December 2022 Tatiana's News

Ukrainian Children’s Christian Fund

4234 Garden Grove Drive, Burnaby, BC V5G 4G6

Phone: 236-979-4369 email: uccfincanada@gmail.com

Web Page: www.uccfcanada.org

2022 Fall Newsletter

Dear Friends,

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience hope” - Romans 5:1, 3-4

The end of our summer newsletter closed with the following prayer request: “Please pray with us that the Lord would provide many opportunities not only to meet people’s physical needs but also to reach out with the good news of the gospel through our co-workers this summer.” At that time the lack of opportunities to carry on children’s ministry seemed frustrating. Our ministry area is partly under Russian occupation and the main church on the Ukrainian side has no basement for a bomb shelter, limiting the use to daytime only.

But the Lord is ever faithful! He is bringing the people to our co-workers as many families have relocated to the surrounding area.

The Lord also asks us to be faithful, to trust Him, and to look for opportunitie to do good and speak of the salvation, hope, and peace that only He can give. And that is what our co-workers have been doing. They are working together, mainly ministering through their local churches where they can organizer their activities. Through these churches they are providing food, used clothing, medicines, hygiene supplies, transportation, and short term accommodation. There they prepare and distribute humanitarian aid and have the opportnity to tell people about the Lord.

So we would like to say thank you for praying! The Lord has been answering these prayers and many people are finding hope in Him even in the middle of a war. May the Lord bless you as you read our co-workers letters. - Heather Renton

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Tatiana’s News

I greet you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. My mother and I are still in the USA. I had a brief visit with my sister and her family in California and have returned to the Christian Adventure camp where I enrolled in some classes to attend myself as well as volunteering with a group of "vanguards" - gap year students.I love it: I see how good it is for the students, although sometimes it can be exhausting! I continue to do my work remotely for UCCF and my mom (Nadezda) is still helping me with the record keeping. We were admitted to the USA as refugees on Ukrainian Humanitarian parole and can stay in the United States for up to two years. I hope I can go back sooner than that but it is difficult to make plans like that now. The city near my home village is bombed almost every night so my morning starts with making sure my family and the church is ok. My home village and the main city nearby are not occupied but about 70% of this region is.

In spite of all that has happened, the mission work is going ahead. God has been doing a lot of great things these past few months! Before the invasion, there were 20 to 30 people attending Sunday services in my home village in Ukraine. Now there are from 100 to 150 people attending each service. While it is a huge blessing and we are happy that in the middle of all this suffering and pain people are seeking God, there are also challenges. The number of people attending is a lot for the small building. Even after extra chairs were borrowed from another church, many of the church members are standing in the adjacent hallway letting the newcomers have a seat for the services. Sunday school classes have started and many more children are coming, although there is a strict safety rule: children cannot come without their parents. The children sit on sleeping bags on the floor because all the chairs are needed in the chapel room. I asked my brother Andrei to find out if they can buy about 20 more chairs.

Standing room only!

Our workers are ok. They are often tired as they have a constant flow of people that need help. Often they can't have a good night's rest because of the bombing but they are also very happy they can meet people's needs and spread the Gospel. Everyone is doing what they can to help. Some members of the church brought whatever clothes they can spare and sometimes people from the village who know that the church is helping people also bring their extra clothing.

May God bless you. We so much appreciate your help and prayers for this work.

– Tatiana