Kotsiuba, Valentyn

Опис

Tell about your childhood, school, family, etc.

I spent my childhood in a village near the city of Mariupol on the shores of the Azov Sea. We spent a lot of time with friends at the sea, swimming and fishing. My father was a fisherman, he worked at a company that sold fish, and my mother was a housewife. After high school, I went to college and got a degree in mechanical engineering.

Where did you work? Was your work good? Were you happy with your job?

After my compulsory service in the army, I stayed in the city of Marupol. I worked as a passenger bus driver. The working conditions were not bad. I loved my job. After I retired, I worked as a security guard at an educational institution. When the full-scale invasion started, I was in Mariupol for some time. My family and I lived in a bomb shelter for two months.

Tell about your present life.

We were looking for opportunities to evacuate. Because our apartment, in which we had lived for more than 50 years, all our property, was completely burned down. There was a continuous horror around us, constant shelling, fighting, many people were dying. The evacuation was very difficult, long and dangerous. Finally, we got to Zaporizhzhia first, and then came to Kyiv. Now we are renting an apartment. We have small pensions. After everything we went through in Mariupol, we started getting sick. My wife now has heart and spinal problems. Treatment is also very expensive for us.

Have you accepted Christ? How long have you been following the Lord?

Our family prays and believes in God. At first we went to the Orthodox Church. We were constantly in prayer even when we were under blockade in Mariupol. We believe that He helped us survive and escape from that hell. We asked Him very much to help us get to a free Ukraine. He helped us in this.

Tell about one thing your sponsor needs to know about you.

I want my sponsor to know that I have worked honestly all my life and have the respect of my colleagues. Now nothing of what we have built up all our lives is left. We ask God and believe that there will be peace. We also ask for help so that we can live the rest of our lives with dignity.