April 3, 2024 (Day 770)

April 3, 2024 (Day 770)

Dear brothers and sisters,
Christ is risen! This great event should be celebrated every day and every day we should proclaim: Christ is risen! He redeemed our sins on the cross, died and rose from the dead on the third day. When we proclaim that Christ is risen, we also express our desire to change our lives according to this great hope. We celebrate Victory over death and believe in Victory over the enemy. Our Savior is truly risen and gives us eternal life, and Victory!
It’s warm and the trees are blooming, everything around is green. We see two realities strangely combined: the beauty of nature and war. The situation at the front remains difficult. The lack of weapons is a big problem of our army. Our warriors are struggling to hold their positions and are holding with all their might. We never stop praying for them and try to help as best we can. Denis Dudkin, our good friend and brother in Christ, who used to be an elder in Odesa church, now he is fighting on the front line. We correspond with him and talk to him on the phone when he is available, we send him packages and pray for him and his squad. There was no contact with him last week. Then he wrote that all these days the shelling did not stop. The enemy literally set the whole land on fire. Denis says that he has never been so close to God and talked to him constantly. He felt the presence of God and knew that he was under his protection. Now when they have retreated to the second line, he understands his survival was a miracle. God protected him in the midst of a rain of fire and metal. We have heard many similar stories from people who call on the name of God in extreme situations.

Because of the difficult war situation people continue to leave dangerous areas. We accept new refugees and help them settle. A new family has settled in our Refugee Center. Olga, Yan and their daughter Yanina. Their story is full of pain and fear. They lived under occupation for two years, their life was hard but they lived with a hope that the village would be liberated soon, but when the shelling and bombing became more frequent, they decided to make their way to Ukraine. They traveled for three days with stops and inspections, and passed many Russian checkpoints. They forced them to undress and rummaged through their things. After a long trip of humiliation and crudity they reached the delimitation line. When they saw Ukrainian flag they began to run towards it, they were very happy to get to Ukrainian territory. We try to make their life comfortable. They joined our Bible study that we have right there in the Refugee Center.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Victor, our neighbor, friend and brother in Christ. After a long illness, he finally found peace and rest. He was a former military man with a tough and harsh nature. He had a hard life. We met three years ago, when he hit Sergey’s car on a motorcycle. Sergey noticed that he was a lonely and unhappy man. We started bringing him food and that helped us to know him better. Two years ago when we moved to live with my parents, we became neighbors living just few blocks from him. In the beginning he did not want to listen about God and Sergey said: If he doesn't want to listen, we will preach with deeds. We continued to visit him, when he became more and more ill Sergey visited him several times a day. And gradually we began to see change in him. I was so happy when he agreed to pray with me at Christmas and I prayed with him each time when I visited him, he told me that he talked to God when he was alone. Victor died in his sleep last Saturday. Yesterday at the funeral one of his friends said that when he came to visit Victor few weeks before his death he saw him praying very sincerely. Sergey and I are so glad to know that Victor is with his Savior now. He didn't want to be photographed and we don't have his photo.

Thank you for your prayers and for your support.

Please, send your donations to Pathway Ministries
E. Langston Haygood,D.Min.,Ph.D.
Pathway Ministries, Inc.
288 Huntington Parc Circle
Birmingham, AL 35226
(205)835-3325
http://www.pathwayministriesinc.com

In Christ,
Lyuda

P.S. There are photos of new refugees that live in our Refugee Center, the photos of the group meeting. There is a photo of “Will” monument that was erected in Irpen, the city near Kiev. This is a sculptural composition, made from the tricks of Russian missiles, with which the enemy attacked the place in the cruel ferocity of 2022. And the photo of 20-year-old Maksim, a young man from our town who died in a war last month.