Voice of Ukraine

From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (312th day of ruzzian invasion): The last two nights, our sleep was far from peaceful. Kyiv has been under drone attacks. Those drones are slow and they come in several waves/groups, so once an attack starts, it lasts 4-5 hours. On New Year night, 32 drones were shot over Kyiv, last night 41 – some were downed on approach to Kyiv, some – over the city. As our anti-missile defense was hunting them, there were multiple shots and explosions. I think last night planes were also involved, and the noise was hard to ignore. We know ruzzians can’t keep up for long the intensity of attacks that we have experienced lately, but we don’t know for how long they can. Tonight might still turn into another hunt for drones.

When I was in North Carolina in September I was iterviewed for the Urbana conference. The video crew came from another state so we were allocating half a day for the interview. Since it was not rushed, it was almost restful. I enjoyed the interesting questions Emily Wrocklage was asking. Several hours of our conversation have been masterfully turned into a 9 min video. Now that the video interview has been shown at the Urbana conference I can share it with other friends.

The title page says Faithfulness during a time of war. I suppose it implies the faithfulness of Ukrainian Christians. But more than anything this 10 months journey, ours personally and many other Christians’ in Ukraine, is about God’s faithfulness. That’s what we cling to during the nights when the air battles against enemy drones are raging above our heads.

The thing is we all have faith in something. If it’s not God, it’s something else. Before the war many people put faith in themselves, in relationships/connections, in financial stability, etc. But self-reliance fails in days of the war. Now many put faith in our army to protect us from the enemy and liberate our land. It’s not blind faith, our army has proven itself to be trustworthy, but so has God. God is the surest place for our faith, not as a magic wand that gives us all our wishes, but as a Creator who is in control of everything. We can trust Him to turn even the worst circumstances for our good. It is God’s faithfulness that we see in times of war more clearly, but of course, our faith goes through trials and grows during these difficult times.

58 days left till spring.