From: Ira Kapitonova (Day 743):
I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all that you have done;
I ponder the work of your hands.
I stretch out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 143:5-6
I noticed that I’ve had a few conversations this week about some memories from the past, from before the big war. It wasn’t something big, but it left me painfully longing for peaceful, carefree days. Even when I read my posts from a year ago, I can sense the difference and present fatigue.
Lord, have mercy! We beg for your miracle and a victory for Ukraine that would leave the whole world in awe of Your might!
Voice of Ukraine 
5 responses to “3/8/2024 – Lord, have mercy! We beg for your miracle and a victory for Ukraine that would leave the whole world in awe of Your might!”
From: Sergei Nakul (pastor of Big City Church in Kyiv and army chaplain): Uniform of Ukrainian Sich shooters (1914-1918)! The explanation is Mr. Reconstructor Віктор Заславський !
Ukrainian Sich shooters wore the standard uniform of Austro-Hungarian army color “Hehtgrau” – dark gray with a blue shade.
The characteristic headdress was “Mazepinka” – the hat is named in honor of the Hetman Mazepi. This hat is designed by Levkom Lepki based on the Austro-Hungarian cap and Cossack hats of the 17-18th century.
Small ahead characteristic V-neck on windows.
Also the element of unity was the kettle with
with loops of regiment (blue) color. It had a standing collar, overlapped upper and transparent bottom pockets, and a right-hand drive roller to prevent the rifle strap from slipping.
The kit also included pants with wraps, leather boots and chinel. Instead of heavy leather backpacks, Ukrainian Síchoví ríl іcíví wore shoulder-cloths. Also the kit of equipment included a waist belt with an Austro-Hungarian yarn, on which the summary, bagnet and sapernu spade was worn.
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3/1/2024 – Update from Belgorod Dnestrovsky
From: Lyuda Betina (Day 737): Spring has come. We look hopefully into the spring sky and enjoy the warm sun and spring weather. Spring has come. As we look hopefully into the spring sky enjoying the warm sun and spring weather we want the end of winter to bring an end to the war, but it’s probably not the time yet and we are comforted by the Lord and His word: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12
Now, when the situation at the front is quite difficult and requires a lot of strength and endurance, we pray for our military and try to support them as best we can. We pray by name for every soldier we know, send them messages, talk to them on the phone when it’s possible, find out about their needs. We collect help and send parcels. We know that our support is important and many people around do some special work for the army.
Some members of our church even organized a production process. Victor, Paul’s father, makes very special things. He uses a 3D printer to produce plastic details that the military orders from him.
Another family in our church makes canned meat and fish. They use their own special recipe and it turns out very tasty. We have received a lot of feedback from the soldiers, they really like this food.
I want to write about some of the soldiers that we support.
Paul had a small vacation and spent last week at home. He was in the church and spent some time with our youth. We see changes in him.
He used to joke and smile a lot. Now he has become serious and silent. War changes us all. Yesterday Paul went back to his position and we are waiting for the messages from him. He shares with us from time to time Bible verses that the Lord gives to his heart and shares his thoughts.
Dr. Anya is busy now with the formation of evacuation medical centers the task of which is to evacuate and stabilize the wounded before they are sent to hospitals. She has a good experience of such work since the time when the Kherson region was liberated. She does a lot of training and planning. She has to rush between her medical service and caring for her husband, who is recovering after a serious injury. But she never complains and always thanks for prayers and help.
We thank God that Ivan keeps serving in our town. He works with database and forms new military groups. It’s wonderful that he has the opportunity to continue his ministry in the church. Now he is very busy and we see him less often. But we are glad that he is here and can be a good example and encouragement for our youth.
Denis Dudkin is our friend and a brother in Christ, we call him often to find out about his needs and the needs of his group. He used to be a professional military man and served in the army but at some point of his life God called him to the ministry and he was one of the elders in Odessa Presbyterian church. At the beginning of a full-scale war, he joined the army again. Last week his group was transferred to the front line so they especially need our prayers now.
