From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 484):
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18
The hot weather adds to my emotional weariness, so I limit my checking news and focus on the tasks at hand. However, the reality of war keeps chasing you no matter how hard you try to hide.
I witnessed a conversation between my son and my niece. Both haven’t really been home since the beginning of the full-scale war, and both dream of returning to Kyiv:
— Wouldn’t it be nice to be back in Kyiv?
— Yes, but we’d have to wait for the war to be over. It was not safe there.
— Yes, but we can go to the countryside near Kyiv. It’s nice there. But it’s still dangerous during sirens. But we can hide in a small nook under the stairs.
— Yes, it’s best to hide in a safe place away from the windows.
— Yes, stay away from the windows because the enemy might see you! But our nook is far from the window, so we’ll be safe there!
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. No child should have conversations about the best place to hide during a missile attack. I can handle a lot of things, but conversations of our children, the children of war, make me lose it.
Voice of Ukraine 
2 responses to “6/23/2023 – No child should have conversations about the best place to hide during a missile attack”
Isaiah 64
1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
2 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
12 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
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I agree, Ira; no child should go through this. Thank you for sharing the painting inspired by Oleksandra’s story.
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