Yulia (Kyiv)
The War is not over
I saw this photo today and my heart started beat faster.
All those lights are bombing and shelling that is going on every night and day on the front lines.

This reality is not letting us to give up because so many people need help and aid, so many people need a transportation to leave, so many need to hear and know that they are not alone.

On the second picture I marked with yellow dots our current humanitarian aid locations and where we bringing aid to.

We are not afraid of those “lights” because God is with us. We are so grateful for such opportunities and trusted people who make it all possible, grateful for amazing team who’s working together, grateful for you who’s reading this, praying and supporting us.
I will write this again and again
“ WAR is NOT OVER “

As I make my departure from Ukraine, these are the words that I take from my dear friends here, I cannot say it any better…

We had a launch meeting of the new DTS that starts next week. Many of the students are a whole group of young new Christians from Mariopol who fled the disaster there. Other new students are volunteers who were ministered to here at our center and found Jesus and decided to stay. There is so much excitement here at all that is happening. Please pray for them….

Al Akimoff and Slavic Ministries Team (Ukraine)

Ternopil, Ukraine
The story of the first days of the war and particularly the first night are told often by the dedicated staff here at the YWAM Center in Ternopil. An hour after the initial attack by the Russian Army, a call went out to the pastors of the churches of the city. Within minutes they gathered at YWAM together to discuss the happenings and what would be their response.

Within a few hours a call came form the mayor of the city. A train had departed from the Eastern part of Ukraine and would arrive in Ternopil around midnight with 1500 people, what can we do. The response was quick, we are ready let them come.

The YWAM Center became the staging area and a couple of the girls instantly created an app that would register each new refugee. The pastors had mobilized hundreds of their people to bring their cars and to take people into their homes .

Within days, vehicles were procured, busses rented and hundreds of Ukrainians were transported to the borders of Poland and Romania. The flow of refugees has subsided now but the dedication and creativity of the staff toward their needy guests continues. Feeding stations are situated around the city. A large warehouse takes in donations and shipments of food and supplies from all over Europe and YWAM and church vans come from all over to fill them, often to overflowing with the supplies that are taken out to the affected villages.

The Center here has settled into a rhythm of ministry to countless people coming through seeking help. There are doctors who are themselves refugees but are offering their services. There are cooks, a masseus and a trained councilor who give their time. Some have found God here and they and they have joined the volunteer staff to serve in many different ways.

The Staff here has decided to begin a Discipleship Training School here in a few weeks. Applications are still coming in and half of the school is made up of refugees who became volunteers and stayed on to work full time.

Life is different since the war started. Our priorities have changed, our ministries and outreach are different and we are learning to lean on the Lord in new ways every day. This has been the same response from all of our centers here in Ukraine.

Young leaders are rising up to the new challenges thrown at them daily and they are growing in confidence and leadership abilities. I just left a meeting where they discussed the picking up of a load of water filters to be distributed to the villages without water or electricity.

Pray for YWAM Ukraine! They will shrug off any compliments that you throw their way that they are some kind of heros. No, we are ordinary people serving an extraordinary God. You can’t help but love these wonderful ywammers who have chosen to serve God and others in these incredible times.

Picking up goods at the Ternopil warehouse to take to Vinitsa

Please continue your prayers for these volunteers and workers , pray for more to come. Pray for the Shelter program that is beginning soon Pray for an end to the war.

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team

Japhin is with Marie John in Borodyanka.

She said, “A few days back, I went to my son’s tomb. I told God, If my son were alive, he would have fixed all the broken windows. Now, there is no one to help me. Two days later, here you are, fixing all the broken windows. God heard my prayers. I am grateful to God”.

We went back to replace a few broken windows in that village.
We keep all our tools and other raw materials in Masha’s house. When we went to pick those up this morning, she was ready, waiting for us with many gifts. She spent hours embroidering this and gave it as a token of her love.
We said, “this is all too much to accept.”

Masha says, “Nobody ever comes to my home. Now that God sent me a son and a daughter to fix my windows, I need to bless them.
We had a day filled with so much joy. It’s an honour that Marie and I get to serve together in all this.

Meet Japhin and Marie, Some of you have probably already met them. They appeared on a CBN special and I have posted many of their wonderful posts. Today they are my next door neighbors here in Kyiv. I can truly attest to the fact that they are wonderful servants of God. I am awakened each day to the delivery of a wonderful cup of cappuccino. Anything that needs doing around the YWAM center here, they are doing it or they are out feeding, rescuing or as you read above, ministering to the needy. They are just a couple of the wonderful people who are serving Ukraine here at this time. Pray for them!

