ILYA

Hello to all my friends...I have been trying to go to sleep since about 10:30 PM ...However the Lord knows that I needed to get this done, perhaps sooner than now, but absolutely no later....

I have sent many of you an email regarding ILYA...I again pray that YOU pray and follow what the Lord has planned for you...As for ILYA, asking for finances in a time of financial crisis seems well ironic!!! I know the Lord will have this boy come over and I know that I am blessed to be apart of the Lord's work on getting him over here...Please be apart as well...

Here is some of the letters that he has sent to MINE and it sounds like his very special friend...

I am asking all who I have sent this to, to please read this letter from a 20 year old boy in the Ukraine...Who could possibly be able to come to the USA and live with my family and work for very good friends ours and make real money for him and his family over the summer...

Please know that I know that our economy is also bad and that finances are tight...At least in my house they are...I ask that you do what is on your heart. I ask that you talk to people that you know that might be able to help this cause...I thank you for even reading this email...Denise

We only need $3,000 for him to get over here...anything helps, if you want to help financially It would be so amazing for this boy!!!

This is a letter that he has written....

I will tell you what was going on in my life all this time. I am studying good. I have almost all A on my subjects. I am still participating in different competitions and conferences. It is interesting to me. I am starting to understand better my future profession and read lots of information about marketing and branding. Now I can do marketing analysis on myself. Did I tell you that I was given a DVD player for good studying, a 10 best students got it, it is good because we didn't have a dvd before. I was working all the time since I came back to Ukraine. Firstly I was working as a customer support representative. One firm needed a man who understands English and can answer the phone calls, write email in English. I worked there for 6 month and I work only at night because when in Ukraine it is night – in US it is day and I talked to customers from the US. I was very tired and quite after 6 month as I was studying during the day and working during the night and had almost no sleep. Later I start working as trade agent, I was a representative of a tea company. I was distributing the production through the stores of my city. For now I am working as a merchandiser. There is a big crisis in Ukraine. Russian has raised gas prices so high that we have to pay much more, 3 times more. Our factories are closing, lots of people are without jobs. The inflation is 30% - it is very high, we don't earn that much and the salaries have decreased 3 times. It is so terrible. My dad is not working now, he had a car accident and has crashed his car and it wasn't insured. He worked as a taxi driver on his own car, now he has no car to work. We don’t have enough money and the banks don’t give loans now. I was thinking that he could find another job then we won’t need a car. Unfortunately he is not too willing to search for another job. My mom and I tell him to go and search but he says that he is too old. He is 57 now. So I think he can still work. He is a man and is not working, even his children are working and a wife because we need money for the family. Oh, I didn’t tell you my mom wanted to divorce with my dad. I was against it because then we had to sell our apartment and somehow buy 2. 1 for the dad and second for us. It was not really possible. My mom is working all day and earns only 70$ a month, she used to earn 200$ but now our government doesn't know what to do, factories are closing. My mom is afraid to lose this job. She is very tired of working and has migraine every other day. My sister is still working so do I. But it is getting more and more difficult for me to work and study. The bad thing is that we are spending more then we earn, we are losing our savings. You see our total income now is 400$ a month and we have to pay 170$ for food and 150$ for the house, and it is not including expenses for transport and others. I don't know what should I do in this case. I was writing to my host family asking for help, they told me that there is also a crisis in US and they will think about how to help me. I am happy that I have won that grant and am studying for free in the university. Lots of student have quite the university because they were not able to pay for it, and the banks couldn’t help. So this is good for me. I will send more pictures. I am still talking to a girl that was an exchange student in Spokane, she went with us to the Grand Canyon trip! She is studying in Kiev and we are talking on a telephone. All right. I think I have described you my life. If you have any question I would be happy to answer. Right now my only hope is to go the US and work there. I need 2800$ for tickets to the US and back + visa and insurance so I think that if I could earn more than that – that would be great. Talk to you later. Bye.




Another letter from ILYA:

I am so excited. I started praying every day, i am reading the bible and am listening the bible on a CD. Now I feel better, I am not as tired as I was before, I can can do more and more now. I just feel energy and a will to do something. I haven't this feeling for a long time. I think I am doing better on my studies. It is just exiting.

ILYA