Pray For Our Ukrainian Brothers and Sisters

[Susan Cook]

43 minutes ago, Hugh O'D said:

 

Brother Splane once said that when asked about the GT he'd ask "What part of Great Tribulation do you not understand?"

 

1) If our neighbor doesn't have electricity neither will we.

 

2) We won't suddenly stop feeling upset when we see one's suffering from violence, famine or other disasters. Worse we won't be able to think anymore "I hope they get a resurrection".

 

3) As brought out in the recent WT our current understanding is that the following who aren't Witnesses will all be dead men walking:

 

A) Our family

b) Our friends

C) Our neighbors

D) Our co workers/ class mates/ business partners

E) Our Bible Students

F) Our Return Visits

G) That nice person in the shop who's always pleasant and helpful to us.

 

It is going to be a tribulation for us as well, I suspect part of the reason the Great Crowd aren't officially marked until then is to see how we handle that time.

 

Please don't get me wrong, everyone saying things like

has the right attitude. Jehovah's name is about to be sanctified which is wonderful. But it will be a tribulation.

Bro Herd just told us at the last AM , and I quote “ we have nothing to be worried about “ and that ‘ they will not find us “… where we are hiding 

 

The pictures in the Pure Worship book show us calm and in peace while the distress rages on..

 

Now, Maybe we get raided and rounded up.. and maybe not… but the message I’m getting is just stay obedient, stay faithful, pray, keep our cool… and it will all be over in the flash of an eye 👁 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Susan Cook

[coolbrz731]

On 4/7/2022 at 9:55 PM, coolbrz731 said:

We have wonderful news!  Our congregation got asked to take in refugees!  Our daughter sometimes gets scared and sleeps in our room.  That means we have an extra room for a couple!  Even a family, since the bed is a loft bed and we can easily buy a very nice inflatable mattress.

I just finished filling out the CO-4 Private Accomodations Offer.  They need pictures of the room they're going to stay in.  "ANNIE!  YOU NEED TO CLEAN UP THAT PIG STY OF A ROOM!  THE UKRAINIAN OR RUSSIAN REFUGEES WON'T BE ABLE TO STAY HERE IF I TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR ROOM THE WAY IT IS!"

Man, she cleans her room up fast when motivated.  

[lvj]

May Jehovah please hear the voices of our Ukrainian friends who pray to you on Memorial evening.

[lvj]

and Russian brothers & sisters.

[Michał]

After the Memorial today, I got an impresión that about half of our hall speaks in Ukrainian. Well, maybe that’s more noticeable than Polish, there were so many new faces I didn’t know who were our Ukrainian brothers and sisters and who were interested ones. Anyway, it was great to see smiles on everybody faces

 

I was shown some pictures of brothers and sisters in Ukraine who had Memorial on Zoom (because of the curfew). They were all happy and smiling. 

[Sofia]

2 hours ago, Michał said:

I was shown some pictures of brothers and sisters in Ukraine who had Memorial on Zoom (because of the curfew). They were all happy and smiling. 

 

[Thesauron]

Bro Herd just told us at the last AM , and I quote “ we have nothing to be worried about “ and that ‘ they will not find us “… where we are hiding 
 
The pictures in the Pure Worship book show us calm and in peace while the distress rages on..
 
Now, Maybe we get raided and rounded up.. and maybe not… but the message I’m getting is just stay obedient, stay faithful, pray, keep our cool… and it will all be over in the flash of an eye  

“When we consider the tribulation that this world has already experienced, such as in World War II when an estimated 50 to 60 million lives were lost, the coming great tribulation will be very severe indeed. It will reach its climax in the battle of Armageddon. That is when Jehovah will unleash his executional forces to destroy every vestige of Satan’s earthly system.​“ https://www.jw.org/finder?srcid=jwlshare&wtlocale=E&prefer=lang&docid=2009201&par=15

[Hugh O'D]

On 4/14/2022 at 12:32 AM, Sofia said:

If they have any sort of disability or at least 3 children they are discharged from army service

And today at our FSG we had a young Brother (Alexei, 32) from Ukraine who arrived in Ireland on Tuesday. He's from Kharkiv so a Russian speaker, apparently he was with the FSG yesterday too, not sure where he attended the memorial, the Elder and wife he's staying with are outside the territory.

 

Going by sister @Sofia I figured he didn't look like he had three children so he had some sickness. He said he had bad health but didn't elaborate and I wasn't asking. (His English is limited). But his brother is still in Kharkiv.

 

My son and I had our ministry plans set out but then this poor Brother was passed on to us so we worked along with him instead, ( I said to son he was now our top priority today). I think he enjoyed himself. There is a Russian language congregation in Dublin so he's still deciding which congregation he'll join but said he'll probably be with us tomorrow. I know

Priv-yit Hello

Spaziba Thanks

Dos vi Dan ya Goodbye

 

But I pronounce it all terrible. It was nice to work with him 

[Kiku]

27 minutes ago, Hugh O'D said:

Priv-yit Hello

Spaziba Thanks

Dos vi Dan ya Goodbye

Privet! Spasibo and Do svidan'ya

[Dages]

Kak' dee-eh lah? (How are you doing?)

