It was both a humbling, and sometimes harrowing experience, to hear the stories the three women who spoke, and during the hours we spent together, we shared our mutual love for God. Never has the singing of “Beauty for Brokenness” had more meaning, there were not too many dry eyes. After worship, the Ukrainian women stepped up and shared their experiences and answered our questions.
We heard from one young woman, who said, with great passion, her duty now was to keep her daughter safe. There was some humour, as she told us, her 8yr. girl was always correcting her English pronunciation… they attend local Churches in the area… and spoke of the welcome they had received, how “thankful” they are on behalf of their country, to have the support of the U.K. and other countries in their fight to remain an independent country. We were also given a history of years of domination and it is quite easy to see how determined they are to fight for justice.
The word thank you was expressed so many times in so few short hours… The only real give away to what they have, and are experiencing, were their sad eyes. A 63 yr. old Grandma, telling us, she needed to talk about her Son, formerly a teacher, now a soldier! There were times, when it became almost too much to absorb. But by golly, it made us all realise how many blessings we have.
We were shown great hospitality by the local Methodist Church, with refreshments throughout the day, and this gave us the opportunity to share companionship and catch up with other dear Friends. In the afternoon session, we wrote down our prayers for Ukraine, which we later dedicated and presented to the women, to enable them to share with their Church and Ukrainian Friends.
We prayed together, sang together and at times held hands to support one another, we remembered those Sisters who had gone to glory, and others who were unable to be with us, followed of course, by tea and delicious cake!
The Ukrainian women wrote this prayer for us… this is what they said…
“THANK UP FOR PRAYING FOR US. WE CANNOT EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE VERBALLY, OR IN WRITING, BUT WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW THAT WE MENTION YOU AND YOUR KINDNESS IN OUR PRAYERS. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. LOTS OF LOVE FROM UKRAINE”
Please keep them all in your prayers.
I could feel how these women benefitted from sharing with us older women. We benefitted also. So often we feel there is nothing we can do, get overwhelmed by different situations, but God finds a way to use us. The young women had spoken openly about missing their family members, but for just a few hours, they seemed to relax and we could feel God’s Spirit midst the gathering. Slowly came the smiles.
We ended with this Ephesian blessing:
Be imitators of God, as His beloved children, and live in LOVE, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Our new friends – Ruslana, Maria, Anya, Maria and Sveta
