By Davide Amata

“It’s the first time I see so many beautiful people at a meeting like this”. Ivan Fadzeyeu is a member of the “flying community” of Communion and Liberation in Ukraine and he is describing his first experience at the Rimini Meeting. There are thirty Ukrainian volunteers and they come from Cervia every morning.

Misha, Ivan’s brother, says “I’m working at the Ristorante Bergamasco. It’s a wonderful experience where a lot of beautiful friendships are blossoming and all of this helps me to fully understand why I am here”. Another girl from Ukraine continues “The closeness with the friend from Bergamo has been going on from five years. They often come to visit us , or we visit them in Italy. Every year there are new fruits, we constantly feel embraced by them. We always bring home a lot from the Meeting, particularly the certainty to be loved and that we are not alone, here in Rimini the presence of God is evident and that helps us”. Drinking his coffee Misha goes on “ Given that the Meeting has changed our life in many ways, we choose to coincide the holydays of the community with it”. Even Anastassia Vestel, who is working as a guide in Mother Maria Skobcoxa’s exposition (Pav. D3), is astonished “ This is the first time I come to Rimini. I think what is happening is exactly what I needed. I have been wanting to come here for four years but something always happened that prevented it. The exhibition where I’m working tell us how a Christian should live, it helps me to understand myself better and I’m asking myself question I’ve never thought before. Mother Maria had a fire inside her, she gave herself to others until the end and she was really capable to walk on water, as the subheading of the exhibition says”. Anastassia doesn’t hide her worries for her country situation:” The political situation is complex, I’m concerned about the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian one. Here, I’m impress by the proof of the possibility of a dialogue among different religions. In Ukraine there’s a flying community formed by friends who come from Italy, Russia and Belarus”