HOLDING UKRAINE
Ukraine 2025 Mission
(June 13th - 23rd)
When we looked back at 2024 and realized how GOD moved in so many lives, we thought how can we make this bigger and better for 2025. As we discussed planning, we realized that Holding Ukraine will be working in Ukraine for our 15th year and want to honor GOD in the best way we can. As we began to discuss and plan, we realized the plans were so much bigger than we could accomplish, but decided to proceed anyway, because , why not? If we lay this at the feet of our LORD and he chooses to bless it, we will work to honor HIM in the best way HE leads us. As the planning started, we have reached out to several people and several have joined on board with no hesitation. After hearing our story, some have approached us wanting to participate next year in our quest to honor GOD in Ukraine. We will need many partners to make this work as we continue the planning. We ask you to start in fervent prayer that planning, meetings, and details will come together, the LORD will provide funding to make the event happen, and we will glorify the LORD'S name in everything that happens. As the planning continues, we will start releasing updates and more details in the very near future.
Mission Trip June 2024, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine
In the first of two mission trips for 2024, Holding Ukraine sent the first team to the Kherson Region to work in several villages. With the help of our Ukraine partners Clear Vision Foundation, we were able to hold four eyeglass clinics in the villages of Mryne, Posad Provos'ke, and Blahodatne. These villages were brutally bombed during the war and resulted in most homes damaged and unlivable. In addition to the eyeglass clinics, we also worked with another partner, American missionary Kevin Smith and did several meetings to encourage small groups in the villages. One of the sweetest ministries we did came about at the last minute. We raised funds for a bike ministry that allowed us to purchase new bikes for the many seniors still in the villages without transportation. These were desperately needed to allow the seniors to use them to get to the city centers and the humanitarian aid, while many used them for all-terrain type walkers.
Mission Trip July 2024, Lviv, Ukraine
The second of two mission trips was sent to the city of Lviv and work with our partner Susan Habegger and Thrive Life Skills. Holding Ukraine was able to work with 51 attendees in a seminar focused on Regaining Your Identity. When everything has been taken from you and you have lost your community, your job, churches, church members, family, the place you bought your groceries and the very fabric of how you identify in your community, it can breed a sense of hopelessness. Susan taught this seminar to help them lead their families, their communities, their nation and all the internally displaced Ukrainian people. Thrive Life also did a ministry called Needle and Thread, just for the women to provide a safe place for sharing stories, while fingers weave the thread in and out. Hearts are expressed easily when eyes are distracted by the stitching movement. No one feels "on display" as hands are busy and ears are attune. Much of healing involves moving forward. However, there is a part of healing that comes from capturing treasured memories - allowing the tears and the joy to intermingle. These memories feed the soul and are preserved for the family - an essential part of their story. Where words sometimes fail, visual expression speaks the emotions of the heart. *Susan Habegger The last day was a time for families in the forest. God calls us to Himself through His creation. These families were grateful for the encouragement to "slow down" and take time to see God's beauty even when the world seems out of control.
The parents responded: "I felt a sense of peace when I entered the forest simply to breathe and enjoy God's presence." The children discovered the ability to put their discoveries onto paper and enjoyed the intentional time with family. There are many windows and doors to healing. We should not be surprised that God uses His very own creation to soothe and calm the hearts of His people and to open conversations that lead to knowing Him in new ways. *Thrive Life Skills
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