Yes! I lived in Ukraine as a missionary many years ago and always referred to it as Kiev. I was also encouraged to study the Russian language rather than Ukrainian. I lived in the central/eastern part of the country where there was a stronger Russian influence.
I don’t believe anything on the news anymore and can’t stand to watch. However, I do have a personal friend who tried to adopt 2 brothers from Ukraine and had significant issues getting the adoption finalized. They call them their sons even though they haven’t legally adopted them.
The boys live in Kiev and have been reporting to my friend. There is definitely bombing happening. They aren’t discussing the politics of it but the boys have been in danger and finally got out of the city today.
Here’s an excerpt that she wrote today:
“Update, March 3. Yesterday, just a few hours after Danil did a TV interview via zoom on our local station, three missiles fell near their home. They were not injured, but the blast was loud and broke out many windows in the complex where they live.
After sheltering in the basement with the other building residents for the rest of the night, they packed up this morning. They left behind their home and the life they had begun to build for themselves in Kyiv since leaving the orphanage at age 16.
Taking just a duffel bag loaded with a few possessions and clothes, important papers, some water and food they headed to the train station where they waited all day and night.
They had purchased tickets for a midnight train. However, about 30 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart, it was suddenly no longer on the schedule.
We began to pray for wisdom and direction.
At that time the next train was not scheduled for another four hours and there were many people waiting for it.
Two hours later they messaged me that they were ON a train and headed west. I had to ask twice because it was so unexpected!
I still don’t know how it happened, but yes, they are on a train and have left the city of Kyiv. It is more than ten hours to their destination. Once they arrive tomorrow we will work to connect them with the missionaries in the area so they can begin assisting displaced orphans.
Thank you for your continued prayers and messages of support.
We don’t know what tomorrow brings but we are overwhelmed with relief that they are no longer in the city of Kyiv.
We continue to pray that God will direct their steps and grant them favor.”
And on a personal note, I lived in Ukraine as a missionary 20 years ago. I still have Ukrainian friends who live there in Dnepropetrovsk. Their airport was combed and they heard the explosions from their homes.
I don’t have much other on the ground info than that.
I pray that truth prevails and the evil are stopped. I pray for God’s protection over the innocent and swift justice for the guilty.
I am also in Northern CA. My kids have been participating in a mask protest and the school became much more hostile towards them today than the previous week of protesting before the break.
One of the administrators told me this morning that even if Newsome cancels the mask mandate, we still have to follow CDC guidance and that we are high risk here in our city so we’d likely have to continue wearing masks anyway. Ummm…. 🤔😡 This is still a fight!
We have an amazing man running for our district school superintendent and I’ve asked him to come meet with parents to help us prepare for our school board meeting tomorrow night. We are still fighting this as well as the vaccine mandates. We will not give up!
Please happen NOW!