Dear brothers and sisters from the USA, our partners and collaborators in the gospel here in Ukraine, we greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
I am very grateful to God for the fact that during these 2 weeks He used me to preach the gospel and serve Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, it will soon be a year since this war began in Ukraine. And we praise God that He protected us and helped us in this difficult time for us. We also thank you for praying for us all this time and helping us so that we would help other people in need.
1. Christmas holiday for orphans
- As we wrote to you in the last report, we organized a holiday for orphans on January 14 and 15. Thank you for your prayers. The Lord heard prayers and helped us to make joy for orphans and widows during these two days. True, we were not able to collect them in order to feed a delicious dinner, as we did in past years. Because now there is quarantine everywhere because of the pandemic. But we have already promised them that lunch will be postponed after the Easter holiday, when it will be warm. But we prepared good gifts for them, and we ourselves took these gifts and gave them to everyone in their hands. On the first day, January 14, we visited the Orphanage. When we arrived, an air alarm was just sounding, and together with these children we went down to the basement. There we gave everyone a Christmas present, sang Christian carols with them and told them about God's love for people. How God sent the only Son of Jesus Christ to earth to die for us and take upon Himself the sins of the whole world. How He resurrected on the 3rd day and ascended into heaven so that he would prepare a place for us there with Him. The children were very happy and thanked saying: - Thank you Jesus Christ and you! We told them - Thank God for everything! When the air raid ended an hour later, we visited the smallest orphans from this shelter (3-6 years old). They also spoke to them about Christ and sang along with them praising the Lord. They were also very happy with the gifts. Then we visited families who took 15-18 children from the orphans of the boarding school to bring up. We brought them great joy by giving them gifts.
On the second day, we visited a boarding school in Sadgora where the widows of this war live with their children. They also thanked God that the Lord does not forget about them through the believers who visit them constantly helping them in all difficulties.
2.Humanitarian aid from brothers from Romania
-Thank God for the fact that on January 24 our brothers from the PIEI Romania mission arrived and brought us humanitarian aid. My wife and I met them at the border and unloaded this aid in Novoselitsa to the Emmanuel Church, where the pastor is brother Popov Valery. We thank God for brother Timothy Stan and for brother Mike Dima, as well as for their team that came with them. We had good communication with them, praised God for the protection on the road and for this Humanitarian aid that they brought, so that we could distribute this help to our parish settlers and even take this help further for people living near the front line. We thanked God for the brothers from America who donate funds so that our brothers from Romania bring this help to those in need in Ukraine during this difficult period of the war with us. We are glad that we already have something to go to people who live in zone where people suffered more from this fierce war. Our missionary brother, brother Kioresko Gregory, together with his team, goes there 2 times a month and distributes this help to people.
After that, we fed the brothers from Romania, we handed these brothers in the hands of the Lord and sent them home. We are glad that they have already reached their home safely - Thank God!
3. Ministry with ordination to the pastor.
-With God's help, I participated in the ordination of 2 pastors. One pastor in Chernivtsi, brother Pyslar Mihai, and another in the Romanian church in Novoselitsa, brother Grishka Andrei. These services were blessed by the Lord. Everyone prayed with joy and love for these 2 pastors and glorified God.
4. Thanksgiving:
-We are grateful to God and to you, brothers and sisters, for having received this humanitarian aid for refugees through our brothers from Romania.
-We are grateful to God for our missionaries who work with full devotion to serve here in Ukraine.
-Thanks to God for the fact that it is still peaceful in our region and there are no rocket arrivals. This is not our merit, this is God's mercy on us!
-We are grateful to you for your prayers for us and for your help that comes to us in time so that we can help other people who need this help.
5. Prayer needs:
-Pray with us for an end to the war in Ukraine.
-For the orphans and widows that we visited and with whom we work proclaiming to them the love of God, may the Lord search their hearts for repentance.
-For the families who have taken orphans from the boarding school to raise and support. They have their own difficulties every day. May God give these parents wisdom and patience in this hard work.
-For these 2 pastors that we have chosen this month, that the Lord bless them with wisdom, patience and humility to serve in the church.
-So that the Lord gives us and our families health and jealousy, so that we do not get tired of doing good to people in need who live near us. So that we are hands Christ on this earth and serve others with total devotion.
Thank you again, dear brothers and sisters from the USA, for your prayers for us and for your help. May the Lord bless you abundantly! We love you and pray for you.
With love to you, the Petikhachnyy Pavel and Larysa family.
