April 2024
Dear Friends,
Thank you for praying for Kharkiv - since my update a week or two ago when Russia bombed the electrical and water infrastructure of our city of 1 million people, there has not been much progress in restoring anything. The city is able to provide about 2 hours of electricity per day. I am unsure what is the water situation since my last update.
The city is continually being bombarded by drones that are blowing up apartment buildings and targeting the fire department and rescuers, which is horrific. My wife’s aunt and her family had their apartment building hit by a drone about a month ago and destroyed about four apartments – thankfully,
she was just far enough away to be safe, but now there is a hole on a portion of her apartment building where the bomb exploded. Don’t fall for the tripe that Russia doesn’t bomb civilian areas – that is hogwash!
In this prayer letter, I will share with you about our partnership with Good News Church and their soup kitchen. This is the second year we have helped them feed people with this type of outreach. Since the war began, all of our ministry partners have been faithfully serving people with food in various ways: delivering boxes or packages of food, going to locations around the city, towns, and villages and setting up mobile food kitchens, and Good News Church also has their soup kitchen on Sundays after church.
Each week, this church feeds about 900-1,000 people and it cost about $1.75 per meal or about $91,000 per year. I have attached a video of the soup kitchen. It is a lifeline to many senior citizens, albeit, just one meal per week. I don’t know everyone’s situation, but many people are barely getting by, while others may be trying to preserve a little bit of money with the free meal. Either way, on Sunday Good News Church does their best to give people hope through the worship service and then a meal afterwards, so no one has to go home hungry on the day of worship.
In the attached video, you will see how long the line is for people waiting for just one hot meal! While my ministry helps churches and individuals, my wife’s aunt is a front-line worker who serves within the soup kitchen; but her grandmother, is one of those needing a meal. She is a pensioner, like so many senior citizens, who is just trying to make ends meet. Here are three testimonies, but two didn’t want to give their names:
WE WOULDN’T SURVIVE WITHOUT THE CHURCH
“Hello, I am an old lady, but during World War II, when I was 8 years old, there was much hunger everywhere in Ukraine and now things are just as bad, if not worse. As an elderly person, I have to completely rely on others from the church to help me survive. The prices for food are extremely high and I also have to buy medication to survive. Every month, I have to make the decision on what to sacrifice: Food or medicine, buy I cannot buy both. Good News Church is a blessing – thank you!”
“My name is Svetlana and I lost my home very early in the war and I have been living in the the cold basement of the church for over two years. We are in a desperate situation and we need everything. We are unable to cook food at all in this basement and we have had to fully rely on the help of the church or we would have died a long time ago. We thank you for your kindness and helping provide for the church or we wouldn’t make it.”
“Hi, thank you for allowing for me to share about my situation. Before the war I didn’t go to church, but now I am very thankful for God introducing me to Good News Church. The people in the church are so kind and I feel like I have found a family. I have learned about Jesus and those in the church really take care of me. I have lost part of my vision and because of this, I am unable to work, even if I could find a job in this war environment. I am unable to cook or provide for myself, so the church has been a huge blessing to me. Thank you for helping them too.”
Dear friends, one wonderful donor has already provided $2,000 for this outreach when I shared with him in advance of this need. If you would like to help Good News Church with their food kitchen and other ministry activities, it would be a blessing. We will highlight Good News Church more in several more months, but we have other ministries that we want to update you on first.
Thank you for all of your prayers and love for these people that are far away in Ukraine; you are truly a blessing to many people! Please pray that this war will end soon, because it is destroying the fabric of Ukrainian society and killing off the next generation.
In Jesus’ love,
Ron
Ron Putnam