Dear brothers and sisters, We are happy to present the next issue of Let's Love good news. Spring has brought hope. Our anxiety about the future for our families has gone away along with the snow. The winter clouds took away our homesickness. Dark wind got dissolved along with disappointment. The melted ice has put out our vengeful fire toward our enemies. Optimism has come along with the spring. The resurrection of nature has made our faith in God stronger. Weakened bodies and souls have gotten their "second wind" to continue the ministry for people in need. Since our last issue of our newsletter a lot has happened during the last month. Also, our hearts are overflowing with gratefulness to all of the brothers and sisters, churches and partners for their faithfulness and coministry. And now the time has come to release these emotions and sincerely thank you for your loyalty, your care, your donations
and your participation in Let's Love Ministry! Almighty Lord, please, bless everyone who takes part in the ministry for people in need! Bless their families and their congregations! Thank you for these fantastic people who make their faith by their works! With prayers and gratefulness, Yours, DG 1. Trip to ATO Last week we took another trip to ATO zone. This time we visited the town of Stanitsa Luhanskaya which is located on the border. This is the final Ukrainian point just before the occupied territories. The situation within the town is complicated. Every night they are shooting at residential buildings. People are having hard times locating jobs, receiving pensions and incomes. One of the schools is completely destroyed. There is no "alive" house in the town. People are scared, confused and disappointed. There is only one bridge that connects the occupied city of Luhansk with the Ukrainian town of Stanitsa Luhanskaya. Every day citizens of Luhansk are walking through that bridge like through a "life road" to get to the Ukrainian territory to buy some food. In
Luhansk, where they have not had any electricity since last fall, the prices for food items are very high. This month for the first time since October they have paid 1,000 Russian roubles (that is $20,00 US Dollars) to retired people who are located on occupied territory. This time we were distributing food bags at two schools and one preschool. The local administration has compiled the list of their students, who have come together with their parents to receive grains, butter, sweets, canned meat, pasta,
canned food. They were also given a New Testament along with the food bags. Before our distribution, we have shared the Gospel with them, then prayed for repentance and blessing. About 170 families have received food bags. We have also purchased gardening items for the orphanage in the town of Novoaidar, so that the children can prepare their school lands for planting their garden. During this trip we gave a ride to a citizen of Luhansk. He has shared some useful information with us. He said that 70% of civilians in occupied Luhansk are already
disappointed with Russia being ready to accept them. Now they want to get back to Ukraine. It is also true that people do not trust the new Ukrainian authority, and they are afraid of it. Our next trip to ATO zone is planned for the first part of June.
2. Zaporozhye Here is a passage from Yulia Taran's letter (the wife of the preacher of the local congregation Yuriy Taran) about the ministry of the Humanitarian center in cooperation with the local congregation of the Church of Christ: "Last week we have helped out 80 families in need. The last two Sundays our worship attendance was about 80 people! During one worship service some people had to stay outside since we did not have enough room to sit all of them". The Lord continues to do His ministry in this town. Last Sunday three people were baptized!
3. Poltava Below is a passage from Fyodor Chernichkin's letter. He is a minister of Church of Christ congregation: "Again and again and always praise be to our Lord! Also we extend our big gratefulness to all brothers and sisters, who participate in our ministry for refugees. Every step of your support, whether it is material, or physical, or prayer, is a part of this ministry. We thank all the brothers and sisters as well as Let's Love Ministry for material blessings to help out the people in need. We thank God for each one of you! May God bless you all! The most important thing is that people come to know Christ through the work we are conducting. And our spiritual family is growing in number. Praise be to the Lord! Please, continue to pray for us, pray that we always will have your spiritual support". We see the growth of the congregation here in Poltava the same way it is happening in Zaporozhye. Right now worship service attendance is about 30 people. If you are interested in learning more about the work and future plans of this young congregation, please, get in touch with us.
4. Dobropolye The local Church of Christ in Dobropolye together with Let's Love Ministry continues to help out people in need in their town, revealing the hope in Christ for these people.
5. Kharkov In addition to their ministry for refugees, Sasha Nikolayenko together with local Christians has begun ministry in the regional towns, where food situation (both, physical and spiritual) remains tense.
6. Kiev Here is a passage from Katerina Pavelko's letter (Vinogradar Church of Christ). She is our friend and an active volunteer in our ministry: "Many people in need come to the Second Wing Humanitarian Center. Here is what I have observed. These people need more of a support/encouragement from a friend vs material relief. The brethren from UBI and other brothers and sisters are visiting us nowadays. They just talk to these people, learn their life stories, and share God with them. Many people are asking the following questions: "If this God loves us so much that He
has given His Son, then why are we experiencing this situation in our country? Why are we all suffering from this?", etc. We try to talk to these people and explain to them that we can not answer all of their questions. Some of them do not understand it, but some, on the contrary, open up and want to visit more and express their willingness to learn more about God. Sometimes it takes just a simple visit with people, and it is more than enough. I personally got to talk with one lady, who successfully had left Donetsk and is now here in Kiev, where it seems better, and they all are alive, and no one is shooting or shelling, and it is more peaceful. She lost her husband and her brother in a car accident. Things do happen, and we can not stop it. There was one girl from Donetsk who has spoken the following words to us:"when we left our city, we began to live better. Our family has become stronger and friendlier". Two completely different situations, and two different families. But both of them came to us, and I believe there is a reason why God brought them to us!" 7. A Time for War - A Time for Peace We had a big event in May - we conducted a Conference in Kiev for Church of Christ congregations in Ukraine. The conference was devoted to the topic of war. Preachers from Croatia Mladen Dominich and Ivan Tesich as well as the American missionary in Croatia Steve Taliaferro and Leonid Kryzhanovskiy (one of the elders from Donetsk congregation) were the speakers at the Conference. The brethren from Croatia shared their experience in overcoming the war and it's circumstances based on their personal experiences in the war with Yugoslavia. About 170 brothers and sisters from different parts of Ukraine participated in this conference and received the answers
to their questions. The Croatian brothers have given donations from their local congregations for refugee ministry.