Missionary’s Testimony About One Changed Life
5 December 2022
The largest city residential district in Ukraine is Saltivka, Kharkiv, with its population over 400 000 people, which is the third part of the total city population.
The Russians have been targeting Saltivka from the very beginning of their large-scale invasion. The first shelling, causing significant damage, happened on February 25. Since then, It has been suffering daily from artillery, mortars, self-propelled rocket launchers (Smerch and Grad) and air bombardment.
Considering that this northern suburb is just within 20 kilometers from the frontline, it became a defense line of the whole Kharkiv.
According to the Ministry of Defense, 70% of the civilian infrastructure and residential buildings in this residential area have been damaged, with 500 multi-storey buildings damaged to the extent that they cannot be restored.
“Is it morning? addressed his question to noone Oleksander, aged around 40, after he got from his bed and rushed to a window. He smiled with relief, closed his eyes for a moment and felt an influx of energy.
Since the beginning of the war, Oleksander lost the ability to sleep, his nerve system malfunctioned. It seemed to him that he would pop from stress.
Along with his family, he evacuated from the northern Saltivka in his home Kharkiv to Murafa village in the Kharkiv region.
After all the horrors he experienced, Oleksander found his comfort in God when he started attending a local church on a daily basis. He found out that he could sleep again.
A new church member, an internally displaced Oleksander, undertook everything a male hand was needed for. He unloaded humanitarian assistance, cut firewood, fixed different things… The pastor offered to pay for his efforts as Oleksander often worked from morning till night.
However, Oleksander refused to take any money sincerely investing into the God’s house.
Before the war, Oleksander had a bee farm, which was the main source of his income. He has around a hundred bee houses near Kharkiv. When in Murafa, he was concerned about his bees… Then he got a call from neighbors who said that their property was hit… Oleksander assumed that his summer house was also hit with rockets.
Going around his premises, Oleksander was nervous and overwhelmed with emotions at the same time. He was taking hold of his head and smiling… His summer house was intact. “How can it be? The adjoining households are destroyed…!”
“Serhiy, you know that now I read two chapters of the Bible a day and pray… My relatives do not accept it, but it is Ok,” was laughing Oleksander, expressing his thanks to the pastor from Murafa for the shelter and passionately sharing about his new life.
From a testimony of a CITA missionary and the Internet