Voice of Ukraine

From Lxxx (Day 121): Dear brothers and sisters, I came across the quote this morning that I want to share with you.
“Each day is a new day; a day to start with positive actions based on the blessings you have. A new day to recognize and give thanks that each and every blessing you have may be one or more or all that other people can only dream about” Byron Pulsifer. There are so many things to give thanks for.

The highlight of my day yesterday was a meeting with David and Julie Baugh, good friends who came to Ukraine to support us when we were making our first steps in faith. It’s amazing that they are traveling and came to Brasov for a few days. It was such an encouragement to see them and spend some time together. We had a walk in the old part of the city and had dinner in one of the restaurants there.

Every day I listen to the lectures of Odessa Christian university where I take different courses and yesterday it was interrupted by air alarm. Later Sxxxx told me that there were several air alarms in our town, too. Praise the Lord, there were no hits.

I received a message from my former student Julia, she was pregnant when the war broke out and went to Germany, last week she gave a birth to her son. She hopes that this new Ukrainian who had to be born far away from his home will soon come back to live in a new peaceful country.

I talked to my son yesterday. He speaks exclusively Ukrainian or English with me now, no Russian. Because we live in a Russian-speaking area of Ukraine, where people mostly speak Russian, we used to speak Russian at home. But now many people in our surrounding switch into Ukrainian, Sxxxx preaches in Ukrainian, during our church prayer people started praying in Ukrainian. We are experiencing many positive changes in our culture.

One of the important news for Ukraine yesterday was receiving a EU candidate status. Ukraine was striving for it for a long time. This issue was discussed a lot and there were so many arguments about it. On the one hand it’s moving west implementing democratic changes, dealing with corruption, having more opportunities for education and development of new technologies, but on the other hand it means accepting democratic values which are not always acceptable for Christians. In this situation it’s very important to have a strong position and unity of Ukrainian churches. Right now as never we feel that we are a Christian nation and we should do everything to grow and be strengthened in our faith and beliefs.

Let’s pray for our countries and for our impact as Christians on our cultures.

In Christ,
Lxxx