November 3, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
This year the Ark Singers were able to make their bi-annual trip to the East Coast of the United States. We want to thank-you for your prayers and generosity. Their time here was a great success.
However, things quickly changed and the group made it back to the Ukraine the day the borders were closed due to COVID 19. In the past the Ark Singers made a second trip to the US traveling through mid-west and west coast. The country remains closed making it impossible for the group to travel and raise support.
Quarantine left many without work and finances. Additionally new changes in the legislation of Ukraine on social assistance deprived many families of their only financial support. This year we could purchase and distribute 10 tons of potatoes for 550 families. These are families who cannot grow potatoes on their own; families who find themselves in difficult life circumstances: unemployed, large families, poor families.
Quarantine is not an obstacle for construction work, but on the contrary, there is free time for this. God blessed to complete the building for the Sunday school and the canteen. We plan that in winter the church of Pokrovsk will hold services in its warm new building. We continue to pray and build!
Quarantine made great changes in our lives and ministry. Summer was coming to it’s end, and we could not start holding children's camps. We prayed, and God blessed that our region became a green quarantine zone, which meant that we could hold a children's camp in compliance with sanitary standards - masks, disinfection of rooms and hands, constant temperature measurement, going home for spending a night… But it worth it all!
As soon as the quarantine restrictions were lifted up a little bit, we immediately used this opportunity to carry out evangelization on the street. Sermon, a lot of music, children's program, communication. At the end, there was a treat: pilaf, tea, coffee, sweets and free bread. People are tired of sitting at home and gladly accepted our invitation.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine, 50,000 children were returned to their relatives from boarding schools. Some of them are children with disabilities. Many children returned to families where their parents did not expect them or were not ready to have them at home. Children from more or less comfortable boarding schools returned home where terrible conditions are: no light, no water, parents drink, no finances to buy the most necessary things. So, the idea came up to help such families not only with grocery sets but also with hot dinners for children. Due to the difficult financial conditions in the family and the irresponsibility of parents, many children do not eat normal hot food.
Quarantine in the country and in the world has only complicated the situation in poor and large families.
Thank God, we all are healthy and are able to visit families without obstacles. Each package of products for these families was like a God's gift! During quarantine, our service to people has not stopped!
The Pokrovsk town is an hour drive from the war zone. Here gunshots and the fall of shells are no longer heard! The population of the town is about 80,000 people: during the war years, the population has increased due to refugees from Donetsk. So, the need and necessity for opening of a new church appeared. At first, it was a place with a small group of people where refugees could receive grocery help, as well as spiritual support. Over time, the number of visitors increased from 20 to 70 people, and new people constantly come. Therefore, there was a need for their own building. God blessed us by the purchase of an old house in the city center.
The operation this year, called "Black Gold" is over! We are glad that we were able to buy and distribute 57 tons of coal to needy families! We are glad that we did it before frosts! Thank God for every dollar donated to this good deed!
