The Timing was Miraculous!

February 2025

Dear Friends,                          

Our bookkeeper sent out the 2024 giving notices by email and regular mail. If you don’t get your statement, please reach out to me. Thank you again for being a wonderful ministry partner and friend!

As I discussed in last month’s prayer letter, we were able to bless hundreds and hundreds of children with sweaters and candy and everyone had a wonderful Christ-filled Christmas celebration. In this letter, I am sharing with you our recent firewood campaign for those most at-risk.  The needs remain greatest in the villages and especially for the senior citizens who don’t have the ability to relocate. Water and heat are rare commodities, depending on where one lives.  

Many of the poorest people continue to live in damaged homes from Russian bombs and artillery shelling. While I am not highlighting the war in this letter, let me share that the Russia military continues to advance further into Ukraine and the city of Kharkiv continues to see an influx of refugees, so please keep praying for Ukraine.

While our firewood outreach remains one of our smaller outreaches due to its proximity to Christmas, we were able to purchase three large truckloads of firewood for needy families. In this prayer letter, we share three senior citizens’ testimonies who were blessed by your generosity:  

The Timing was Miraculous!

“Hello, my name is Vera Bashka. Due to this tragic war, I lost my home when a Russian missile hit it (Vera’s photos are on the right). I am up in age, and it is very difficult for me to get around, much less relocating to another location, but I had to move out of necessity. I could only afford to move to a sparsely populated village and to an empty, neglected old house where there were no amenities except for a roof over my head. I didn’t have much before the war and even that was taken away from me, so this was the only way I could survive.

Eventually, my daughter and I moved in together because she has been battling cancer for a long time. All of us have been trying to survive and none of us have any money for her treatment, to buy food, or for firewood to heat this old house. Apparently, my situation was discovered by wonderful Christians, and we asked them if there was any way the church could help us, and they came through with a miracle!

Almost immediately after I asked for help, the church replied to us, ‘Americans just gave money for firewood!’ We were astonished and amazed at the timing and support we received from God and his loving people. Thank you for helping us stay warm and alive; we are truly grateful for your support!”

“Hello, my name is Faith, and I live in a village in the Kharkiv area (photos on the left). I am an 85-year-old woman. Due to my age, I have been living with my daughter and grandson, but unfortunately, they both lost their jobs during the war and could not feed themselves or me. What money they could scrape together was barely enough to survive on.

Eventually, my daughter was able to secure a loan from the bank (I have no idea how she qualified), but she was unable to pay it back, the debt continued to accumulate and eventually our home was seized by the bank. We moved to another location, but there is no light or heat in the home. We haven’t had any ability to provide for ourselves since November 2024, which is when it became very scary for us. We have been praying that we could just survive the winter; forget about anything else in life – we just wanted to survive! But then God came through with a miracle this past Christmas and we were told by the church that Slavic Christian Ministries and American donors bought us firewood, so we could make it through the winter. I cannot thank you all enough for being God’s blessing to us – because of your generosity my family won't freeze anymore, I'm warm for once thanks to you and God. I was trying to survive with layers of clothes, rags, etc."

“My name is Lena, and I am 64 years old (photo on the right). I have had two sons fight the Russians on the frontline for Ukraine. Thankfully, they are still alive, but my oldest son came close to death. There was a grenade that exploded nearby, and it physically and mentally injured him. He has lots of mood swings with his PTSD and he eventually had a nervous breakdown. He would lash out at everyone and physically abused me too. I was just diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery, but all my pension money now goes towards my cancer medication, so I am asking you to pray for me on this matter too.

We haven’t had enough money for food or firewood to heat our home. We didn’t know what we were going to do, and I feel so bad having to use what little money I have on myself. But thanks to your mission agency, I have newfound hope this Christmas. Thank you so much for the firewood and relieving some of my enormous burden. I have tears of joy and gratitude toward God for his mercy, kindness and love through Christ’s church and Slavic Christian Ministries. Thank you again for encouraging my family!”

Dear friends, I thank God for all of you who give to Slavic Christian Ministries. These three testimonies are very similar to so many other Ukrainian people. On February 24th, the war will reach its 3rd anniversary, so please keep praying for an end to this horrible war. Your generous over the past three years has been amazing – thank you so much! I am very blessed to partner with you, lock arms together, and make a difference for Christ Jesus in a few people’s lives - as we have tried to do for the past 24 years!

In Jesus’ love,

Ron

www.slavicchristian.org