3/13/22 - From our leader in Nikolaev: Since February 24th, Nikolaev has been a really "hot time". They started shooting so early. Shelling began before 5 a.m. The gas burst. The situation is very difficult. Lots of people have no gas. They cannot cook any food. Those families we visited have no electricity and no heating as a result. Those families have a gas cylinder to cook. They live in summer cottages (rural small houses) because they cannot afford to buy a house or apartment in the city. 

They live one kilometer from the place where there was a fire. I live outside of the city too, and in my neighborhood which is located two kilometers from where there were firing, peaceful people suffered. I personally know one family. With God's help, they were able to leave the first day of war. They have two little kids. Today their house was shelled by fragments of exploded bombs. Bombs broke windows. There are victims, dead and wounded people. God's spirit led some people to leave this place and left.

I am not just scared, I cry when I think of people who are in such terrible situations and I am concerned about all of them. I want to help them as much as I can. We do not have medicine here. We live far away from the city and we have no public transportation, no trams or trolleybuses. But I hope that I will go to the city in two days and this thought warms me up. I will serve in the church as a guard. And I will have more opportunities to serve people there.