From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 565):
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
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine reported about a great special operation. Its forces took over oil and gas drilling platforms off the coast of Crimea in the Black Sea. The platforms had been under Russian control since 2015 and were used as helicopter landing and Black Sea surveillance sites during the full-scale invasion. The intelligence services group carried out a complex operation and even managed to capture valuable trophies: a stockpile of helicopter munitions and a radar that can track the movement of ships in the Black Sea. Control over these platforms will strengthen Ukraine’s presence in the Black Sea and make it slightly safer.
When I read this report, I thought about the story of Job. When it seemed like God had abandoned him, the Lord was watching him closely and rewarded him for his faithfulness with abundant blessings. Similarly, when Ukraine’s counteroffensive might seem slower than hoped for to some, we don’t know what’s actually going on. It might seem like I am comparing our Defense Intelligence to God, but that’s not true. However, I know that the Lord is behind every successful operation of our military — He is the one who gives wisdom in planning and skillfulness in the field, He is the one who confuses and blinds the enemy, He is the one who has overcome evil once and for all and waits until the day when we also will be able to embrace it fully.
He is faithful even when the trials and circumstances scream otherwise.
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.
Psalm 115:11
Voice of Ukraine 
4 responses to “9/12/2023 – He is faithful even when the trials and circumstances scream otherwise…”
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MTW Ukraine is getting more requests for med kits, vitamins, and winter wear right now than any other time in the war.
It’s been just over a year and a half since the Russian invasion that launched the war in Ukraine. The Church has responded generously by giving materially, financially, and spiritually. You responded to Crates for Ukraine, the first and second iterations, by over 62 tons of aid, valued at over $3 million. All of those crates pass through the Lviv aid warehouse, where it is unpacked and sorted by a team from the local church. The crates are then sent to the greatest areas of needs on the front lines.
The MTW Ukraine crisis team is getting more requests for medical kits, tourniquets, vitamins, and winter wear right now than any other time in the war. We saw a generous response to the second Crates for Ukraine effort, but that aid is running out. Because of that, this fall, MTW Ukraine is launching Crates for Ukraine 3.0
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Hebrews 12 Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [testimonies of God’s power, faithfulness and goodness in good and evil times: Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, etc, etc] let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our trust.
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J.R.R. Tolkien, veteran of WWI and WWII, believed in happy endings.
He used the term ‘eucatastrophy’ for the turning point when evil falls, impotent, its plots and power destroyed. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, he writes, is the eucatastrophy of history. His own writings show the power of evil, both in might and in temptation, but his writings also show the Christian faith in strongholds of goodness, defended by heroes in humble disguise (Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, Tom Bombadil), the Christian faith in the ultimate destruction of evil, by the will of God: “I can put it no plainer than to say that you were meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker… there are other forces at work besides the will of evil.”
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