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| Yesterday at the MN State Capitol at a rally to support Ukraine |
Today as I was driving home from work, I was listening to the BBC world news report on the radio and thinking about Ukraine. I began to cry again as I have done on and off over the past couple weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine about eleven days ago. I have felt disbelief, anger, worry, and even a sense of “getting used” to the now present reality of a Russian war against Ukraine. We have prayed a lot since we heard these reports and admittedly I have been obsessed with news from Ukraine. We have tried to contact various friends and have talked with friends here in the U.S. who also worked in Ukraine. For my friends who do not know me well or have only met me recently, I care about Ukraine because we made Ukraine our home for two years beginning in 2004. Two years is a short time to live in a place, but we truly love the land and the people of Ukraine.
Though we experienced hardships when we lived in Ukraine, we remember our time there with much pleasure. We worked with a missionary team from Calvary Chapel at a church plant in Pryluki, a couple of hours East of Kyiv. We have so many memories of the beautiful friends we met there. The brothers and sisters in Christ we shared our lives with at the church helped to strengthen our faith in Christ and were beautiful joy-filled Christians. Many came from darkness into light when they met Jesus through the missionaries. We shared meals, Bible studies, and prayer meetings together. We sang together. We worshipped the Lord together. When our daughter, Elizabeth, was born while we were living in Ukraine, the ladies from church loved to hold and rock her. They loved her. I thank God for our friends in Ukraine.
We also loved the land of Ukraine. We bought a house because we were unable to find a place to rent. Our house was a special place that I will remember for my whole life long. It had so many fruit and nut trees, a very large backyard garden, and a small Summer house and root cellars behind. We made some improvements to the house by adding an indoor toilet, a new heating system, carpeting, paint, and a door to the bathroom. We also upgraded the electrical wiring, brought in cabinets, and added security bars over the windows. Many of these improvements were a team effort through the help of our fellow missionaries, especially Danny. Our neighbor ladies on both sides were such hardworking souls. They labored over their gardens and kept months of potatoes and cabbages and other root vegetables in their cellars for the winter. Once our neighbor lady, Maria, gave us a Pippi Longstocking doll that her granddaughter had bought on a trip to Sweden. The other neighbor once came over warning us that our two-year-old son was climbing the fire escape stairs to the attic above the house! We talked about vegetables and weeding gardens, and we talked about why we came to Ukraine - God. We felt their love.
Love is powerful. Love binds people together. I will always love the people and the land of Ukraine. I pray now for their peace, freedom, and especially the opportunity to worship God for all their days. I will continue to pray for Ukraine and check the news often to read about the war. Lord, have mercy on Ukraine.
