Greetings, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord! May God's mercy and grace fill your homes and hearts.
We held a wonderful session of our Bible school. 27 tenagers came to the camp, some of them are refugees and non-christians. We had a topic Aknowladge of God. I showed them God though the sroty of Josef that God can turn evil situations for good. Also we lernt a mercy of God in the book of Jonah. Besides lessons we had a climbing to the mountain Verhoricha. On the top of it we saw a wonderful view, a river Cheremosh and the higthest mountain Goverla. Teens had different games, quizzes and activities. During this summer two students of our school repented before God.
As a councelor recently I received a difficult yet blessed call:
Olena reached out with a plea: "I want to die. When there is shelling, I always think, 'If only a shell would hit me'—I don't want to live like this anymore." She is from the Donetsk region; she has relocated to other cities four times since the war began, is having marital problems, and her 20-year-old son was beaten and conscripted into the army. She had so many questions: Why does she have such a hard life? Where was God when her son was being tormented under occupation simply for wearing a blue-and-yellow jacket? Where was God when Russians tied an acquaintance of hers to a radiator and raped his pregnant wife, while stuffing their small child into a washing machine and turning it on? What did Ukrainians do to deserve such abuse? She had been searching for suicide prevention resources and found our helpline. We had a long conversation—lasting over an hour—during which we examined her life together and sought answers to her questions. We spoke at length about God, the church, and spiritual matters. We found reasons to live and ways to overcome the situation she and her son were facing. Hope began to return to her; by the end, she said that all thoughts and desires of suicide had vanished. I prayed for them, and for the first time, she prayed for me in her own words. We thanked God deeply for this conversation and the support provided; she was joyful and cheerful, filled with hope for a better life. She became eager to visit a Protestant church in her city and have personal contact with Christians. She promised to go and take her son there.
Thank you for supporting our ministry. May God reward you a hundredfold.
Missionary in Chernivtsi and Hertsia Alex Pastushak.
