Dan and Pris Gollan

The unexpected so often happens.  Trusting God when the unexpected is inconvenient or unpleasant has a basic requirement:  that you know Who He Is.  I’ve noticed that those who feel like they can’t trust Him… just don’t understand that He is almighty and loving. 

A lot has happened since our last blog post.  Our lives have been turned upside down by the unexpected and unpleasant and inconvenient.  And yet, because we know who God is, our hearts are at peace.

Two weeks ago, my Father had a brain haemorrhage.  As soon as we found out, my sister, Jemimah, and I began to think and plan to come back to Australia.  God’s hand was on our trip and we arrived back here three days after his haemorrhage.  Our lives have been pretty much lived in the ICU ward and waiting room for the last week and a bit. 

Dad is doing well.  Time is yet to reveal how much the haemorrhage has damaged his brain and what sort of damage was done, but he is speaking, joking, walking, reading… albeit a lot slower than he was two weeks ago.  Yesterday, the docs took out what we’ve been calling his “brain drain” (hose sticking into the top of his head draining away liquid accumulating above his brain).  And today, they are comfortable enough with his improvement to suggest moving him out of ICU into a regular ward.  So, even though he isn’t “out of danger” yet, he is improving and seems to be improving rapidly.  We are thankful to the myriad of people who surrounded us and him with prayer throughout this.

The lie… not always insidious, but definitely always distasteful.  The poor sod who believes the lie… not always a drongo, but always deceived… and so always somewhat to be pitied.  I hate lies!  I’ve managed to break that 9th… probably quite a few times during my days on earth.  But I suspect that my love of the truth and hate for the lie has kept me many a time from wading into that morass.  God doesn’t approve of it – so neither do I.

To flip the subject:  It’s amazing what we will believe simply because we were informed of the “facts” and they fit our political world view or affirm our family allegiance.  For most of us in our town of Rzhyshchiv, the Ukrainian army can do no wrong.  They are “our boys”.  For many in the east of Ukraine, they hear stories of atrocities the Ukrainian army has committed, (including that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down MH17), and they naturally believe those stories because they “fit their world-view”.  In many instances, we believe what we want to believe.  The wise man; however, has learned to take note of the details and has been trained to think logically, and will often recognize falsehood. 

I don’t feel all that wise at times.  Knowing when I’ve been lied to isn’t my weakest suit, but I know I’ve been deceived a lot of times, too.  Wouldn’t it be good to carry around a pocket lie-detector?  Someone should invent an app for that!  Anyone want to be a millionaire?

We’ve all seen scenes of scorched airplane pieces framing a backdrop for armed men in battle fatigues.

The whole world is looking at the situation in Ukraine and shaking it’s collective head and collectively blaming Russia and her sycophants – the “Ukrainians” who want to be Russian.  For the families and friends of the 298, surely it shouldn’t matter who’s to blame.  But I suspect that for many of them, they feel as if it does matter and would like to assign blame to… President Putin. 

Assuming we have the right information…  The man who pushed the “fire” button thought he was shooting down a military aircraft, no doubt.  His fellow soldiers gave him mistaken information.  Putin himself, never intended for anyone to shoot down a passenger plane.  So for this specific tragedy, there was no evil intent.  And yet… we keep asking the question:  Who is to blame?  As happens every day in hundreds of places around the world, an honest mistake was made that had horrific consequences that resulted in loss of life.  But who is to blame?  Blaming Putin and others who have made immoral choices leading up to this tragedy is easy and in a sense, I’m sure that a percentage of the blame rests with them. 

Camp 120 news is very much overshadowed by the sight that greeted our eyes in the middle of our service today.  Vlad walked in with his wife and son and precipitated half the congregation breaking into tears and joyful celebration!  He received word on Friday that his name had been included on a list of prisoners who would receive amnesty.  He made a few calls and quickly got the documents together and was home by evening.  But what a memorable service we had together today…  incredible!  God has been good.  I will see him in a couple of hours as he said that he would join the boys today as we watch the Word Cup Final at 22:00.  He said that there are a heap of emotions running around in his head and he doesn’t know how to feel, but naturally, he’s glad he is home… as are we.

The camp…  Well, once again, I feel as if God was wonderfully gracious and protected and blessed.  So many people commented on how much they appreciated the teaching this year, so that was nice, too.  We taught about 20 people how to wake-board – providing them with an ability very few people in Ukraine can boast of, and they absolutely loved the experience!