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Dear friends!!!
Another year of the ministry in Kherson that we share with you is coming to its end. This year turned to be blessed in a very special way, and at the same time to have a very difficult ending. I can hardly describe all the joys God gave us through this ministry. And it is even harder to describe all the blessings that children received through you and us. There were many children who were helped with food and thus could live. There were children for whom continuation of studying became a reality. Hundreds of children were placed into orphanages of our region, and now our team visits them regularly and helps them grow spiritually. All of these things were done by our joint team. Your prayers, visits of teams, and financial donations have made this possible. And we take joy and are pleased with what has happened and is happening in our ministry.
Last week we had an outstanding project with the orphanages of the region. There is a Foundation in Ukraine and its Head is our First Lady — Ekaterina Yuschenko. Her foundation decided to find partners in the regions. And in our region (similar to a US state) they chose our Fund — House of Hope.
The goal of the project was to help the orphanages with new books for the libraries. Those were modern Ukrainian books, Christian books and textbooks and study guides. Our team that works in the orphanages monitored the libraries and we were shocked with the results. The last time when all of our orphanages received new books was back in 1992! 16 years have passed, so many things changed in the world — and our children are robbed of the opportunity of merely keeping in touch with the real world! Many things that children should have were taken from them, most important surely being parental love and care - and now they cannot receive adequate education and attention; many had no access even to fairy-tales! They cannot be formed and grow spiritually and learn to live in the world around them.
Our first task was to survey what kind of books the children do read, and what are the things they are most interested in and why. And we received many surprising answers. Believe it or not, but practically all the children said they wanted to read more about the Lord’s Mother and Jesus! We were glad to know this because it proved that personal development was a priority for the children. Next in the list the children put fairy-tales, preferably from different cultures so that they could see the world beyond the walls of the orphanage. And thirdly, all the children wanted stories about family…
When the research was complete within a month we received free books — 5 books per child — and took them to the orphanages. Each orphanage received 800 - 1200 new books. It is hard to tell whose joy was greater — the orphans’ or ours! The thing is that we were bringing various gifts quite often, we were purchasing furniture and equipment and many other items. However we never brought them books! Not even once!!!
We had another chance to see that our children in the orphanages need spiritual nourishment first of all. They need God and His church most of all. Therefore everything we do (and I mean both you and us) influences the future of Ukraine and makes a whole difference for it. And these are not simply nice and big words — this is the truth. The future of our country is in these children. And their future God entrusted to you and us. And we are responsible for them. And thank you ever so much for your help!
And to our most urgent issue as for now. As I have shared above this year has brought much joy, however the end of it brings lots of difficulty. World financial crisis has come to us, too. And it is not so much about the crisis. The thing is that we are facing the reality of having no funds to continue our ministry. There are only two directions we can keep, and those are visiting the orphanages (thanks to the support from the church in Williamsburg) and reconstruction of the house we bought to be the dorm for the orphans (the ministry from Odessa, Texas helps us with this). We are struggling with funding the ministry of the children’s center and all the other branches of our ministry. So we ask you to join us in our prayers, and help us financially if you can.
We do not give up and we will continue doing what we can for the children and the people in our city. We see no answer at the moment as for why this is happening, but it can be that God is opening some new perspectives to us. And I am sure we will endure and overcome together with you.
God’s blessings to you!

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