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Responding to the crisis – Mobilizing resources – Bringing hope

5/5/2025 — I used to wonder how people could live in times of war…

From: Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 1166)

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Psalm 116:5-6

I used to wonder how people could live in times of war. Now, I am so grateful that you can truly LIVE even amid war. Our life is too complex to be painted in black-and-white. It includes a myriad of shades of gray and lots of splashes of vibrant colors.

Today, they reported that Ukrainian unmanned maritime drones shot down two russian jets. This is the first such event in the history of warfare. God works in mysterious ways.

Last week was a Fun Week at our school, and we had a theme to dress up every day. You should have seen the creativity and dedication of the staff and students (and parents, of course!). We laughed so much, and I kept wondering how this was possible during the war. Yet we choose to live!

We pray for Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Odesa, and other cities, large and small, that are heavily attacked almost daily. We interrupt our sleep because of the air raids. We keep our emergency bags close at hand because you never know when a russian missile might choose to hit your home. However, we keep on living!

We don’t take this life for granted. We know that our soldiers pay a high price for our lives, and for many of us, the “soldiers” are the people we know and love.
We know that our lives are full because of all the people around the world who pray for Ukraine and support our country.
We know that we can live because of the indescribable grace and mercy of the Lord.

I am grateful to be living here and now to know the fullness of life.

This is a beautiful photo of lilacs and the Vydubychi Monastery by v_s_h_t_l_k (found online).

Dal Stanton

2 responses to “5/5/2025 — I used to wonder how people could live in times of war…”

  1. Psalm 13

    1 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

    2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

    3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

    4 Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

    5 But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

    6 I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

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  2. An Excerpt from Letter 64 to his son Christopher, written while Christopher was serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War:

    “I sometimes feel appalled at the thought of the sum total of human misery all over the world at the present moment: the millions parted, fretting, wasting in unprofitable days — quite apart from torture, pain, death, bereavement, injustice. If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapour, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens! And the products of it all will be mainly evil- historically considered. But the historical version is, of course, not the only one. All things and deeds have a value in themselves, apart from their ’causes’ and ‘effects’. No man can estimate what is really happening at the present ‘sub specie aeternitaris’. All we do know, and that to a large extend by direct experience, is that evil labours with vast power and perpetual success –in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in. So it is in general, and so it is in our own lives…

    But there is still some hope that things may be better for us, even on the temporal plane, in the mercy of God. And though we need all our natural human courage and guts (the vast sum of human courage and endurance is stupendous, isn’t it?) and all our religious faith to face the evil that may befall us (as it befalls others, if God wills) still we may pray and hope. I do.

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