The following is copied and shared with permission and reflects a deeply personal  perspective forged amid the daily suffering and sacrifice caused by the war in Ukraine.  This update is offered to inform and encourage your prayerful support for all who are affected by this tragedy.

If you would like to help us with humanitarian aid efforts you can donate through our  website https://ipministry.org/donate/. The needs are growing as we keep helping thousands of people to move west within Ukraine and also helping those who want to leave the country temporarily. We need funds most of all for gas, but also for food and various supplies (medical, bed linens, mattresses, etc). Thank you.                        

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Updates from Alex Zaytsev :

Please continue to pray for Ukraine and the Donetsk Area where I am.
Shelling has gotten worse, but the defense of the Ukrainian army has also increased. Due to foreign weapons coming in, and increasing skill of Ukrainian soldiers, there have been multiple direct hits to russian weapon storages. 

Thanks to the generosity of donations, and the organisations that I partner with, we are able to deliver not only food, but also fresh bread, gas canisters, fuel, hygiene products, medicine, gift boxes for kids, candles, flashlights, etc.

Angela (the volunteers in our church, who was wounded by shrapnel) has recovered enough to go to a hospital in a bigger city for the completion of her recovery.

People are not very eager to evacuate, but there are a few that we helped evacuate.

Over 100 people come to our church services. And the number did not go down this past Sunday when we were unable to give out food packages.

I am beginning to feel the effects of burnout, so I have slowed down a bit, and find time for rest. Please pray for me. And continue to pray for all of us here.



July 18th we distributed food in the village of Ocheretino, to people who live in basements. Please pray for their safety. But especially for their repentance.



Summer camp for internally displaced kids - Uman church "Resurrection of Christ"




Update from Maia from July 13, 2022:

2960 missiles were shot at Ukraine by ruzzian invaders since the beginning of the invasion. Today there were missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. Kharkiv is under ongoing shelling, and Donetsk and Luhansk regions continue being leveled to the ground. In the town of Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region rescuers continue to recover bodies from the ruins of a residential building hit by ruzzian rocket. The latest count is 48 lives, one of those is a short life of a child.

If I asked you to come up with associations for the word “children” you would probably say: fun, happiness, joy, play, games, carefree, future, and hope. But if you think of Ukrainian children in 2022 you would be remembering destroyed schools, bomb shelters, separation of families, fear, loss of friends, relatives, homes, security, evacuations under the shower of bullets and shrapnel, ruzzian tanks hunting teenagers on the streets with high caliber guns just for fun, ruzzian soldiers raping kids in front of their mothers and raping mothers in front of their kids. On our humanitarian aid trips, we hear too many horror stories directly from kids telling how they were begging for the lives of their fathers on their knees or how they watched their fathers bleed to death.

Our Uman church “Resurrection of Christ” works with hundreds of internally displaced families. They have been getting waves of people fleeing the war – first from the Kyiv region, then Kherson and Mariupol, then Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions. There are hundreds of kids, hurt and scarred by war. Hearing their stories you would think it’s impossible that a smile will ever cross this child’s face. But kids are resilient!

This is the second Day Camp Uman church is doing this summer. This time more than 100 kids participate. They have a chance to be kids again, to just dive into fun and games, and even for a few hours to forget all the horrors they came from and all the uncertainty of the current situation.

Thank you, friends, for helping to sponsor these kids! You are making a difference! They are not only getting distracted by fun, but they are hearing the gospel. The theme of the camp “Be Brave”. Here are some photos from the first couple of days. The first day was centered around David and Goliath's story, on the second day kids learned about Daniel. Pray that these stories and this camp experience will bring healing to these kids who have been through a lot.

There are plans to have more camps like this in Uman and in other churches if funds become available. It cost $35 for one child to take part in a four-day camp. You can donate through our ministry - https://ipministry.org/donate/. Next week we also plan to have a mini-camp, a one-day program for kids in one of the villages in the Chernihiv region where we are taking food packages.

Please, keep praying for safety during these camps. It’s a day camp – parents wouldn’t want to be separated from kids for the night. But even during daytime, we have air raids. Please, pray for God’s protection.

On the 140th day of war, we are praying Psalm 140.

Rescue me, LORD, from evildoers;
protect me from the violent,
2 who devise evil plans in their hearts
and stir up war every day.
3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s;
the poison of vipers is on their lips.[b]
4 Keep me safe, LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
protect me from the violent,
who devise ways to trip my feet.
5 The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
they have spread out the cords of their net
and have set traps for me along my path.
6 I say to the LORD, “You are my God.”
Hear, LORD, my cry for mercy.
7 Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer,
you shield my head in the day of battle.
8 Do not grant the wicked their desires, LORD;
do not let their plans succeed.
9 Those who surround me proudly rear their heads;
may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
10 May burning coals fall on them;
may they be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, never to rise.
11 May slanderers not be established in the land;
may disaster hunt down the violent.
12 I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.
13 Surely the righteous will praise your name,
and the upright will live in your presence.

Maia's Update July 20, 2022:

147th night of ruzzian invasion.
Today we prepared food packages for tomorrow's humanitarian aid trip to the Chernihiv region. We would appreciate prayers for our trip. We are going to join in with a team from Uman church and another team from Protsiv (Kyiv region). Uman team will be doing a special program for kids in one of the villages. We plan to distribute food in 2 villages.

Praying Psalm 147:1-11. May we be the ones who put hope in His unfailing love!

1 Praise the Lord.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6 The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.
8 He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.
10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.


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Please share these updates with others. I have added direct links to our email, our website, and to the IP Ministry Journal on YouTube to the bottom of this page. Your prayers are precious to us. Thank you!

In Christ,
Brandy Ezzell
International Partnerships