From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 618):
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold.
Psalm 18:2
Today, we took my students on an educational tour. A certain part of the program would be in the darkness, so I had to explain to them that there would be nothing scary there and all monsters were not real and existed only in their imagination. In response, one of the students (trying to be witty) said, “But what about Russian soldiers? They are real, and they are monsters!” I had to promise them there would be no Russian soldiers during our tour, but their question, even if it was meant to be funny, disturbed me. That’s why I started to pray quietly for no air raid during our tour, no terrorist attacks, no provocations, and no other danger that Russia could have caused.
That’s a glimpse into an ordinary day in Ukraine.
Voice of Ukraine 
One response to “11/4/2023 – The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer”
A year ago:
Nov.21, 2022
“We all need His help but there are some people who live in a big trauma and God can use us to help them.”
From Lyuda (Day 272):
…November 21 is a Day of Dignity in Ukraine. We began to celebrate this day after the revolution of Dignity that started on this day 9 years ago.
..In the life of every country, as in the life of people, there may happen difficult periods. May the Lord bless all our countries and help us during trials to stand firmly on His Word with faith and hope.
In Christ,
From Lyuda (Day 271): Dear brothers and sisters, We start a new week with new plans and in a good mood. We start preparing for Christmas. This year all our holidays are not the same but Christmas is special. Like all churches we have our own traditions, we always had drama and special program on Christmas day. While I was thinking what we should do this year, our youth group took the initiative and told that they are already working at Christmas program. Though we can’t use holiday illumination as much as we usually did at Christmas, we still can make decorations, we can prepare special program and a number of events in the church dedicated to this wonderful season to bring the mood of Christmas to our community. It’s the season of gospel when we can share the good news very naturally greeting people with coming holiday. Christmas will be special this year.
We had a good worship yesterday, we had electricity and it was warm in our sanctuary. Four new people came to the church and I was able to talk to two new ladies. Tatyana is one of them. She came to our church in summer to receive a food bag and she visited our worship. Then she was busy and didn’t think about church. Last month she got sick and she began to think about God and to pray, she remembered a friendly atmosphere in our church and felt a desire to come and be with God’s people. As soon as she got better she came. It was nice to talk to her. She has three adult children and four grandchildren. Her husband is a former military man who went through Afghanistan war during Soviet Union time and she knows very well what PTSD is. Tatyana is very open and I hope she will enjoy the fellowship in our church.
After the worship we visited our new refugees, Larisa and Masha, at the clinic. Though we invited them to come to the group in the cafe on Saturday and to the church on Sunday, they don’t go out. Probably we should help them with the transportation. They are not communicative, they stay in their room all the time and don’t interact with other people who live in the clinic guest rooms. We will visit them again and I hope they will start coming to the group meeting that will be so good for them.
Please, pray for God’s healing work in the hearts of people. We all need His help but there are some people who live in a big trauma and God can use us to help them.
In Christ,
Lyuda
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