Ukraine Prayer # 428

James, team leader in Lutsk, Ukraine
This last mission trip to Kherson last week was also difficult. The constant bombing was further away, not as loud as the last trips, because our troops have been taking back land. I was able to sleep well. Some of the new team mates kept looking at my reaction when there were explosions and I would reassure them it's ok the missile and mortar hits are far away.
 
We did see around 120 come to Jesus Christ. Praise God!!!
We did return to villages that we already did evangelism in, to encourage the new believers and share the Word of God to encourage them and remind them of their new faith in Jesus Christ. We went to 5 new villages where we saw so much destruction and so many terrible and amazing stories.
 
One story. We went to one village and met the village leader and explained how we wanted to gather the village together and share about Jesus Christ. The Village leader called everyone and in 25 minutes we had around 45-50 come. Around us were the destroyed school, they told us it was large and the pride of the region, now it's rubble, there also was the destroyed library and government offices. We shared about Jesus and stopping corruption and the Kingdom of God. The village people told us about a smaller village that's not far down the road. They said there are only 5 people left there and they went through hell. Almost no one has been to their village. 
 
A man and woman came out, in their early 40s smiling and greeting us.. It turned out there were now 7 people. They told us about the large missile attacks and the husband said 14 missiles hit their house and yard. You could see he used old Russian ammunition and munition boxes to remodel their badly damaged home. He spoke about his Uncle and Aunt. They lived next door to them and how rockets killed them and other villagers. He said with tears in his eye's.
 
A little later the other 5 people came, they told us amazing stories, how they helped defeat the invading Russians. We gathered the 7 people and our team and we sat in the middle of the street, where it was safe. We sang some worship songs to God, bringing tears to everyone, honestly it was so hard to sing, the emotions and Spirit of God was amazing.  Even writing this, tears are flowing.
In the end of sharing the Salvation message all gladly with great joy accepted Jesus Christ, as their savior. They thanked us with warm hugs and gratitude for being willing to come to them. Honesty we feel so close to these people, like family, a strong bond.
 
We have another project we need help with!   We want to bring school supplies to the children that suffered through the Russian occupation and many are without schools. We need money for school supplies.
 
Please pray for James and his team, they continue to do amazing things in the midst of great obstacles.

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team