Dear brothers and sisters from the United States, we greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am grateful to God for His protection. For the fact that peace and tranquility are still observed in our region during this time of the war in Ukraine. For a year now, this terrible war has been going on with us, and the Church of Christ has been praying earnestly for an end to this war. On February 24, an all-Ukrainian fast and a prayer to God so that all our churches, our families pray and fast for peace in Ukraine. We hope only in God and expect from Him Salvation and Victory for Ukraine and its people.
We are very grateful to God for you, our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord who live across the ocean and support us in your prayers. We pray that the Lord will bless you abundantly.
1. Humanitarian aid from the mission brothers PIEI Romainia.
- On January 24, missionary brothers from the PIEI Romania mission came to us, headed by brother Timofey Stanya and brother Mike Dima. 3 full trucks arrived with various products and other useful things for the settlers here in Ukraine.
- My wife Larisa and I met our brothers and accompanied them to their destination in Novoselitsa. From there, our missionaries had to load this help (very tasty bread, butter, rice, flour, canned meat and vegetables, apples, potatoes, carrots, onions, toilet paper, shampoo, soap and other necessary substances), and took our settlers who live among us. And brother Kioresko, our missionary, had to load his cargo bus to transport this help in Gostomel (Kiev region).
- We were very grateful to God and our brothers for their sacrifice that they rendered for us. We talked together, prayed. We fed them and then again accompanied them so that they could safely reach the border. We were very glad to hear that they got well to their homes - God bless.
-We are grateful to God and to you brothers and sisters from the USA for your donations, because on these donations, our brothers from Romania were able to buy both food and various needs for our migrants who live among us.
2. Meeting of the missionaries of the PIEI UKR mission.
-January 26, all of our 9 missionaries of the PIEI UKR mission gathered for the meeting of the 1st quarter, 2023. Each missionary gave a report on his missionary activities in his missionary field of service. We had blessed communion to pray for each other, prayers for your churches from the USA that support us here in Ukraine, prayers for the end of the war in Ukraine. We thanked God that brothers and sisters from the USA and from Romania support us in this difficult time for us time. They thanked God for the humanitarian aid from the brothers from Romania. Each missionary was loaded with this help, and taken to our migrants and the needy who live near us.
-My wife and I visited 4 people and brought this help. One of them, a disabled person in a wheelchair, called us and thanked us so much that he even cried with joy. He said that very tasty bread was from Romania. And that he prayed and thanked God and for those who baked this bread, and for those who brought all these sweets in Ukraine. Just when we visited him, he did not have bread in the house, and we arrived on time with bread. Thank God that He leads us all in a good direction so that we can help where help is needed.
3. We had communion with the church on February 5th. 2 neighboring churches (Balkovtsy and Podvirnoye) also gathered in our church because their pastors fell ill. They were brought by bus to our church, since there are a small number of church members there. So they had good fellowship and remembered the suffering of Jesus Christ together as before. Previously, these churches all gathered with us, because they did not have their own house of prayer.
4. At the end of January, our young families from our church, together with the youth of our church, organized themselves to cook ready-made food for the soldiers who defend Ukraine on the front line. They somehow agreed with 10 more churches in the Khotyn region to cook such food for our soldiers. Then there is a special bus that carries this food for these soldiers to the front line. Our people cooked meat rice, pasta casserole, baked pies (it was all cooked in a special oven, and it turned out very tasty), and marinated vegetable salads. Also, bread and compotes. Then they packed it in a special container so that it was convenient to carry all this food to the front line in the city of Kramatorsk near Bakhmut, where the fighting is going on. This is only a very small part of what we can help these soldiers. We all pray for all these soldiers that the Lord will protect them from all evil because it is very difficult for them now. May the Lord save them all and may the Lord give us peace!
4. Thanks:
-We thank God for the fact that we are still quiet and peaceful and the Lord helps us to serve here and the refugees, and to preach the gospel in our area.
-Thank the Lord for you, dear brothers and sisters. For your prayers. Thank you for praying for the soldier Yulis and he was found. He is now in the hospital and will come home soon. He was in captivity, but the Lord saved him. Our sister Nina, his mother, thanks God very much for him. We pray that Julis and his wife Lyuba repent.
-Thank you for your prayers for the missionary brother Kioresco, who delivers food and various needs to refugees from Gostomel (Kyiv region) twice a month. Thank God that God protects him and his team.
-We thank God for the fact that He still gives us health to serve Him.
5. Prayer needs:
-Pray that this terrible war in Ukraine will end. We believe that only our Lord can stop all this. Those who came with the war are all planning big plans to harm Ukraine more. But God has everything under control. He knows how to protect us. And we believe that the Lord will not leave us. Do not stop praying for peace in Ukraine and for God's protection for us here.
-Keep praying for peace in our area, so that we don't have rockets, so that we can serve here calmly preaching the Word and helping those in need.
-The enemies want to turn all their aircraft on us, but pray that the Lord will protect us. We believe that only the Lord will help us and only God will stop the enemy.
-For the Lord to give us health in our ministry.
-For Ukrainian soldiers who defend Ukraine on the front line. For the Lord to protect them. For the chaplains who serve the Word among these soldiers so that the Lord protects them from shells and from all evil.
-Keep praying for our brother missionary Kioresko Gregory and his team, who carry humanitarian aid 2 times a month to the displaced people in Gostomel. For the new Evangelical Church that was recently opened in Gostomel. With His Mighty Hand.
-Pray for our non-stop Christian camp from July 24 to July 29 this summer. May God give us everything to be fine, peaceful, calm, so that we make this camp and everything to be blessed.
-We really want groups of teachers and spiritual guardians from the USA to come to us in the summer. For God to bless this desire of ours, and again, it is necessary that it be peaceful and calm here. May the Lord see this need and bless this project with the arrival of our brothers from overseas.
We are grateful to you and God for your sacrifice for us, dear brothers and sisters from the USA. We always pray for you, for your families, for your churches and for your country. May the Lord bless you with His Peace. So that you never have a war. War is evil and it is very hard. May the Lord bless you a hundredfold for supporting us here in our service for the Lord!
With love and gratitude to you, the Petikhachnyy Pavlo & Larisa family.
