It is one thing to see the grief with your own eyes. It’s another thing to feel sorry and express compassion, even by coming over and helping, bringing food, clothes and medicines… But it is a totally different thing to enter the river of this grief and stay in it… To stay in order to be able to help every single day – doing everything you are able to do from dawn to dawn.
The graduates of the missionary school at the “Good News Church of Slavyansk” stayed in the frontline towns and villages to live there. They are guys and girls from various towns of Ukraine, from various churches who never met before. However, the calamity – the war in Donbass – called them to come and they couldn’t’ turn their backs on it. There are so many people who are freezing, suffering from hunger, shooting and devastation. The volunteers have been trying to help these people in need by brining bread several times per week, but this effort is like a drop in a fire. It became obvious that the drop is very valuable but it is only a drop. There were Christians who decided to leave their homes for the sake of people who have been living with the sounds of booming for two years now.

We visited Mironovsky today. The team of Emmanuel’s “School of Life” project arranged a Christmas performance for the children while our brothers and sisters from the Sping Church of Aloha donated finances to purchase sweet presents for the kids. The children are so happy, of course, – who else could come and bring them best Christmas wishes and present if it hadn’t been for the reckless volunteers? I have watched the performance the day before when we visited Krasnogorovka, so I could get destructed to meet the team of volunteers living in Mironovsky.

Tiny 19-year old Nastya Syrova came here from Slavyansk. She shares that she is really scared when she hears the sounds of cannonry at night. But no one has ever noticed her fear. She is the leader of children ministry and trains the teenagers. Children from all over the town run to her place to attend the Sunday school. It feels like the fireworks of energy and positive feelings stops coming out of her only when she sleeps. This is who the “tiny baby” really is.

Karina Yermakova is a local. She helped the Emmanuel’s team during the Christian summer camp for the children in summer. When she camp was over, she felt bored and left for Slavyansk to attend the missionary school. Now she came back to her hometown Mironovksy to help. She is only 17 years old.
David Palamariuk is from Chernivtsy region. His heart has been burning for the Lord for a long time and he has visited many countries with the missionary teams. But when the war started in Ukraine, he came to Donbass to help rebuild people’s homes. He is a graduate of Slavyansk missionary school too.

Dmitry Barannik is from Svyatogorye. He had enough troubles in his home town but he couldn’t stay “in the resort” when people are suffering from so many troubles here.

Larisa Yelutina came to participate in the mission from Dimitrov. She has been living in Mironovsky for 8 months now and she has no plans to return home so far. She can’t even imagine how she could leave all these needy people living in the frontlines. There are so many elderly people, single moms and disabled people in need of her help… Not all of them are able to go to the nearby Artiomovsk to get their pension. Some of them have just enough money to buy bread but can’t afford to buy medicines. And, most importantly, there are dozens of people who are coming to the missionary station to participate in the church services. There are women who come here for a prayer meeting every single morning. They want to hear about God and want to get to know Him.…
The missionaries make to secret of the fact that their lives are difficult enough. But there are smiles on their faces. It is obvious that in order to help and save these people they are ready to experience even greater hardships. They are thankful to Emmanuel Association and Galyna Kucher for their constant support – for the food sets for the elderly people, for the medicines and for the summers camps for the local kids.
They could share much more but we had to leave for another town… and they stayed in the river of need and constant disturbance where they can hear the sounds of cannonry every single night. Please pray for them and don’t remain uninvolved. We, Christians, have to be a part of this mission.

GENNADY NOVIKOV

We just remind that “CBN-Emmanuil” continues to help the people from the South-East of Ukraine.

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