New Beginnings
My new venture on Substack, and the welcome arrival of Spring after a hard winter in Ukraine.
Hello, Friends!
I’m trying something new.
I’ve opened an account with Substack with the mission to send out a monthly newsletter. I’m excited about the prospect of writing more!
In this space, I look forward to sharing reflections from my Bible studies. One of the best & “favoritest” activities in my life is the time I spend studying, journaling, and slow-thinking my way through Scripture.
Some of my favorite topics are the great purposes God has for women, God’s strength made perfect in our weakness, and the hope & comfort of Christ that overcomes sorrow and pain. I’m excited to share a small part of my studies with you!
In addition, I hope to give a short update each month about our family life in Ukraine, letting you know how we’re doing, what we’re learning, or some ways we’ve been able to serve Ukrainians. How is life in Ukraine during a war?
Since we haven’t posted much family news in quite a while, I decided with this particular post to let the family update portion stand alone. Then I’ll send out my Scripture meditation next time.
I’d be excited and honored if you’d join me by clicking subscribe. Thanks for reading!
“That we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4
A Long Winter in Ukraine
Spring is especially welcome this year, as January and February were extremely hard months for Ukraine.
The cold was severe, with temperatures regularly plummeting to negative numbers.
Missiles and drones launched by russia wreaked havoc on electricity substations, leaving thousands of people without electricity, heating, or hot water for days at a time.
Kyiv declared an energy crisis and asked as many people as could to leave. The capital, and many other eastern and southern regions, are experiencing outages to date, and many homes are still without heat.
Here in western Ukraine, our family endured a few tense moments and many, many hours without electricity.
Late on January 8th, the sirens went off, and we began making our way to the hall for shelter. No sooner had we gathered the kids together than we started hearing explosions –6 in a row– from what was purported by our info channels to be an ICBM.
Later, we learned that the explosions could be heard all across the Lviv Oblast.
I will admit that the raid, though shorter than most, was a scarier one for me. Though the 2 ICBMs launched on Ukraine have not carried nukes, these missiles travel extremely fast and are near-impossible for the air defense to take down. I was reminded that life & death aren’t even remotely in my control. But neither are they in the hands of a russian dictator, any other world leader, nor left to random chance. God holds my soul in life, every moment foreseen by Him. I was comforted by the multitude of times He says, “Fear not”, “Be not afraid.”
Power Outages
The explosions we heard were from an ICBM, which likely disabled a large electric network in the region.
As a result of that strike, Lviv faced blackouts of 12-18 hours per day during the following weeks, the worst our family has ever experienced.
At times, heating became a concern due to temperatures that stayed around 0°F.
We don’t control the heat in our building; the city turns it on and off.
Usually, no power meant no heat. But somehow they kept enough heat in the system to prevent the temperature in our thick concrete building from dropping to concerning levels.
By now, many Ukrainians have some kind of power backup. Certainly, the business sector keeps itself running with generators.
Did you know that power generators are loud? When the power is off in our region, instead of the eerie quiet you might expect, a loud rumble erupts – the perpetual clack-clack-clack of neighborhood generators. Imagine 5 of your neighbors all mowing their lawns at exactly the same time, and you’ve got a close idea.
As I write this, our power situation is stable, with no outages at all in Lviv. This does make life a lot simpler!
How is our family doing?
Despite the difficult winter, in many ways, this has been an exciting, productive season for our whole family.
We’ve been especially blessed to be able to support and encourage our local church during these hard times.
The church now has 10 men in military service, leaving not only heavy hearts but also many holes and undone tasks. As a result, nearly everyone in our family has become involved in some way. Many of us participate in the music team, even 9-year-old David, who delights the congregation with his whole-hearted playing of the “shaky egg”. 😁
Rebekah has taken over running the video recording for our church service, which is eagerly watched by our military men and many shut-ins.
Prayer has been another vital ministry; I’ve truly marveled to see God growing our family in this way.
The many needs, sorrows and safety concerns have been an impetus to gather together regularly for prayer.
One special project we’ve adopted is praying for the military men from our church on a rotating basis. I have been excited to maintain limited contact with many of the men, sending a word of encouragement or a Scripture verse every week or two. It’s been so rewarding; they always answer and seem very touched to hear from anyone. Some are near front lines, and others are serving in maintenance roles.
Recently, one of the guys – Viktor, whose grandma attends our church – was missing or out of communication for over a week, his commander and battalion also.
Our whole church was really praying hard for him to be protected and delivered. It is all too common to get news in just this type of scenario, of a man going MIA or being killed. A few days ago, we heard that Viktor was able to text one word to a family member: alive! This resulted in no small rejoicing in our family and in the church. These men are sacrificing their lives for the freedom of Ukrainians, and we are grateful to support them in any way we can.
I’ll close with one last joy-filled occasion in our family: Rebekah celebrated her 18th birthday! Hard to believe we now have two daughters entering adulthood. They are truly such a blessing to us!
Thank you for reading and for caring,
-Kelsie