Today When the War Began
You have woken up and tuned in here, as well as to the news site you normally visit for news. If you read this and then take a minute to pray, we thank you.
I won’t include any pictures in this post. You, no doubt, can get you fill of those from the internet.
Rzhyshchiv is an unlikely target for missiles. We are little more than a village (8,000 people). But we do hear the missiles falling and see the jets flying overhead.
The power station, (30 clicks north from us), us was bombed just a couple of hours ago and the report is that is has been under attack since then. Ukrainian tanks have taken up position around it, so it won’t be taken easily. We still have electricity… but reality says that if Russia targeted it once, they will target it again and I suspect that sometime over the next day or two we’ll “go dark”. If I keep on posting here, you’ll know that I was wrong.
By the time you read this, there is every likelihood that Russian troops will be on the outskirts of Kiev. They have come in from the north. It’s being reported that Russian ground forces have already landed near Kiev. We will see what sort of fight the Ukrainian lads can put up, but reality points to a fairly quick resolution.
Today, we gathered at the church building to pray and then do some more prep. Many many people are now fleeing west towards Poland. But we had thousands of people come through our town all during the morning as well. (The thought occurred to me as we worked on the building that we may be prepping it for Russian soldiers to stay in. I wasn’t sure about how I felt about that…). We have a group of refugees trying to get to us tonight, but they are trying to cross a bridge to the south of us that has a 50km line up of cars trying to get across. If they make it, I suspect that it will only be by sometime tomorrow.
After a couple of hours meeting with some of the leaders in our church, I come back to this blog…
Over the next couple of weeks, I expect hardships. Our plan is to hold half of the products we have for our brothers and sisters for when things get hard in a couple of weeks. If we get a heap of refugees, likely they will need the other half… but it’s just as likely that our plans will change with the changing circumstances. I hope products will appear in the stores and we will be able to buy what we need.
How can you help?
Pray.
If you would like to enormously bless people here, write to johngollan@ganabri.com for details of where to send financial help. We will pass on your love and sacrifice to these people who love God as soon as we can. We will also use funds to hopefully find food for the refugees and for others in the town who we discover are in desperate need. Those who have fled for the west are in for a hard time. Mostly though, these people have money to do this. Those without savings who have stayed here are really going to struggle. Those with savings are going to struggle! Your help will help.
It’s 23:00 and I feel as if I don’t want to go to bed. But I realize that tomorrow will be a long, strength sapping day full of people who will be encouraged by trust in God.
Does Ukraine need a Winston Churchill? Well… kind of. They need the Lord Jesus Christ way more though. May He have mercy on Ukrainians and call many of them into relationship with Himself.
Thank you for praying.