From: Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 1230)
O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
Psalm 30:3
In the past several months, thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home as part of the prisoner swap. It sounds like a reason to rejoice, especially since most of those who returned home were taken captive in 2022. Can you imagine spending more than three years not just in imprisonment but in constant torture and humiliation? Those who returned are thoroughly examined by the doctors and questioned to better understand their condition. When asked what tortures you had to go through, most list every single one on the list. And the list keeps growing as new details come up.
In the past two weeks, I read about at least two former POWs who passed away within a month after returning home. Their bodies could never recover from the tortures they endured. One may think that life finally becomes happy and careless when you return home, but this is just the beginning, and once the adrenaline is gone and there’s no need to resist anymore, the body just gives up.
Sometimes I wonder what our life will be like once the war is over, but part of me doesn’t want to know the answer because I’m afraid that too many of us would collapse from the enormous exhaustion and overwhelming sense of relief.
Voice of Ukraine 
2 responses to “7/8/2025 — “I will never get to hug my dad because he was killed in captivity.””
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Mark 15:16-20,22-28
The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him….
They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the Jews.
They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
Hebrews 4:15 & 16
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
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