Voice of Ukraine

From: Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 863)

From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the Lord is to be praised!
Psalm 113:3

We’ve had an amazing few days at our school retreat, and we have two full days ahead! It’s been so refreshing to be with this wonderful community of people, praising God, having fun, and enjoying the peaceful surroundings. Our days are pretty packed with activities (and there’s also a screen-free challenge), so I barely had time to check the news. In this quiet place, with only birds chirping and frogs croaking (well, and kids running around and joyfully screaming), we heard no sirens or explosions, so the news seemed so different from our reality here.

At night, Ukrainian defenders shot down all 32 drones used to attack the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The night before that, they shot down 21 out of 22 drones launched at the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Poltava regions. It looks like no casualties were reported, but I can only imagine how many people were once again traumatized by hearing the explosions or spending the night in a bomb shelter.

During our retreat here, every day, we pray for Ukraine, pray for our defenders and their families, and thank God for this wonderful time together. What a blessing it is to have this peace amid the war, and what a blessing it is to know that Jesus is our peace in any calamity.