From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 687):
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Genesis 12:2-3
Today, we talked with my students about Abraham and his obedience to God. He knew God and trusted Him enough to leave his country and his father’s house and go where God called him. There was no danger to Abraham’s life if he stayed (to be honest, quite the opposite was true), yet there was a promise of blessing if he obeyed.
Long after our discussion with the students was over, the passage about the call of Abraham stayed in the back of my mind, along with the thoughts about the challenges we, as adults/teachers/parents, face in Ukraine. Only when I sat down to write my daily update did I realize that these two thoughts were not coincidental. One was the answer to the other. In our lives, we don’t know what tomorrow holds, how things will turn out, or when God will restore peace and justice in Ukraine. However, one thing we can be certain of is that God wants us to follow His call wherever it may take us, and He is faithful to cover our needs and bless us as we faithfully persevere with Him. We may feel weary, uncertain, or unfit for the circumstances we find ourselves in, yet if God called us to be there at such a time like this, we can trust Him to take care of everything and bless us beyond our understanding.
I still find it incredible when God unexpectedly uses Bible lessons I prepare for my students to teach me something I need to learn today.
Voice of Ukraine 
3 responses to “1/12/2024 – God wants us to follow His call wherever it may take us, and He is faithful to cover our needs and bless us as we faithfully persevere with Him.”
A year ago:
Today’s picture – somewhere in the Bakhmut area. Photo by Nicole Tung
From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 323):
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4
There have been no significant changes at the front lines, but no big news doesn’t mean that personal tragedies are on hold as well.
Fighting in the Bakhmut area remains incredibly intense, with significant losses on both sides. The street fights in Soledar are unpredictable for both the soldiers and the about 500 civilians who stay there. You may not know this, but the name Soledar means “the gift of salt,” so someone played on it and said that the fighting there is the battle for “the salt of the earth.”
When the full-scale war started, they stopped the production of salt in Bakhmut and Soledar, and now it looks like the Russian army is fighting for access to the 200-kilometer (125 miles) long salt mines that have been in operation since 1881 and are one of the largest salt deposits in the world. These mines produced 95% of the salt consumed in Ukraine, so salt shortage was a serious issue in the spring of 2022. There is no shortage now – we have imported salt in stores, but I am reminded of the reality of war every time I reach for salt when cooking. Who knew that salt could be so different?
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Sharing your words with other Ukrainians
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God reminds us in ways we can’t ignore: “You are strangers on this earth. The earth and heavens will burn up. And you already died, with Christ. Therefore, set your hearts on things above, not on earthly things. Set your mind on thg he things of heaven, where Christ is. Abraham had opportunity to go back to his ‘homeland’. But he believed God’s promise and looked forward, to the city God Himself made. So God is not ashamed of him, because God HAS prepared for Abraham the city in heaven, New Jerusalem.”
(2 Peter, Colossions, Hebrews, Revelations)
“You died. Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossions 3
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