We are incredibly proud of our teams who continue to work throughout Ukraine in the midst of war. They have all experienced personal loss, times of fear and trauma, times of lack of food, water and electricity, as well as the shock of seeing maimed, injured and dead on their streets. Yet they continue to love, support, pray for and teach the people of their nation with a heart after God and His ways.
The Explore school has grown beyond anyone’s dreams, the churches are filling, the people are open to prayer and hearing about God, there is preaching and healing on the streets. God is using your donations to help turn a country to Him as they live in their darkest hour.
Following our financial appeals for our teams in Ukraine, we wanted to let you know how much of a difference your donations have made:
Greetings from Ellel Ukraine to everybody!
We work together as a small team of five full-time members plus a big team of about 90 prayer ministry team who continue to minister in Ukraine.
We all live in different cities. Oleg, Veronika and Lilia live in Poltava, which is only 160 km from the Russian border, whereas we are more central, 280 km from the Russian border.
God gives us grace to stay in the country and minister in all possible ways to the suffering and hurting people here.
The situation in the country is very difficult. And it’s getting worse. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, hundreds of thousands have been injured in various degrees. So far we have about 400,000 disabled soldiers and officers (according to official statistics), tens of thousands of young widows and orphans, parents who lost their sons in the front etc. Plus, there are many thousands of those who lost their homes, all properties and belongings with no place to return to.
All civilians live in the situation of on-going acute stress caused by everyday threat to be hit by Russian missiles. It can happen at any time day and night at any place in Ukraine.
For example, today while I am writing this, Russia hit a hospital in a big city of Chernigov – dozens have been killed and many have been injured.
As you understand, the scale of shock, pain, grief and loss is enormous. Needless to say, that healing ministry is very much in demand in those circumstances.
Apart from personal ministry to the suffering in hospitals, in the front line and to refugees from the war zones, our team have been very busy running Explore on-line for Ukrainians in 14 countries and off-line groups in 6 big cities within Ukraine (222 students all together). We started the course in March, 2023 and plan to finish it this coming September. On the photo you can see the Explore group with the students and the team in Poltava (one of the 6 off-line groups in Ukraine).
Recently we have been contacted by a big interdenominational ministry in Ukraine which is deeply involved in helping to the war victims of all categories. They are interested to provide more training for their team in the area of inner healing and deliverance ministry. In March we ran the first introductory 2-day course for them in Kiev. As a result, they asked us to train more people beginning with basics of the healing ministry and ending with specific subjects like “Ministry into shock and trauma”, “Ministry to the injured”, “Ministry to the sexually abused”, “Freedom from fears”, etc. We agreed to start the first group at the end of July.
We also agreed to run healing retreats for the war victims together with their teams as a part of their training. It is a new thing for us, but as we know God is doing new things!
We feel there’ll be a lot of work for us in the nearest future because Ellel teaching is very relevant for this time. God gave us the keys how to minister to the hurting and now this is a very special time when we can share those keys with the Body of Christ.
Of course, we are able to do this only being supported by other parts of God’s family. We are very grateful to everyone who lifts us in prayers and supports us financially.
Lilia from Poltava has been working full-time with Ellel for about 20 years. As well as being an experienced teacher and prayer minister, she is a very creative person. She is using this heart to help people to be healed and restored through creativity. She has developed and organises regular special Creativity Healing Days for the victims of the war. Some people are so traumatised that our usual approach to prayer ministry is not so effective, they do not even have the strength to talk about their pain or they just can’t put the enormity of their emotions into words.
On the photo you can see Lilia with some ladies who planted early spring pot flowers as a symbol of new life and resurrection of hope and life after loss and destruction. It’s amazing how God can bring deep healing and inner transformation through such simple things!
We plan to continue Creativity days for those in need of deep healing.
Dear Friends and Supporters,
We are so thankful for your support of us here in Ukraine. Together we are able to continue bringing God’s light, love and hope in the most dark and hopeless places.
As I’m writing we have no electricity in Kherson. Some haven’t had it for almost for a year since the dam explosion. In my region we lived without electricity and water for almost a month. That made me to be thankful for water and electricity on a daily basis. The best day for some people (for me in the past as well), is when there is pouring rain. Then you can get enough water in an easy way, at least for washing.
You’ll probably ask by now… why don’t those people move somewhere? There are various reasons; some people can’t move emotionally, some can’t move out because of sick and unmovable relatives that they take care of, some moved out but came back as couldn’t handle living abroad or even in another city. A lot of people who live here are those who work & continue helping the city to live.
The frontline is just 30 km from us, so we hear everything, including regular missiles aimed at our city as well as Ukrainian defences shooting them down. Because of our position, the army lives and gets all that they need through our city, including medical care, food, post service, etc.
A lot of very old people are left here, unable to leave. We support them on daily bases with kind words, practical help, prayer, food, medicine and so on. We have become a lifeline for many of the old and vulnerable left in the city.
Recently I ministered to nurse who didn’t want to hear about God before war. Now she was in such a distress from her work and knowing that I’m Christian, asked my advice how to deal with her emotional state. We talked about Bible as medicine and prayed too.
People either ask for prayer or never refuse when we offer prayer. Since we get under shelling on daily basis, we pray for healing of shock & trauma on daily basis too.
Last year we also travel a lot to liberated villages. When Russian army leaves the city or village, they take with them all that they want so some people are left without even the basic needs. After the destruction of the dam, many have been left without access to their basic needs and we work hard to supply them with what they need, and always with prayer and emotional support too.
God’s love & light & hope is present with us. We experience it as never before. It’s difficult time but it’s probably best time for the church in Ukraine now. The Gospel is being preached just on streets, people are being healed. People look for God, there is hunger, a search for hope and stability that they find in churches. Our churches are more full now than they have ever been.
Please continue praying for us:
Thank you so much for standing with us!
With lots of blessings from numerous people in southern Ukraine
Dear friends!
We have been part of Ellel Ukraine for more than 20 years. We have 2 beautiful children. We live in the city of Poltava, Ukraine and we love the Lord.
Today in Ukraine we see how God saves people in the midst of war and we see His power of resurrection in the midst of grief and pain.
Since the beginning of the war, we have tried to serve God as much as we can serve the Ukrainian people. As a part of the Ellel Ukraine team, we are involved in counselling, teaching, translation, and administration work. Just recently we were invited to do seminars for leaders and Ukrainian refugees in Canada. We had 63 students on our 5-day seminars and had 20 ministry appointments during one week. We saw healed hearts and changed lives during the ministry there.
Also, as part of our local church we are ministering as worship leaders, Veronika is leading women’s ministry and Oleg is helping with the ministry to distribute groceries and medicine to the people that live on the frontline territories.
We want to thank you for your support and prayers. Together we can do much more for our amazing God!
Join with us in our 2024 appeal which, among other things, will allow us to continue supporting this vital mission work in Ukraine.
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