We greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, our dear brothers and sisters from the USA!
We thank God for His mercy and for His protection in this very difficult time of war for us. Almost 700 days have passed since this full-scale war began in Ukraine. And despite this, during this entire year that has passed in our lives, we missionaries of the PIEI Ukraine mission were able, this year, to preach the Word in the Power of the Holy Spirit, in this time of war. I say that they preached in the Power of the Holy Spirit, because there are many people who repented and many souls made a Covenant with Jesus Christ through water baptism in the past year.
1. On January 7, our fellow villagers celebrated the Nativity of Christ, and our church also celebrated with them. Our youth walked around the village with carols and congratulated people on the holiday of Christmas, distributed spiritual calendars to them, as well as invitations to our evangelization. I preached a sermon in church on the topic: “What blessings did the Birth of Jesus Christ bring to us people of this world.” The youth choir sang beautiful psalms about the birth of Christ and recited poems about the end of this war. Everyone had tears in their eyes and the whole church prayed for peace in Ukraine and Israel. We pray for all those people who came to evangelize and heard the Word of God.
2. After this, our youth prepared 200 bags of gifts for orphans. On January 14, my wife Larisa and I took these gifts to a home for minor children, which is located in the center of the city, and in Sadgora, where there was once a boarding school. Now widows live there with children orphans from this war, we also visited 5 families who are raising 15-16 children adopted from boarding schools. All these disadvantaged people were very grateful to God and to us for these gifts. We sang carols with them where we glorified the Born Messiah Jesus Christ. We told them that if everything goes well and God helps us, then we invite everyone to a meeting for widows and orphans, which we planned in the month of May, this year. There will be good food for them and various children's activities. Only if God gives us peace and health. They were very happy about this and will all be praying for this meeting. We also pray for this action of mercy that we have planned for widows and orphans.
3. At the Bible Institute I studied the book of Hebrews. This blessed book surprises all who study it, because only Jesus can give true blessed peace to all people. Only Jesus Christ can stop the war.
-I’m also preparing for the next month, February, to study the book of Exodus together with the teachers of the Bible Institute. If only God would give peace, health and tranquility to our region where we live.
4.Thanksgiving:
-We sincerely thank you, brothers and sisters from the USA, for your support and for your prayers for us and for Ukraine. Thanks to you, we can work and serve God here successfully and for the Glory of God. Thank you for praying for us and we were able to carry out evangelization and charity campaigns with orphans and widows, glory to God!
-We thank God for protecting our Bukovina from missile attacks and we can serve God here peacefully and calmly.
-We thank God for giving us health so that we can work in His Holy Vineyard.
- Another thanks to God for the fact that the team of missionary brother Grigory Kioresko was not injured this morning, 18/01, in an accident on the road to Gostomel. Their bus was damaged by a collision with a large truck, but they are alive and well, thank God. God is Almighty! Thank God that the humanitarian products also arrived by another bus to Gostomel and people received the long-awaited help from the products. Our brothers simply loaded the boxes of food into another bus and it went further to Gostomel, and brother Kioresko’s bus was loaded onto a tow truck and taken for repairs. And thank God for the fact that these brothers who were traveling on this bus and who had an accident were left with only minor injuries. Only brother Grigory Kioresko has chest pains. We pray for him that nothing serious happens.
5.Prayer needs:
-Continue to pray for peace in Ukraine and Israel.
-Pray for brother Kioresko that the Lord will heal him from this chest blow, and that specialists will be able to repair his bus.
-Pray for the missiles to stop flying all over Ukraine.
-Pray for our soldiers who are there at the front defending our country, so that the Lord will protect them from death.
-Pray for our soldiers who were captured by enemies, so that they will be released or exchanged for other prisoners.
-Pray that the Lord will give wisdom to our president and everyone who commands our army so that they will make wise decisions for our country.
-Pray for our churches. Now we have a new flu epidemic and people cannot come to church. May God save us all from illness and from this flu.
We also pray for you, our dear brothers and sisters from the USA, that the Lord will protect you from all evil and bless you abundantly.
Please accept my heartfelt greetings from my family. We love you and are praying for you.
With love to you family Petikhachnyy Pavel and Larysa.
