From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 415):
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Psalm 115:1
It’s Good Friday according to the Orthodox tradition, but there was little good for Ukraine today.
The Russian army shelled Sloviansk (Donetsk region), damaging 34 apartment buildings, 20 private houses, civil infrastructure objects, and 20 cars. 9 people died, and 21 were injured.
Later today, they launched guided bombs on a village in the Chernihiv region.
That was an intentional shelling of a residential area – an honorable act of the UN Security Council chair.
We’ve had much rain this spring, so floods are expected. Last year, the flooded river stopped the advance of the Russian army. This year, floods show record numbers in the past decade and caused a lot of damage in the areas that had suffered from the Russian occupation last year (north of Kyiv and Chernihiv regions).
The “Good Bread from Good People” bakery (which employs people with mental disabilities) distributes traditional Easter bread to the displaced people along the front lines. They shared the words of a family that evacuated from Bakhmut a couple of days ago, “We kept waiting and hoping that nothing like this would happen to Bakhmut. Yesterday, when we left, nothing was left of the city. We were leaving the city in our car with a white flag, but they shot at us. They were shooting from the apartment buildings. I don’t know how we are alive today.”
The bakery has already distributed over 6,000 Easter bread loaves. Check out their website to learn of the way you can support them – https://goodbread.com.ua/en-be
Voice of Ukraine 
2 responses to “4/15/2023 – “I don’t know how we are alive today””
Psalm 94
O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.
2 Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.
3 Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
5 They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
7 Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law;
13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
17 Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
18 When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.
19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.
20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
22 But the Lord is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge.
23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.
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What better response to the trials than Psalm 94! You see and hear the raging of the enemy–be a refuge for Ukraine!
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