We are launching a program to help repair a hundred homes in three villages and to build another 100 temporary dwellings. These are simple, insulated shelters that are cut and packaged and then sent to the site where they can be put up by a team in a day. Many elderly have refused to leave their homes, most now destroyed or damaged. Many others are now returning to their villages desperately wanting to be home. These will not be their permanent houses but will provide shelter for the coming winter and possibly longer.

For more information on this project: teams@ywamkyiv.or

Thank you for praying for this need, you can give at the address below.

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team (Kyiv)

Yestereday we went to the newly liberated villages outside of Kyiv, Bucha, Irpin and a number of smaller villages. We had a very enlightening time with many of the villagers. They were typical Ukrainians, jovial, animated and very much wanting to tell their stories.

Two posts from Ira (Kyiv)

The first one is from an oncologist. Her elderly patient and his wife are from Bucha. Unfortunately, they lost precious time because of the war and occupation, and the doctors are desperately trying to make up for it. Their conversation:
– Were you scared?
– We were at first. But we stopped thinking about it. Our neighbor kept saying that the Russian soldiers were the good guys and they wouldn’t hurt us. In a week, once they realized they wouldn’t be able to take over Kyiv, they got wild. They killed that neighbor and then another one. They shot the hands and feet of some neighbors just for fun. I am a nurse, so I was called to help.
– Do you have any pictures?
– Pictures? No, those whose phones weren’t taken away were keeping them safe; otherwise, you could be killed for keeping them. They were shooting everyone because they felt hopeless. You should have seen how we kissed and hugged our soldiers once they came…
A simple hospital room seems like a luxury suite after the time in a basement amid ruins. A simple hospital soup became a high delicacy after meals cooked in secret over a fire.

The second post is from a blogger and children’s writer. She shared some conversations of her children:
* Her 3-year-old son said, “Thunder is when there’s an air raid warning, a siren, and then the “boom!”
* Her daughter studies geography from the messages of her friends scattered all over the world.
* Mom, meet my new friend. She is from Mariupol. Their car has holes. And they have a funny dog. And they don’t have a home.
* Mom, I read the news. It’s so complicated. It’s easier in books. In a book, there is a villain who does something terrible, but then someone nice always comes to undo the damage. The news said that a Russian missile killed many people. And I know that no nice person would ever be able to undo this.
The hardest part is to realize that these children will have to live with this experience, and all we can do now is to make sure they will never have to talk about war ever again.

These two posts show how this brutal war comes into the lives of both old and young. There is so much pain between the lines; it’s unbearable. So I can only pray for God to intervene. Come, Lord Jesus. Come soon!

Please pray,

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team (Kyiv)

Anya/Al/John/Sasha/Tanya//Yura/Florin, Kyiv, Ukraine

Today we see what is the loss, the devastation, the pain, the need. We see the real consequences of war

Behind me around me is just a speck of Kyiv region – area that was a real battle field, occupied for over 40 days, shelled first with a war on foot to follow. Over 30 villages left with ruins, thousands of people left with destroyed homes, some partially, some completely gone.

But we came to walk these streets to enter broken homes and to look at devastations with Hope. As much as our hearts are breaking with grief and compassion, we are filled with Hope. There is the One who cares and who CAN

We Walk with Hope, holding His hand and introducing this Hope to people in tears.

We take a step in Boldness. It is boldness to claim that God cares that God has not forgotten, that He can provide. It is boldness to look at this overwhelming devastation and need and to say that God will help!

Pray with us for 100 new homes and 100 fixed homes. Little by little we will see Ukraine in care again.

I spoke to two different people today that were telling us their stories and both pointed out not the devestation of their homes but that the rose bushes along the house did not burn. Both of them said “it was a miracle.” God was showing us hope.

Pray with us as we seek the Lord for His next steps in the rebuilding of Ukraine in the Kyiv area. Our goal is to see hope restored in the people that have come back or remained in their villages. We are looking at temporary structures that will protect them this winter. More to come on this project…

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team (Kyiv)

Ywam volunteer in Kyiv
“These walkers are part of humanitarian aid that will go to Zaporizhya and will help people who were wounded under the fire and now are in rehabilitation to learn to walk again. When they were sent we wondered what we would do with them, then we were told that there was a huge need for them.

