Dear Friend in Christ,
“2022 was a difficult year for our entire community in Ukraine; however, it was also a year of growth and of strengthening our trust in God,” Olia, MJ, from our women’s community in Birky, Ukraine, tells us. Our community’s activities were most closely related to the war in Ukraine and and its various consequences. For more than two months in the spring, two women with children from Brovary and Zaporizhzhia lived in the premises of our orphanage. Also, two small children from Donetsk, whose mother was undergoing treatment after surgery, stayed at the orphanage for several weeks. These people had arrived in Lviv by evacuation trains that are still running to take people from dangerous areas.”
“Currently Svetlana, a 15-year-old girl from Kharkiv, still lives in our orphanage. She had come to Lviv with some friends, but they eventually went abroad, and Svetlana was left alone in a school where refugees were staying at the time. She was moved to a shelter for homeless children for a short time and then, in September, the Lviv Children’s Service asked us to accept her at our Girls’ Home.”
“Svetlana speaks Russian, the main language of the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine. She is very quiet, spends most of her time in her room, and does not make friends with the girls in our house and at school. She never attended church, and had never celebrated any religious holidays, so Christmas was a big discovery for her. We have a Christmas tradition where young boys and girls gather in groups and prepare a traditional Christmas play. They go from house to house announcing the Good News about the Birth of Jesus, and people give them sweets or money for this. It was something very new for Svetlana. She prayed together with us and, because she is still getting to know a different way of life, she often asks a lot about God and what He teaches. Looking at her, I think that maybe God allowed the war so that people who bypassed Him would hear the Good News and see that there is something more than pain and problems on earth. There is joy in Heaven and hope here on earth. Life is very difficult for Svetlana right now, but I believe God is protecting her and doing everything that is best for her.”
Your help is needed to continue our work in Ukraine. Please help the Miles Jesu Missions today! Your tax-deductible gift or pledge truly makes all the difference!
In Miles Jesu we take our benefactors seriously and pray for you and your loved ones each day at Mass and in our rosaries. This is our debt of gratitude, since the Miles Jesu Missions depend upon the Providence of God through people like you.
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