Snap Shots: a reflection on our visit to Ukraine

Snap Shots: a reflection on our visit to Ukraine

Where do I begin?

Is it the beginning of our trip — on the western border of Ukraine — where rich dark soil and the appearance of normalcy teased us as we traveled to Kyiv? Is it our first night when we escaped from our comfortable hotel room to a bomb shelter from midnight to 4:30 a.m.? That peaceful route we just traveled was now under attack, thank you Lord for the people praying over us! Do I begin with our meeting people from Buccha to hear about their neighbors shot in the streets by Russian soldiers? Actually, they were prisoners with guns who were told “Have fun.” Or is it Irpin where a husband and wife minister to a devastated village by bringing a hot meal twice a week, consisting of barley soup and bread? Those grateful souls who wait in a long line because there is nowhere to go for them. Or is it an aging couple who fled in the middle of the night as a result of a white phosphorus rocket hitting their home, setting it ablaze, and melting their shoes?

They escaped with only the clothes on their backs and flip-flops in the dead of a winter night carrying their 90-year-old mother in a cart. Or do I begin with Lucija, a wife and mother, who experienced a rifle to her face and other horrors, in addition to her house being ransacked and destroyed?  

Where do I begin? How? 

We were privileged to be among my fellow Ukrainians, humble hardworking people who were surprised by the act of Russian aggression. We heard their collective voice and witnessed their God-given defiance — We are tired of living in fear. We choose to exist. Budmo! As one woman told me, “The front is in our hearts. We along with our soldiers fight for our country, our culture, our freedom, our liberty, and our dignity.” 

Living with air raids all day every day and facing the uncertainty of indiscriminate murder by artillery fire, rockets, cruise missiles, and kamikaze drones is stretching them thin. It would stretch anyone thin. The cumulative effects of uncertainty, fear, and the struggle for normalcy are piling on. Now that The Outreach Foundation has shown up, we bear the burdens of seeing this firsthand. I am drawn to what Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). There are many burdens here to bear.  

I’m sure their thoughts could turn to two questions. What does tomorrow bring? Who knows, but we will exist. How long before we are forgotten and alone? At least we know some have shown up just to be with us. We are not forgotten nor are we alone. Thank you, God. 

Slava Ukrainy! 

Victor Petrenko
First Presbyterian Church, Mooresville, NC

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