Harasho (good)

[Hugh O'D]

1 hour ago, Hugh O'D said:

I know

Priv-yit Hello

Spaziba Thanks

Dos vi Dan ya Goodbye

 

But I pronounce it all terrible

 

1 hour ago, Kiku said:

Privet! Spasibo and Do svidan'ya

I also can't spell 😊 it's spelt as I'll pronounce it.

[Dages]

3 minutes ago, Hugh O'D said:

 

I also can't spell 😊 it's spelt as I'll pronounce it.

Всё хорошо

[Sofia]

4 hours ago, Hugh O'D said:

Priv-yit Hello

Spaziba Thanks

Dos vi Dan ya Goodbye

Dobre jen - good morning  

[Dhanyel]

11 minutes ago, Sofia said:

Dobre jen - bom dia 

And good afternoon in Russian  ! 

"Dobroye utro" It's good morning 😃

Edited April 16, 2022 by Jonadab

[Michał]

May I suggest this app:

 

😅

[Sheep]

As of today's meeting, we have a new couple in our congregation from Ukraine! They're staying with a brother and sister, the latter of whom is also from Ukraine.

 

Perhaps they were at the memorial last night too. But since I was only there on Zoom I wouldn't have seen them. Anyway, they are here for now, and their two children are coming in a couple of days.

 

!!!

[CharlieJ]

On 4/8/2022 at 12:55 AM, coolbrz731 said:

We have wonderful news!  Our congregation got asked to take in refugees!  Our daughter sometimes gets scared and sleeps in our room.  That means we have an extra room for a couple!  Even a family, since the bed is a loft bed and we can easily buy a very nice inflatable mattress.

This is great news. Did you find out how the process worked for this family, and how they were able to get a Visa to enter the US? I would imagine that it's not easy, since it's early in the process and we usually hear of our Ukranian brothers going to European countries more so than the US. 

 

[CharlieJ]

On 4/14/2022 at 9:26 AM, Kiku said:

Right now there is no compulsory draft for "clergy of registered religious organizations", what we are. However, we need to take 2 years and 3 months alternative civilian service at minimal payment. And this is now very poorly organized in many regions. Therefore, many brothers are in a state of waiting for the instructions of the authorities.

This is very interesting, thank you for sharing. 

Of course I would doubt that the government of Ukraine would actually treat all baptized men, women and children as members of the clergy, but it would make sense that they provide alternative civilian service options for our brothers who are of military age, or during time of war. 

It also makes sense what you are saying about waiting for instructions from the authorities. It must be very difficult for the government to process all of this while they are being attacked with missiles and a ground invasion. 

Love and prayers to our brothers in Ukraine 

[cme]

Now Russia is threatening the rest of EU and the world.  According to news on Yahoo.

[Hugh O'D]

6 hours ago, cme said:

Now Russia is threatening the rest of EU and the world.  According to news on Yahoo.

He's ex-KGB, that's what they do, instill terror via threats and violence. He hasn't been able to break Jehovah's people this way and he's finding it's not working internationally now either.

[Vinnie]

Experience from Zaporozhye region.

 My fellow believers and I decided to leave the occupied territory; there were 4 cars of Witnesses in the column.  The road was very difficult, in our car there was me with an 11 year old child, a sister with sons 24 and 12 years old.  There were about 30 checkpoints along the way, and at the last one, the cars of fellow believers were let through, but we were not, because cross-fire began. İt lasted for 3 hours.
 It was very scary, we prayed constantly, but at some point in our minds each of us said goodbye to life.  When it began to get dark, and heavy artillery went into action, the military turned our column around and sent us to a small remote village.  On the way there, terrible explosions were heard, and the sister was quoting aloud from her memory Psalm 23. This calmed us down.
 The village where we arrived was half empty, many houses were abandoned or closed due to shelling, people did not go outside and did not turn on the lights in the houses.  Our column drove through the whole village and stopped at the very last street.
 Two local residents seeing the situation went out and found places for women with small children to stay for the night.
 It became completely dark and cold outside, and we had absolutely no water or food left. We were very tired. We thought that we would have to spend the night in the car. Everyone had already found a place to stay, but we were the only ones left in the street.
 Seeing our situation, an elderly local man approached us and offered us to stay with him, and we happily agreed.  The house was large, clean, comfortable, the stove was heated, there was food.  This man immediately surrounded us with care.  We needed to contact fellow believers who managed to pass the checkpoint and report that we were alive, as they understood that we got into trouble.  There is no mobile service in this village, and in order to make a call, you need to climb onto the roof, which Sergey (the owner) suggested doing.  I went with him to the roof of the house to catch the signal. On the way, we had a conversation.
 Yulia: “We are so glad that we can stay with you, we are very grateful for your care!”
 Sergey: “I prayed that someone  would come, and I would be useful to someone!”
 Yulia: “We also prayed not to stay in the street. İ can see you are a believer. What God do you pray to?
 Sergei: “I pray to Jehovah God, I am a Jehovah's Witness!”
 Yulia: “I couldn’t believe my ears, I burst into tears and hugged him, saying that all of us are Jehovah’s Witnesses too!”
 I went into the house all in tears, and was constantly saying: “You won’t believe it, you won’t believe it !!!
Sergei took the Bible and the Watchtower with an article about the Memorial, went into the room and said: “I am your brother!”
 And then everyone burst into tears, and everyone rushed to hug him !!  And we cried and laughed at the same time.  At that moment, we all clearly realized that it was a miracle.
 It turns out that for many years he was the only Witness in the entire area of many villages, he had not seen his brothers and sisters for a long time, he had not experienced personal contact for a long time, he listened to meetings by phone.  He prayed that he would meet one of Witnesses.  And we realized that Jehovah brought us to him, for encouragement and assurance that Jehovah did not forget him, and loves him very much.  As for us, we realized that even when the situation seems hopeless it is necessary to maintain hope and trust in Jehovah to the end. Because he definitely  has a plan and knows the way out!

