Suffering the Effects of Persecution in the Present in Ukraine

I am in Germany now, having arrived yesterday after five days in Ukraine. The Ukrainian trip was enjoyable, though physically challenging for me. We visited a number of elderly pensioners who were persecuted for their faith by Soviet communist authorities during the years of 1946-1990. Many of them are now rather sickly, forced to spend a disproportionate amount of their meager pension on medications. Additionally, prices have risen to on electricity and gas (both of which used to be quite cheap) and these elderly saints now find themselves in real financial need.

Since 2004, The Voice of the Martyrs has been assisting a number of these pensioners with finances to supplement their paltry pensions. Coming off of this trip, I realize that we will need to increase our subsidies rather significantly, given the increasing inflation and the decreasing health of those we serve. We will mention this more in upcoming editions of The Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter.

I would like to share some of their stories with you right now, but I hurt my right shoulder during our trip back to Kiev from Lviv over some rather rough roads. Hence, I am finding it rather painful to type. Here are the faces of some of the dear sisters that I met.