These past three days have been harder than usual. It is harder to put feelings down and be hopeful and merciful. It is harder to watch news feed in Instagram with destroyed buildings and read about people dying every day.

This week was full of horrible news. Shopping mall explosion in the middle of the day, apartment building in Odessa region in the middle of the night, apartment building in Mykolaiv and one of the people who was in it our family distant relative who is now in coma in the hospital.

It is getting harder. So I pray that God’s grace will become bigger and more tangible for us, for everyone who is in Ukraine and outside waiting to come back home.
We can’t stop this war…but we can pray to the One who can!”

YWAM Center Kyiv, Ukraine. Today I got to join the “line” filling the bags with flour, milk, cooking oil, canned fish, corn, hygienic goods and lot’s more. More than 200 of these were packed in the morning and put into a van and distributed in a village that afternoon.

Thank you for your prayers,
Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team (Kyiv)

Marie (Kyiv)
The Stranger at the Door
As we are driving the bumpy village road, we are amazed to spot three stork nests in a row. We stop to take a few pictures. On the roadside, an elderly lady is offering fruits from her garden. We go over to buy some raspberries. I notice the broken windows in her house and hand her 15$ instead of the 3$ she asked for. “I just want to bless you,” I say. She bursts out in tears. “You don’t know how much that means to me,” she says.

She invites us in and shares her story. How there was a knock on the door on February 28, and the Russian soldiers said: We are going to occupy your home. Do I have a choice, she asked. No, they said. You can stay in the basement. So the family of 11 moved to the basement – with no heating, no electricity, no bathroom, and a bedridden aunt and grandchildren. With Russian occupiers upstairs and the sound of them shooting at their neighbors from their own windows. Living downstairs from hell.

We walk through Ira’s beautiful garden as she shows us broken windows, bullet holes, and giant craters on the field. She says, the moment we understood we needed to flee was when they looked at my granddaughter and said, ‘What a beautiful granddaughter you have there.’ The girl is 13.
So the family waited until night and ran towards the fields. They left their village under gunshots of the occupiers firing from their own house.
We walk over to the raspberry bushes. Ira says, I have never experienced something like this in my whole life. The fruits taste different. Everything tastes different. It is as if the soil felt those explosions as well. And the fruits changed somehow.

Her granddaughter changed as well. She does not leave home at all. Using the outdoor toilet, just a few steps from the house inside the compound becomes a daily challenge. With a breaking voice, Ira shares how she has to take her granddaughter by the hand and walk her the few steps to the toilet. Nothing feels safe anymore.
The raspberries indeed taste sour.

In February, strangers knocked on her door and brought hell into her house. Today, again strangers knocked on her door to buy some raspberries. But this time it was an encounter that brought blessings, relief, and encouragement to her home.
We are humble and thankful to see Jesus leading us to people like Ira. It is not always the big gestures that make a difference. But the small act of simply listening to a person’s story.
What story does your neighbor have to tell?

Al Akimoff and Slavic Ministries Team (Kyiv, Ukraine)

Today we say goodbye to our many families and campers as we conclude a wonderful week of fun, fellowship and God. Yesterday we went out to beautiful town on the Wisla River. In the afternoon people cut out little cards in the shape of hearts that said God Loves You. They tied these around water bottles and popsicles with ribbons and our Ukrainian orphans handed them out to the many people taking walks along the river. They explained to the surprised recipients that this was a thank you to the Polish people for taking in Ukrainian refugees. What a wonderful week in this camp and many more like it.

We awoke to news that Odessa was once again bombed. This time a recreational area where over twenty people were killed. Indiscriminate bombing continues all across the country producing anxiety and fear. Pray for these people who must live with this daily.

Snake Island, made famous in the first few days of the war was liberated by Ukraine. This was an important victory as it helps to regain some control access to the Black Sea. With this came a Russian concession to allow ships to pick up wheat and other grains stored and ready to be shipped especially to countries in Aftica, this was an answer to prayer and please pray that this will continue so that this grain can get to the truly hungry of the world.

Pray for the many lives that have been and are being touched at the many camps spread throughout Ukraine, Poland, Romania and elsewhere. Pray that these many Ukrainian orphans and refugees would experience healing as well as strength to persevere in the many hardships that face them.

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team

On February 24th Russia invaded Ukraine.

We want to thank all of you who have kept up with the news and continued to pray through these past months as well as have given to help us minister to the needs of the thousands who have been affected by this war.

