Ywam volunteer in Kyiv
“These walkers are part of humanitarian aid that will go to Zaporizhya and will help people who were wounded under the fire and now are in rehabilitation to learn to walk again. When they were sent we wondered what we would do with them, then we were told that there was a huge need for them.

These past three days have been harder than usual. It is harder to put feelings down and be hopeful and merciful. It is harder to watch news feed in Instagram with destroyed buildings and read about people dying every day.

This week was full of horrible news. Shopping mall explosion in the middle of the day, apartment building in Odessa region in the middle of the night, apartment building in Mykolaiv and one of the people who was in it our family distant relative who is now in coma in the hospital.

It is getting harder. So I pray that God’s grace will become bigger and more tangible for us, for everyone who is in Ukraine and outside waiting to come back home.
We can’t stop this war…but we can pray to the One who can!”

YWAM Center Kyiv, Ukraine. Today I got to join the “line” filling the bags with flour, milk, cooking oil, canned fish, corn, hygienic goods and lot’s more. More than 200 of these were packed in the morning and put into a van and distributed in a village that afternoon.

Thank you for your prayers,
Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team (Kyiv)

Marie (Kyiv)
The Stranger at the Door
As we are driving the bumpy village road, we are amazed to spot three stork nests in a row. We stop to take a few pictures. On the roadside, an elderly lady is offering fruits from her garden. We go over to buy some raspberries. I notice the broken windows in her house and hand her 15$ instead of the 3$ she asked for. “I just want to bless you,” I say. She bursts out in tears. “You don’t know how much that means to me,” she says.

She invites us in and shares her story. How there was a knock on the door on February 28, and the Russian soldiers said: We are going to occupy your home. Do I have a choice, she asked. No, they said. You can stay in the basement. So the family of 11 moved to the basement – with no heating, no electricity, no bathroom, and a bedridden aunt and grandchildren. With Russian occupiers upstairs and the sound of them shooting at their neighbors from their own windows. Living downstairs from hell.

We walk through Ira’s beautiful garden as she shows us broken windows, bullet holes, and giant craters on the field. She says, the moment we understood we needed to flee was when they looked at my granddaughter and said, ‘What a beautiful granddaughter you have there.’ The girl is 13.
So the family waited until night and ran towards the fields. They left their village under gunshots of the occupiers firing from their own house.
We walk over to the raspberry bushes. Ira says, I have never experienced something like this in my whole life. The fruits taste different. Everything tastes different. It is as if the soil felt those explosions as well. And the fruits changed somehow.

Her granddaughter changed as well. She does not leave home at all. Using the outdoor toilet, just a few steps from the house inside the compound becomes a daily challenge. With a breaking voice, Ira shares how she has to take her granddaughter by the hand and walk her the few steps to the toilet. Nothing feels safe anymore.
The raspberries indeed taste sour.

In February, strangers knocked on her door and brought hell into her house. Today, again strangers knocked on her door to buy some raspberries. But this time it was an encounter that brought blessings, relief, and encouragement to her home.
We are humble and thankful to see Jesus leading us to people like Ira. It is not always the big gestures that make a difference. But the small act of simply listening to a person’s story.
What story does your neighbor have to tell?

Al Akimoff and Slavic Ministries Team (Kyiv, Ukraine)

Today we say goodbye to our many families and campers as we conclude a wonderful week of fun, fellowship and God. Yesterday we went out to beautiful town on the Wisla River. In the afternoon people cut out little cards in the shape of hearts that said God Loves You. They tied these around water bottles and popsicles with ribbons and our Ukrainian orphans handed them out to the many people taking walks along the river. They explained to the surprised recipients that this was a thank you to the Polish people for taking in Ukrainian refugees. What a wonderful week in this camp and many more like it.

We awoke to news that Odessa was once again bombed. This time a recreational area where over twenty people were killed. Indiscriminate bombing continues all across the country producing anxiety and fear. Pray for these people who must live with this daily.

Snake Island, made famous in the first few days of the war was liberated by Ukraine. This was an important victory as it helps to regain some control access to the Black Sea. With this came a Russian concession to allow ships to pick up wheat and other grains stored and ready to be shipped especially to countries in Aftica, this was an answer to prayer and please pray that this will continue so that this grain can get to the truly hungry of the world.

Pray for the many lives that have been and are being touched at the many camps spread throughout Ukraine, Poland, Romania and elsewhere. Pray that these many Ukrainian orphans and refugees would experience healing as well as strength to persevere in the many hardships that face them.

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team