Jerry is on his way home, but the work in Ukraine continues...
Jerry is part way home as I write this update for the blog:
Dear friend Max Kushnir drove him across the Romanian Border and south to the city of Lasi (about 3 1/2 hours) where they spent the night before Max returned home this morning to Chernivtsi. He had to get a covid test (negative!) before boarding a plane today for the first stop in Vienna. He was supposed to change planes there for the next flight to Frankfurt - but that plane left before they landed! So, he is waiting still in the airport for the next flight - but praise God there WAS a next flight and on the same day! He will spend the night there before boarding a plane for his final leg from Frankfurt to meet me in Miami!
You know him well so you know He is meeting people, making new friends and sharing God's love with peace and joy along the way! I can't ever thank you enough for your faithful prayers and fasting throughout this entire trip - for both of us, the entire team and for our dear friends in Ukraine. On the very first post I said you were a critically important part of this mission - and I believe it even more strongly today!
Finally, Jerry asked me to share another letter with you from Dr. Lev. which includes pictures from his extensive medical work just this week as a result of this horrific war in Ukraine. They are doing so much with so little, it is absolutely incredible. The pictures are really very hard to look at - but I had to agree with Jerry, that sometimes it is a lot easier to see the devastation caused to buildings and military equipment - but everything changes - and it is so much more difficult and painful to get just a glimpse into the physical, intimate, painful consequences for people...
Shalom, dear brother Jerry,
Thanks are to our Lord for this day and for the fact that we can serve in His Name.
I would like to share with you the photos that I will take this week. This week I helped Toma with a dental appointment for refugees and also helped and assisted Max in the operating room.
We have a lot of wounded from the Eastern regions in the hospital now. And thanks to your donations, by the grace of God, we have the opportunity to help all the patients with those things that, for various reasons, are not available in the hospital, and patients are not able to purchase expensive medicines and wound dressings.
God is great, and we have seen how He worries about His flock. He is our Shepherd, and we follow Him.
How is your stay and service in Chernivtsi? Are you good? If anything, then my family or I can help you?
We all pray for you and love you very much. In God's love, Lev
2 Comments
I’ve just gotta say… Lord, please ease the way for these folks who’ve sustained awful injuries, and for Pastor Jerry’s return travels. And refresh the weary soldiers and doctors and nurses helping them. And please end the war by noon.
I recognize the wounds that shrapnel causes and in particular, flechettes. The Russians are using flechettes in Ukraine. It is French for “little arrows”; these razor-sharp, inch-long projectiles are a brutal invention of World War I. My Grandpa was a doughboy in WWI and he told me about them and how awful they were. I read, at the start of the Russian aggression, that Russia was using them. These pictures solidify what my imagination thought the wounds would look like. I am assuming some of the wounds are from land mines and others from gunfire. I am so thankful that brave men like Lev, Max and all the others are there to care for the wounded. I am thankful that Jerry is on his way home. I am thankful that my little church here in Des Moines WA was able to help financially. I am thankful today I am able to walk freely, speak freely, buy groceries, take my medication which is easily available, pet my cat while he lays peacefully on my lap as I watch tv. All of these little things that so many can't do or have. I wonder why am I so blessed....I don't know why but I do know I am thankful that I am. Can't wait to see your faces dear Jerry and Sue.