Thursday, May 29, 2014

Presidential elections

If anyone is following closely the situation in Ukraine you will know about this but for the rest of you I will give a quick update. As you probably know the revolution took Victor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine, out of power and an interim president was elected.
Elections were moved from next year to May 25th of this year. There were many fears of pro-Russian interference in the elections, but besides some problems in the east where voters were prohibited from voting or poll stations closed or prevented from opening, the elections went smoothly. A successful businessman and pro-European candidate, Petro Poroshenko won the election. (photo on the left) Please pray for him that God would give him wisdom do deal with this broken country and with the unstable situation in the east, as well as a devastated economy. The east is still in turmoil and there is serious fighting there between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian militias. The day after the elections these militants tried to take over the Donetsk airport and the Ukrainian military responded in force killing more than 50 of the rebels. (photo on the right) It is even rumored that fighters from Chechnya, the infamous region of unrest in Russia, have joined the pro-Russian forces.
Please pray for Ukraine, that the country can get back to normal after these elections. Pray that there would be peace in Ukraine and that things would get back to normal. Also please again pray for the economy because the Ukrainian Hrivnia is continuing to drop in value and it really is affecting the people here. It is making things even harder for me financially but for Ukrainians it is becoming much more difficult even to afford basic amenities. Thanks again for being faithful to me with support and with lifting these things up in prayer. If you have any questions or would like to help with supporting me in some way please just ask me or talk to someone at Calvary, or to my parents. God bless and I will update again soon.

Trip to the Orphanage

One ministry that we often take part of here in Ukraine is ministering to orphans. We went to an orphanage in a village not far from L'viv, called Veliky Lyubin. I am just now updating the blog, but we went there on Mother's day and we try to visit there once or twice per month. So first we asked our neighbors here if they had any used toys, or clothes to donate and we went door to door asking them.
They were very generous and we received bags full of stuff to give the orphans. We wanted to include the neighbors in this ministry, even if they didn't know it, and give them a chance to get to know us because we hope to minister to them as well. We took a couple of buses to the orphanage and basically just spent some time with the kids there. It was Mother's day as I said so the kids that were left there really had no where to go and no one who cares for them. We played games, sports, did arts and crafts, and sang songs with them as well as a short message from the Bible. Then after we just went for a walk with them. The children were excited to show us around. They were so excited to just have someone to talk to or to receive a little attention. There were big smiles everywhere. And of course they were very happy to get a little "goodie bag" that we had prepared for them. It is a blessing always to see their smiling faces. Please pray for them as orphans in Ukraine have a very hard life, and very few opportunities for a better future.
Please pray also for the situation in Ukraine as the eastern part of the country is still very unstable. Thank you all for your prayers and support and if you have any questions just ask!