Financial situation

Many of you are writing me letters, showing concern with the current situation in Ukraine. There are quite a few things to worry about: many people are loosing their jobs, or have their salaries cut down (actually, nothing to surprise anybody in the world with), prices on imported goods have grown dramatically lately (though food and other local-made goods remained basically on the same level). Some banks are having really bad problems, the payments are not going through on time, the deposits are blocked, businesses and persons cannot get loans from banks. Due to this prices on real estate have already dropped. The 2 room apartment will sell for under k25$, comparing to k50-60$ in summer.  We hope it'd be under 20,000, this will give hope to have one's own place to many young Ukrainians. So, there're pros among the cons of the situation in hand.

We pray for this situation to resolve soon, and for our government to be wise now.

I have already preached three times on how to remain peaceful and stable in the times of crisis, or any other stormy circumstances in our lives. Encouragement is very welcome these days.

With the currnet gas prices the tarrifs have grown like the mushrooms after the rain. We are trying too keep the heat as low as possible, but even then we pay around 2000 hryvnyas/mo (250$). Though I love winter more, this year I am looking forward to the warm spring :)

LST preparations

We are going to have another Let's Start Talking compaign this summer. We had a great experience with the Tennessee Tech team last year, so we prayed they might come again this year. And - our prayers were answered! Evan Bowers will be the only member from the last year team though, and we'll miss Aaron, Sarah and Jayna very much. Evan is coming along with Tyler Fultz. So team of two only, but we are sure the Lord will produce great things through this team.

If you are interested in supporting this LST team, contact me, and i will give you Evan's e-mail address.

The team arrives on May 19th, and will stay in BT through the whole month of June. I already have all of my Shans students signed up for classes. We are looking for the opportunity to build a ramp on the porch for people on the wheelchairs to be able to attend LST classes, as well as other church activities. We want to be accessible for every member of our community!

News

Yesterday we celebrated an Internation Women's Day (AKA 8th of MArch). We had 17 people in the worship service. Andriy and Valya Korchachenko came, after a 3 months of being away. They will live in BT, currently looking for the place to live. Please remember them in your prayers! Also, Lilya Rudnytska, who was a member of our congregation back in mid 90s, came to visit. The last time I saw her was about 6 years ago. What a surprise!

On the picture - Lilya talking to Inna Chernyakhovska

After worship we had salad, tea, 3 delicious cakes, muffins and other good stuff. Men sang a funny song of how important women are in our lives :)