Viktoria is a military woman who serves in the scout group. They often go behind enemy lines on a special mission. We met her by chance, a good friend connected us with her. She was very careful in the conversation at the beginning and did not say anything about herself, but then she realized that we don’t need information about her. We just want to help. We began sending help to her group, she called us back her voice became warm and friendly. We told her that our church was praying and she asked us to send her and her friends something small that they can carry in their pockets when they go on a mission. We made the cards with the Lords prayer and Psalm 91 and little hearts that will remind them that God loves and protects them.
We also ask you to pray for the family of our counselor, George, who is a war veteran himself. All the men in his family are at war- his son Gleb, his grandson – Sasha and his son-in-law, who is Sasha, too. Please, pray for these men and for their wives, mothers and children.
Thank you for your prayers and support.
Please, send your donations to Pathway Ministries
E. Langston Haygood,D.Min.,Ph.D.
Pathway Ministries, Inc.
288 Huntington Parc Circle
Birmingham, AL 35226
(205)835-3325
http://www.pathwayministriesinc.com
In Christ,
Lyuda
P.S. There are photos of Dr. Anya’s group, the photo of our church men’s group with Ivan and Paul, the photos of jars with meat for the soldiers and product made on a 3D printer
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3/7/24
From: Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary
Text by: Pavlo Horbunov
Photo by: Dmytro Larin
When I was tasked with sharing thoughts that would help make sense of a full-scale war in Ukraine, I faced a number of challenges. First of all, a reflection of such a traumatic experience is better given on the side. We’ve experienced too much pain to claim objective assessment with minimal emotion and focus on numbers and analysis. Personally, my emotions are zaškalûût ть, so I’m not objective. Secondly, reasoning requires qualification and understanding, and I’m nowhere near an expert. I have to admit, I’ve been bugging this word lately. Dont know why (! ), but I noticed a dislike for this status. Another expert opinion? – Get out! I guess it’s time for me to go to the brain right. Then, I’m so tired of everything that I just don’t have the strength to think deeply. In the end, full-scale war is an event that is simply impossible to comprehend. I don’t mean cause and effect, but the experience of pain that cannot be reconciled with sanity, bordering on madness, inhumanity, and even the attempt to deny validity, because the brain continues to claim that this should not happen in any universe with moral landmarks. Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, and many other cities forever recorded messages on the pages of their history that I can’t read out loud or about myself. To be honest, I’m already starting to regret taking this little project. Tried to invent excuses and even found good reasons, but none of them turned out to be enough to refuse. That’s why the text will still be. In it I will share thoughts that are relevant to me personally. This will be a set of theses, not a whole agreed article. So it’s easier to express thoughts, and that’s all I can do now.
For some it’s a war, and for some it’s an inconvenient event that ruins all plans. That’s how it always was and will be. You look, someone in the country is at war and he is putting all his efforts into winning, and someone seems to have no war, so he is just waiting. Unfortunately, here it is validity. However, it is not worth to be very upset, because most people in Ukraine continue to fight for their freedom and do not wait for someone to do it for them. I chose to be inspired by examples of conscience and responsibility, rather than upset by examples of indifference.
Peace is worth the fight. Evil will never be destroyed in this history. Is it worth the fight then? Shares, revolutions, victims, evil, pain, hopes that are doomed to disappointment. So much strength and fight. So much suffering, human life, destruction. Is it worth fighting at all? Is everything hopeless? My answer is definitely worth it! Whenever evil strays from it’s positions, even for a while, it’s worth the fight, otherwise it’ll swallow everything around. This struggle not only represents a purpose, but is our identity. Good people, God’s people, strong, real, whose back is held by the spine, not the jellyfish mass, just can’t do it any other way. When they see evil, they react. All our struggles reveal who we are.
