News from Ukraine April 29, 2023

April 29 (Day 430)

News from Ukraine.

After a few calm days, we heard a siren at night, and in the morning we learned about a new tragedy. Evil, which has no limits, continues to kill us. The enemy sent 23 rockets to Kiev, Uman, Dnipro. Our air defense was able to destroy 21 of them but two rockets hit the buildings at night when people were sleeping. All our thoughts are about Uman, the city in the central part of Ukraine where the rocket hit an apartment building. We were shocked by the terrible photos and videos of the ruined building, the fire and the people who try to help those under the rubble. All day yesterday they were clearing the rubble trying to find people there. More than 20 people were found dead, three of them are children. Each time I close my eyes I see the face of the mother waiting for her children to be found under the rubble. After few hours they were found dead. A woman and a 2-year-old child were killed as a result of a missile attack on Dnipro.

We all were crying during our church prayer yesterday evening. We prayed for justice and asked God to stop and punish evil. And we thank God for making our town a safe place where many people from different regions of Ukraine can take refuge.

We thank God for the work He is doing in our refugees that we work with. We have a very good Bible study group where people feel welcomed and they ask many questions, they want to know more. We have good discussions and people stay afterwards in the church having tea and talking. Several people in this group are from Bakhmut, the city where the heaviest battles take place. Vera, one of them, saw in the news her ruined building, she knew that all the buildings in the city are very much destroyed, but when she saw her building she felt so miserable as an orphan. It is good that she shared it with others during the Bible study. Many people from this group will stay in our town after the war ends because they have no homes in their cities any more. Organizing a refugee center we think of all the needs that people will have after the war.

On Thursday Sergey had a call from our local Fire department they asked if they can practice the techniques of extinguishing a fire in our church building. They needed practice in the building with several floors, a basement and an attic and our church building has everything they need. When they received a permission two fire engines came to our church with flashing lights and sirens ( they acted like in a real situation). It scared the people in neighborhood, but then they understood that it was just practice. The head of the fire department is a Christian and we have a good cooperation with him, there were some projects where we worked together.

We thank you very much for your prayers. Please, pray with us for people who lost they family members this week.

In Christ,
Lyuda

P.S. There are photos of the tragedy in Uman