Lost in Switzerland
Our dear prayer warriors,
Greetings to you! We feel your support and your prayers. Many of you have become friends with us on Facebook and we appreciate each of your comments under the posts about Ukraine. We are grateful for every prayer. The Lord also hears your prayers and He answers.
As you know, we are in Switzerland now. It's strange to find ourselves in a country where everything is calm and peaceful. We are tormented by a sense of guilt and a desire to be among our people, where the fighting is going on. Pray for A's sister L. She stayed in Kyiv where she helps people with food distribution, shelter in the basement of the church and sending them out of Kyiv by bus. Pray for a young man Vitaly has been discipling named Zhenya. He is now in the military and is guarding a checkpoint in Kyiv. Please continue to pray for a turning point in the war. Pray that Ukraine will endure and have the victory. Pray against Satan who controls Putin. Beg God to intervene and protect our Ukrainian people!
Although it is difficult to be gone, we understand that now it is better for us to be outside of Ukraine. Many Ukrainians now have a very vicious attitude towards Russians because of what
is happening. Even we ourselves often desire death for all those Russian soldiers destroying our land. A complication is that V himself was born in Russia and this poses a threat to our family. As much as we love Ukraine, many people affected by the Russians will now hate any Russian, including V. We do not blame them for this as this situation is so terrible. Even if the war ends now, we are not sure if we can return to Ukraine and live in relative safety. I (V) am ashamed to be a Russian in this situation. I passionately wish defeat to the country in which I was born. We do understand that our little tragedy is insignificant in comparison with the unbelievable cruelty the Ukrainian people are experiencing now.
We are doing everything we can on our part for the Ukrainian people. Many of our brothers and sisters stayed in Ukraine and are engaged in buying, transporting and distributing humanitarian aid, food and medicine. We send a lot of finances directly into their hands. We also help those who organize the transfer of Ukrainian refugees from Kyiv to western Ukraine and further to Poland. We remotely instruct and try to help those who have traveled abroad and desire to migrate to Switzerland. It is a great joy for us that V's disciple, whom he baptized in January, is now also not far from us. He had a long and tiring journey from Kyiv, but now we have found a place for him in Switzerland. He is fine. We are looking forward to seeing him soon.
Pray for Michael, Ira and their daughter Vasilisa. We have helped them find a place to live near us. Michael is not a believer yet but is open to hearing about Jesus. May the Lord open their hearts to salvation. Also pray for Lena. We have been sharing the message of the Bible with her for about two years in Kyiv, but her heart was closed. She believed in some higher power, but no more. As we planned her move to Switzerland, God showed her many miracles on the way and now she thanks Jesus for that! Pray for her salvation. Pray for the many Ukrainian women with children that we have already met here. We look forward to connecting with even more and reaching out to them. They all need temporary physical help as well as eternal life.
We are now pioneers in Switzerland. We are among the first to know about the steps to obtain protection status for Ukrainians, about ways to receive assistance from the state, and we pass on all the information to other refugees around us. Because of this we can be useful to people and they trust us. This Wednesday we had our first big meeting to get to know refugees from Ukraine. We listened to their stories, prayed for them and with them and had an encouraging message from the Bible. V also created a telegram channel for refugees, in which an audio reflection on passages from the Bible is published daily. Pray that God will touch people's hearts through our small efforts here in Switzerland and beyond.
Pray also for further vision for us. We feel displaced and really want to be of service to people. We also don't know what to do with girls' education. On the one hand, they can continue their education online in the Ukrainian school. On the other hand, they are required to attend a Swiss school that is in Swiss German. The education system is completely different here. We have also been invited to serve to the Russian-speaking population in Estonia. If God calls us there it will be yet another new unfamiliar education system for the children.
Pray for Seraina also. She is the mother in our host family and she is still on her way to finally saying “yes” to Jesus. We are having great conversations about faith with her. Pray for our church in Kyiv also. We continue to meet on Sundays via Zoom. Everyone was forced to flee from their homes and have the same feeling of displacement.
We love you and thank you for your love,
Your Ukrainian missionaries somewhere in Europe,
V & A