17 years ago a young Ukranian teenager came to Staples, MN as a foreign exchange student and attended Staples Alliance Church, where Unterwegs host Mike Picconatto was pastoring.
2 years later she returned to Staples again - and thanks to the wonder of email and Facebook Ira and the Picconatto's have remained in touch. Ira is one of the first people we contacted after war broke out on February 24th.
Ira has been posting insightful and inspirational daily updates on Facebook.
Ira spent an hour with Mike on Zoom from Ukraine on Friday, April 1. This is the first part of that conversation. In this episode we talk about family, her son's experience, expected military service, and where the family is finding hope.
Resources:
CAMA Services - https://camaservices.org
The following links come from Ira:
Ukranian Education Center - https://www.uecandme.org/
Youth With a Mission Kyiv - https://ywamkyiv.org/
Ukraine Relief Fund - https://reliant.org/ukraine.relief.fund
About the Guests:
Ira Kapitonova is married, has a son, and lives in Kyiv. You can see her posts on the war on Ukraine here.
Credits:
Regular Theme music by Mike Picconatto
Unterwegs is a production of Envision Berlin, e.V. and Envision Berlin and is recorded at Sprig: Envision Berlin's creative space.
Cover art: Rachel Norton
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