I had a traumatic experience as a kid. Now you need to focus and visualize this situation, otherwise you won’t understand me. In 1992, a wonderful animated movie “Aladdin” was released. It caused many unforgettable experiences and, of course, it ended with a happy ending. When the sequel to Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar was released in 1994 there was something else besides the questionable quality, and I was emotionally struck by it. It took a while to process what happened. Just now I was struck by lightning: I realized that there was actually no happy ending after the first part of the cartoon. If the challenges and struggles continue and on, and their in Aladdin 2 was a lot, so after the happy end comes the next struggles and challenges. It will always be like this as long as there is a sequel. For my young mind, which was not yet strengthened by the formative influence of the theological thought of the legendary Erikson and Grudem, it was an incredibly painful blow. Painful but he pushed to grow up. This experience began the formation of a fundamental Biblical statement – as long as this world exists, the fight continues, and the good always must be fought for. And yet the struggle that lies before us does not diminish the former achievements, even if very difficult.
Our struggle is not only spiritual, but also physical. In the novel “Perelander” by C. S. Lewis, the main character Ransom, is tasked with warning the sinfall on the planet Perelander, so that it does not happen as on Earth. God’s angels execute Ransom on Perelander, but do not explain what he has to do there. Arriving on another planet, Ransom encounters “Eve” Perelander, who Weston, an obsessed Earth scientist, tries all sorts of cunningness to persuade not to obey the Creator. Ransom, on the other hand, defies Weston’s claim, but he is doing a bad job: a pleasant lie is easier to promote than an uncomfortable truth. Ransom doesn’t know what to do, but desperately asks: “Why doesn’t a miracle happen?” “. Perekazuvati Lewis can’t, you have to read the original, so straight to the point. Overcoming a heavy battle in his mind, reminiscent of Christ’s struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, Ransom realizes that he is the miracle, and that through him God is turning things around. All he has to do is box a human shell with demons living inside. The hero says to himself: “Well, the battle with the devil can be exclusively spiritual… Only the savage will come to the mind of navkulački fight him.
“If only it were that simple.” In the end, it’s all really so simple: he just has to fight his fists with the devilish force: “He realized with horror that the physical action that was needed from him had meaning and hope.”
I am even more convinced that the Christian community often does not give due attention to the theology of creation. In the Biblical narrative, the world is not so roughly divided into spiritual and material – it is all part of the same. “our fight is not with body and blood” Apostle Paul (Ef. 6:12) Applies to methods, not spheres of influence. Physical warfare does not elude physical Christians. So, if the enemy comes into our home to kill our loved ones, we should give him a cut off with “love” and also so that different foolish thoughts do not return to his head for a long time.
We need a fight that has red lines that we will not go out for, otherwise we will destroy ourselves. We have a good purpose, but the methods may be different. Some methods meet our goal, and others question the whole sense of the fight. This is what I’m talking about, so we don’t drown ourselves in pride, hate and cruelty. How to do this, how to protect myself from these demons in times of pain, fear and darkness, I honestly don’t know completely. But I know that it is necessary to do, otherwise we will lose ourselves, we will lose what it means to be human, we will stop being Ukrainians. There is a cancerous tumor, so it needs to be removed. Let the scalpel continue to be a weapon of surgical intervention and not over time become a weapon of robbery and violence. P.S. Good results can’t be achieved with mats.
This is so true for people. For some time I was in favor of moderating information reaching the masses in the context of war. It seemed to me that you shouldn’t give people “hard” facts, because not everyone is ready for it, not everyone is emotionally mature, so tact and thoughtfulness are needed. Today I am convinced: If our leaders expect us to perform conscious and responsible actions, then they should treat us like that and share the information with conscious and responsible citizens. There is an absolute sign of equality between the parties. There will always be people with the philosophy of life “my house is on the edge” but most are ready to fight for their freedom and they deserve hai scary complex but truth. Only knowing the truth can you act right. Half-truths calm down at first and then kill.
Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” although a “fairytale” (expressed in the language of ignorance capable of seeing benefit only in the television news or newspapers), actually contains many amazing truths about the meaning of struggle, courage, suffering, hope, let not even for oneself.