Right now a number of us are at a family/youth camp in Poland ministering to both Polish and Ukrainian youth. There are many of these camps being held all around the border countries and throughout Ukraine. Thousands of young people and their families are being touched by compassion and care. We are thankful for all the teams that have come to help from all over the world. We had a tremendous breakthrough with the Ukrainians tonight, particularly a whole group of 21 orphans. They were a rowdy group when they came, but to see them so thankful to the Polish people who took them in and brought them to this camp, there was not a dry tear in the crowd.

Thousands have been given water and food in basements and apartments in countless towns and cities. Many have been taken out of these basements and destroyed houses and taken to safety to Western Ukraine and other border countries.

Every week a different group of our workers or partnering pastors are brought out to a city in a border country and taken to a beautiful apartment where they are given rest, comfort and ministry to their souls.

This past week many of the staff were sent on a retreat where they were ministered to by care teams from Western Europe, as well as given tools to help them minister to others.

Thousands of Ukrainian refugees are being taken in by a number of our centers and churches all around Europe. They are being fed and taken care of as more full time housing and living situations are being found. Kindergartens are being set up to care for the children to release their moms to find jobs. Many different means are being used to help children continue their education.

Several projects have been funded to buy and bake bread to feed hundreds in several different cities. Seed and fertilizer have also been delivered to farmers to help them not miss the planting season.

As the war has settled into a longer war on the eastern front, it is time to think of the future. Winter is coming quicker than we think, and we need to plan and work toward preparing for it. This week we will meet with a number of people in Ukraine to discuss the needs and strategies for the coming months. Would you pray for us, we need wisdom and the Holy Spirit’s leading. Thank you so much for your continued prayer and giving. All of the above has been due to your faithfulness!

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team (from Poland)

Family/Youth Camp Poland Lisa W.
Today I crawled under a table and sat with Sasha in his pain and God spoke to both of us.

We were having an activity reenacting Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000.
We had baskets with huge marshmallows as bread and colorful gummy fish, all flexible, sugar-coated and washed in blues, greens, reds and yellows. As we were handing out the sugary stand-ins for the 2 fish and 5 loaves, I saw Sasha run over to a table in the corner, crawl under and lean against the wall with a look of despair.

I went over to the table, got down on my hands and knees, peered into the most beautiful brown eyes and asked, “Sasha, what is wrong? ” He looked at me like his world had crumbled. “I didn’t get any fish and now they are gone”. Somehow, I heard so much more behind that simple statement. I could see the pain in his eyes, the fear, the reality that his 7 year old world was a mess and no 7 year old should have to try to comprehend war.

You see, Sasha is Ukrainian. He speaks Russian, not Ukrainian. He is in Poland with his grandmother living with a family that he just met. His parents are both in the Ukrainian military. They are both in active combat on the front lines in two different places. Sasha is in pain, he is confused. I heard one of the children today ask him if he is Russian because he doesn’t speak Ukrainian. I watched as he emphatically said – “I am not Russian, I just don’t speak Ukrainian, but I am Ukrainian, not Russian” The fierceness with which he responded caught my attention and broke my heart. Sasha is 7 years old. He should be catching frogs, learning to ride a bike, enjoying carefree fun. He should be swimming and eating ice cream and going on summer vacation with his family. He should not have to defend his nationality or make an excuse for the language he speaks. Sasha should not have to fear that a senseless war will take the life of one or maybe both of his parents from whom he has been separated now for months.

I left Sasha under the table and discovered that once again the fish were multiplied. There was indeed more rubbery jelly, colorful fish for Sasha. We found another bag of fish we had missed when putting the snacks out, or maybe God did multiply the fish once again. I grabbed two fish and crawled back under the table with him. His brown eyes lit up as I handed him the fish.

We sat in silence for a few seconds. He munched and gnarled on the taffy-like candy. I looked him in the eye and said, “Sasha, I know things are really hard right now”. He shook his head up and down. “I’m so sorry that your Mom and Dad are not here with you”. He shook his head again. “Sasha, I want you to know how much God loves you and He is with you right now and always will be”. He nodded his head. We sat in silence a little longer just looking at each other.

We crawled out from under the table to join the rest of the class. Sasha ran over to sit with some of the other boys as class continued.

My heart breaks for Sasha and the thousands of children like him.

Lord, please allow these children to know that you sit with them in their pain.
Please show them how you STILL provide and you WILL provide now and in the future.
Remind me again and again how important it is to get down on my knees,
look these precious children in the eye and tell them about your magnificent love for them.

From Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team