the safety of the lives of friends who are striving in the ministry, for the houses where they receive people, for church buildings, so that there is a place where to form food packages, to hold a service, to invite people. By our church agreement, we pray every even two hours. I hug you, my dears.
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