Please pray for Ukraine

Vitaliy and I are doing OK, we’re here in the States still. Please keep praying for Ukraine. I will share some news bits:

The man who is the acting president now is actually a Baptist, and from what I can tell, he’s fairly serious about his beliefs, so that is wonderful for the country.

I don’t watch much American news but you’re probably hearing about Russia moving into Crimea. This is fairly serious. Ukraine, according to a 1983 (or ‘86?) nuclear disarmament agreement, should have miitary assistance from several countries including the States if they are invaded. (But I’m a little cynical about anyone actually keeping that agreement at this point, as i don’t think anyone is interested in WWIII, though we can all hope, and Russia controlling that peninsula is probably not desirable for western countries. And will Russia stop with the Crimean peninsula is another question …)

The Christians in Ukraine, especially those in Kiev, have been doing a lot of witnessing, constantly, down on the main square (maidan/Euromaidan). Pray for them.

So, please keep praying in general. If we return in March (31st) as planned, we will be returning to a whole new country. Pray God will guide Vitaliy about us returning, too.

Oh, we were featured on our local news channel this Monday—here’s our homemade recording of the broadcast:

http://youtu.be/w6FTJJ-6jkI

Also, I fill my FB page with current event stories in Ukraine if anyone wants to check there for the latest news from non-American sources.

thank you all, anne

many missionaries are being evacuated from ukraine today and tomorrow. we can pray for them.

also, for the church in ukraine, i think God is wanting to mature them even more. Pray that it works this way and not in any divisive way.

Crimea has a Russian-enforced “vote” tomorrow about Crimea becoming autonomous/moving more under Russian control. There are groups of Ukrainian soldiers there who are isolated from any help. And their families. i’ve read that their children are being threatened. Russia keeps demanding that they change loyalties.

Russia is moving into the main body of Ukraine. Troops are all along the border, today first military movements into Ukraine proper. The last couple days they’ve been busing in armed young men to create havoc and violence. Several people have died in these cities.

I think the U.S. is deciding to what point they will use military force there, if at all.

My opinion: The only real power Putin has is bullying countries smaller than him and that he doesn’t care about loss of life of his own soldiers. I think their military is probably not that great, they’re just willing to hurt anybody. I understand that the U.S. and Europe is concerned about loss of life, but ultimately … what loss of life would be now, compared to later….

Anyway, praying for God to do his will.

We have until March 27 to decide about our tickets. I’ve come to think this will be a long, drawn-out process, but we’ll see.

We sort of suddenly decided to stay in the States longer, and Lufthansa was changing tickets to Kiev for free, so they let us delay until the end of May. May 25 is our new return date.

It’s interesting why we make this decsion. I’m not really sure it’s for safety, per se. But with three kids and expecting a fourth, the logistics of trying to leave the country hurriedly and without endangering others there asking for their help– I guess we’re better off staying here for a while. And for other reasons, i see that God wants us here. I have realized that I personally am still dealing with a lot of hurt and offense with some of our church’s lay leaders in Ukraine, and God is using this time to help me forgive and move into loving them better than I know how to myself. So, as much as I am wanting to leave here and get back into what is more normal, that normal is pretty high stress in some relationships, so it’s nice to be away from it a while longer. And it’s super nice being able to order something and get it a few days later :)

Politically, … well, I’ve decided our only hope is to pray for a miracle, b/c it is going downhill fast. Putin is pretty much doing exactly what he wants. Creating havoc, probably preparing for a greater invasion. And politically, I have to also accept that God is aligning the nations to fulfill His prophesies, and this is a part of that, whatever happens.

Vitaliy says that if by May 25, things are like they are now or worse, he’ll go back and I’ll stay with the kids. … Trying to have a quiet heart about that ;) I really would rather go back …

Thanks for asking.

Tomorrow morning we leave for the Atlanta airport and we’ll be back in Ukraine on Monday.

Tomorrow is election day in Ukraine as well, so we can pray about that especially. Not sure what to pray specifically, but that God’s will be done and that people become more open to hearing the gospel from all this.

It looks hopeful that the likelihood of Russian military invasion is going away; however … I guess we will all see what happens. These groups of Russians/Chechens/pro-Russian Ukrainians are wreaking a lot of damage and deaths right now in 2 regions that border Russia, and that is sad. We’ll see how it resolves.

Long-term, it would be nice if Ukraine could get out of all the corruption and criminality that rules its government structures.

Thank you for praying for us. We leave the house at 8am EST tomorrow and arrive in Kiev at 6:15am EST. Oh, and our tickets were just changed to an easier flight path—one flight to chicago was cancelled and we’re flying straight to Frankfurt then Kiev. And we learned we have 4 more free suitcases. Everything is pretty much packed and ready to go.

:)

We had our fourth baby on Friday. The war here is worsening—thank you for your continued prayers. Pray for soldiers and refugees to hear the gospel and be truly ready for the life or death that is before them.

Here’s Una’s birth story: http://birthinukraine.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/baby-is-here/

It’s hard to explain …

There is a war, people are dying, not massive casualties, but a few every day. There are Russian soldiers and military equipment in Ukraine doing a lot of the fighting. The news will not say that very plainly.

However, it’s rather contained at this point. There is or probably will be more movement to take more sections of the borderline moving down to Crimea because Russia has no real access to Crimea and no way to supply electricity and things like that.

In the fighting areas, things are very bad, esp with winter, starving, not having basics, ATMs not working, govt stopped paying their pensions because it was just being stolen by the terrorist groups. Refugees come out.

We’ve stayed in our village house because of this war— it’s getting too hard to find somewhere to rent right where we need it. The whole approach to renting has changed— the first question is “Where are you from?” because people are reluctant to rent to those from the war area (it sounds mean, but this may be a warranted reputation, though it depends on the individual).

The world is reluctant to war with Putin, is probably why we are still here. And maybe they are right, though I don’t think the russian military is at any caliber that it’s made up to be. Or maybe he just sends inexperienced soldiers to jobs like this. A lot more russian soldiers have died than ukrainian, apparently.

There is always the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons, but for now, we feel no danger of that or otherwise.

The government is making graceless heaves trying to reform itself. … Will it happen, that corruption will cease for the most part? that govt salaries will become normal? that laws will really mean “laws”? We will see. I was interested to note that htey elected three foreigners to the parliament—from the U.S., from Georgia, from Lithuania (if I’m remembering correctly).

Will the economy collapse? … probably, unless the west keeps pumping in billions, which they very well may do.

Thanks for asking, for praying :)

This is my friend’s blog— her husband is a foreign service officer here— not posting for the fundraising but this explains the refugee situation and some of what Christians are doing, and what issues are being faced by people here :)

http://www.tulipgirl.com/index.php/2014/12/logos-center-holistic-help-i…