[Amygdala]

That's a beautiful experience! Is there a source? As I would love to share it.

[cme]

Bro. Vincent, thank you for that experience.  It gave me more faith!!

[Sofia]

3 hours ago, Vinnie said:

Experience from Zaporozhye region.

 My fellow believers and I decided to leave the occupied territory; there were 4 cars of Witnesses in the column.  The road was very difficult, in our car there was me with an 11 year old child, a sister with sons 24 and 12 years old.  There were about 30 checkpoints along the way, and at the last one, the cars of fellow believers were let through, but we were not, because cross-fire began. İt lasted for 3 hours.
 It was very scary, we prayed constantly, but at some point in our minds each of us said goodbye to life.  When it began to get dark, and heavy artillery went into action, the military turned our column around and sent us to a small remote village.  On the way there, terrible explosions were heard, and the sister was quoting aloud from her memory Psalm 23. This calmed us down.
 The village where we arrived was half empty, many houses were abandoned or closed due to shelling, people did not go outside and did not turn on the lights in the houses.  Our column drove through the whole village and stopped at the very last street.
 Two local residents seeing the situation went out and found places for women with small children to stay for the night.
 It became completely dark and cold outside, and we had absolutely no water or food left. We were very tired. We thought that we would have to spend the night in the car. Everyone had already found a place to stay, but we were the only ones left in the street.
 Seeing our situation, an elderly local man approached us and offered us to stay with him, and we happily agreed.  The house was large, clean, comfortable, the stove was heated, there was food.  This man immediately surrounded us with care.  We needed to contact fellow believers who managed to pass the checkpoint and report that we were alive, as they understood that we got into trouble.  There is no mobile service in this village, and in order to make a call, you need to climb onto the roof, which Sergey (the owner) suggested doing.  I went with him to the roof of the house to catch the signal. On the way, we had a conversation.
 Yulia: “We are so glad that we can stay with you, we are very grateful for your care!”
 Sergey: “I prayed that someone  would come, and I would be useful to someone!”
 Yulia: “We also prayed not to stay in the street. İ can see you are a believer. What God do you pray to?
 Sergei: “I pray to Jehovah God, I am a Jehovah's Witness!”
 Yulia: “I couldn’t believe my ears, I burst into tears and hugged him, saying that all of us are Jehovah’s Witnesses too!”
 I went into the house all in tears, and was constantly saying: “You won’t believe it, you won’t believe it !!!
Sergei took the Bible and the Watchtower with an article about the Memorial, went into the room and said: “I am your brother!”
 And then everyone burst into tears, and everyone rushed to hug him !!  And we cried and laughed at the same time.  At that moment, we all clearly realized that it was a miracle.
 It turns out that for many years he was the only Witness in the entire area of many villages, he had not seen his brothers and sisters for a long time, he had not experienced personal contact for a long time, he listened to meetings by phone.  He prayed that he would meet one of Witnesses.  And we realized that Jehovah brought us to him, for encouragement and assurance that Jehovah did not forget him, and loves him very much.  As for us, we realized that even when the situation seems hopeless it is necessary to maintain hope and trust in Jehovah to the end. Because he definitely  has a plan and knows the way out!

This has given me such a comfort 🥰😊🙏🙏 thank you ❤️

[Kiku]

2 hours ago, Woanders said:

That's a beautiful experience! Is there a source? As I would love to share it.

I know a Telegram channel with this and similar stories of brothers and sisters from Ukarine - "obodreniejw". But it's in Russian language.