From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 398):
The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
Psalm 98:2
If I had to describe the past few days with one word, I would choose “hope.” This word has been used in so many teachings and conversations that I’m afraid I cannot list all of them here.
Have you ever thought that faith is impossible without hope, for it is “the assurance of things hoped for” (Heb 11:1)? This seemingly obvious truth became a revelation to me when I heard the teaching shared by Tom Bloomer. How do you keep the faith and keep hoping when God is in no haste to answer your prayers or chooses to leave them unanswered? One of the ways is to keep reminding yourself about God’s faithfulness in the past. That’s why I’m so glad I have this journal, and I was stunned to discover that I shared the same verse (Heb 11:1) on this day a year ago!
A year ago today, I thanked God for His faithfulness – for shielding our skies (that day, out of 70 missiles, only 8 hit ground targets); for the courage of people in the temporarily occupied cities as they kept showing up for peaceful protests; for the incredible love and care provided to Ukrainian refugees abroad. I can echo those gratitudes today.
Today, I had the privilege of translating an amazing teaching by Jeff Fountain. Among other encouraging (and challenging) things, he spoke about moments of grace – moments in history when the circumstances looked grim, yet God chose to show His grace and bring powerful changes. We see examples of those moments of grace in the reconciliation between France and Germany post-WWII (which resulted in what is known as the EU today), the fall of the Berlin wall, and the collapse of communism in Europe (which had its unique stories in the Baltics, Poland, Romania, and Czechia (Czechoslovakia at the time). Jeff challenged us to look at our present wartime circumstances as a moment of grace – Ukraine did not fall within the first 72 hours of the invasion (as hoped by the Russians and expected by most), we have tremendous support from the whole world, and God can use (and already is using!) this tragedy and pain for His glory! What a great hope, yet it’s one that requires a lot of faith…
Inspired by these messages, I choose to praise God and look for hope in today’s news:
- last night, Russia attacked Ukraine with kamikaze drones, and our air defense shot down 14 drones out of 15 that were launched
- Germany supplied the first 18 Leopard tanks. I remember days when all the experts were saying that it was hopeless to ask for modern tanks. We keep hoping and asking for military aircraft now
- the situation around Bakhmut remains severe yet stable. This city has been under attack for almost 9 months, 4 of which have been incredibly intense, yet the city keeps standing by God’s grace.
Voice of Ukraine 