Stabbed
I don’t remember a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection that I haven’t enjoyed. Each year, a group of us gather at dawn to remember the great “dawning of a new age” and to witness the sunrise. This year, the weather dampened our efforts to witness the sunrise, but we still shouted out “Christ is risen,” and, “He is risen indeed,” three times at the moment it should have poked an arc over the forests spread out before us. We always light a fire and read the victory story and then have coffee and buns. Traditions are good things.
This year we also gathered on Wednesday before Resurrection Sunday to remember the Lord’s death on the cross. Beautiful evening! Death brings life… what classical irony!
Vitya is in hospital! Last week, he was stabbed in the back by his drunk and angry brother. The consequences could have been a whole lot worse that they are. The knife went deep and passed between two internal organs and so as soon as they got him to the hospital, they opened him up and… were glad to have to fix nothing. He’s looking at a couple of weeks in hospital and a month off work, but he’s already walking around and the doctors reckon he’s doing fine. It shook him up a lot though and the pain of that sort of betrayal is fairly intense. My prayer has been that this would solidify his faith in Jesus and that he would discover how much God means to him. Vitya has been coming down to Rzhyshchiv each Friday after work for the last 8 months. It takes him over 2 hours to get here, but he’s been here just about every weekend, so we’ve gotten to know him even better than when he was a student here. He’s a nice guy with the strength of a bear contained under that shirt!
Talking about “bear”, Russia continues to flex her muscles at the border of Ukraine in a rather threatening manner. I’m sure you see the news reports. Today, I was talking with some shop-owners who could only assume that Putin was crazy in the head with all the guff he comes up with. I think he’s one crafty fella who wants the best for his country – and unfortunately, “the best” includes more parts of Ukraine and he’ll tell the world as many lies as he thinks is necessary in order to keep people guessing. He certainly doesn’t care if his reputation in the world is that of “Crazy Ivan”… just so long as he gets what he wants. To a large degree, we’ve got used to this limbo status – not knowing exactly what Russia will do. We see so many similarities to Hitler’s actions in the months leading up to the Second World War, that a good outcome is something few people are expecting round here. I’ve yet to talk with someone who expects no pain from this conflict. If God, through His mercy, desires to humble Ukraine, then it would be a wonderful thing to behold people seeking Him once again! So that is something for which we pray.
On the way back from visiting Vitya yesterday, I had to pass through a checkpoint at which were police and what looked like “self-defense” guys set up just outside the city near the international airport. Rather unsurprisingly, I had no desire to be stopped by the several police standing at the front of the point, so kept my phone down. But when passing the guys in cammo, I whipped it up and took this photo. The blonde draped in the Ukrainian flag holds a sign asking for donations, (that’s an educated guess as I didn’t actually read it), and the big sign on the ground reads “Glory to Ukraine,” and, “To the Heroes, Glory”. We still see no signs in Rzhyshchiv of the conflict occurring in the east. Will that change soon?
Olya is a lady in our church who has been with us for a good many years now. After several years of abusive care by alcoholic parents, she was sent to an orphanage for the rest of her educational life. Several years later, she became a Christian and spent time in the different churches in Rzhyshchiv before ending up in our fellowship. Her memory is profound and during Bible studies she is regularly looked to for a reference to a verse we want to look at. She lives by herself in a one-room apartment with communal kitchens and “toilets”. Several months ago, she chose to leave her council worker job after not being paid for a couple of months. She looked for other work, but found nothing, so we have her in to do jobs around our home once a week in order to keep her “afloat”. She’s a willing worker and we’re glad for her help. She will struggle come winter when she has to heat her apartment.
And I had to include this photo of Alexandra and Leila. I had to admire Alexandra when she answered in the affirmative when asked if Leila enjoyed the taste of the snail she was holding! I loved it! What an adventuresome mother!
