Voice of Ukraine

From Ira (Day 489):

Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
hold not your peace at my tears!
Psalm 39:12

We’ve had a very dry summer. As I water our plants, I can’t help but think about the people in the Kherson region whose lives were flooded and washed away after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
I fret over cucumber plants that are in no hurry to grow under the scorching sun, and my heart goes out to the people in the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson regions, and Crimea who lost their steady water supply as the Kakhovka reservoir was emptied and dried out.
I check on the “trees of resilience” that we planted over the past several years (the first trees were planted during the first covid lockdown in 2020 as we needed to ground ourselves amid anxiety, and we continued this tradition during the full-scale war), I admire their strength, watch out for pests, and think of all the gardens and vineyards that were destroyed by the flood.
I research effective ways to get rid of chafer grubs, moles, and shrews that destroy our harvest and am reminded that the people in the south of Ukraine had their whole lives destroyed by human vermin.

We know that God is faithful, yet it’s incredibly hard to see the cruelty brought upon our land and our people by the enemy. A year ago, the Russian army attacked the city of Kremenchuk with missiles. They hit a large shopping mall, killing 21 and injuring 77 people. Today, they hit the city again with the same missiles.
Kramatorsk was another city that suffered a missile attack today. They hit a busy cafe in the downtown area, killing at least four and injuring 42 people (as of now, the rescue operation continues).

Even when we go about our business, we are bombarded with flashbacks from the news, or stories we heard from our friends, or even our own experiences that remind us of the reality of the war. The war that will be ever-present for each of us until Ukraine wins and Russia is no longer a threat.