Gotta keep moving on regardless. The war continues and now is not the time to stop – it will be later, sometime in the future. Not the time to rest (no extremes), not the time to go deeper into the experience of your own pain (no extremities). I lost a friend. His name was Shostak Andrew. He died defending the people of Ukraine. I still can’t say goodbye to him, even though I was at his grave. This experience, I hope, will be after the war as well, but in the meantime we can only wait. What do we do with all our pain, fatigue and uncertainty? I don’t know in details, I don’t have many answers neither for myself nor for others, but I’m sure of one thing – nevertheless I have to move on. L. Krabb in “Adam’s silence” says courage isn’t always success, but always movement. For me, this definition is very relevant now.
Moving on helps me God’s support and God’s word because I fight not “like others who have no hope” (1 Sol. 4:13). My loved ones and friends help me to complete my journey, without whom I would probably have stopped. I hope you have this superpower too. I really got lucky with this one.
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Rom.8 “I [the apostle Paul] am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor powers, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us [Christisns] from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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3/1/2024 – Update from Belgorod Dnestrovsky
From: Lyuda Betina (Day 737): Spring has come. We look hopefully into the spring sky and enjoy the warm sun and spring weather. Spring has come. As we look hopefully into the spring sky enjoying the warm sun and spring weather we want the end of winter to bring an end to the war, but it’s probably not the time yet and we are comforted by the Lord and His word: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12
Now, when the situation at the front is quite difficult and requires a lot of strength and endurance, we pray for our military and try to support them as best we can. We pray by name for every soldier we know, send them messages, talk to them on the phone when it’s possible, find out about their needs. We collect help and send parcels. We know that our support is important and many people around do some special work for the army.
Some members of our church even organized a production process. Victor, Paul’s father, makes very special things. He uses a 3D printer to produce plastic details that the military orders from him.
Another family in our church makes canned meat and fish. They use their own special recipe and it turns out very tasty. We have received a lot of feedback from the soldiers, they really like this food.
I want to write about some of the soldiers that we support.
Paul had a small vacation and spent last week at home. He was in the church and spent some time with our youth. We see changes in him.
He used to joke and smile a lot. Now he has become serious and silent. War changes us all. Yesterday Paul went back to his position and we are waiting for the messages from him. He shares with us from time to time Bible verses that the Lord gives to his heart and shares his thoughts.
Dr. Anya is busy now with the formation of evacuation medical centers the task of which is to evacuate and stabilize the wounded before they are sent to hospitals. She has a good experience of such work since the time when the Kherson region was liberated. She does a lot of training and planning. She has to rush between her medical service and caring for her husband, who is recovering after a serious injury. But she never complains and always thanks for prayers and help.
We thank God that Ivan keeps serving in our town. He works with database and forms new military groups. It’s wonderful that he has the opportunity to continue his ministry in the church. Now he is very busy and we see him less often. But we are glad that he is here and can be a good example and encouragement for our youth.
Denis Dudkin is our friend and a brother in Christ, we call him often to find out about his needs and the needs of his group. He used to be a professional military man and served in the army but at some point of his life God called him to the ministry and he was one of the elders in Odessa Presbyterian church. At the beginning of a full-scale war, he joined the army again. Last week his group was transferred to the front line so they especially need our prayers now.
Viktoria is a military woman who serves in the scout group. They often go behind enemy lines on a special mission. We met her by chance, a good friend connected us with her. She was very careful in the conversation at the beginning and did not say anything about herself, but then she realized that we don’t need information about her. We just want to help. We began sending help to her group, she called us back her voice became warm and friendly. We told her that our church was praying and she asked us to send her and her friends something small that they can carry in their pockets when they go on a mission. We made the cards with the Lords prayer and Psalm 91 and little hearts that will remind them that God loves and protects them.
We also ask you to pray for the family of our counselor, George, who is a war veteran himself. All the men in his family are at war- his son Gleb, his grandson – Sasha and his son-in-law, who is Sasha, too. Please, pray for these men and for their wives, mothers and children.
Thank you for your prayers and support..
In Christ,
Lyuda
P.S. There are photos of Dr. Anya’s group, the photo of our church men’s group with Ivan and Paul, the photos of jars with meat for the soldiers and product made on a 3D printer
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