Hello friends in America! First of all, I want to thank you for your continued prayers for Ukraine.
After the most awful, blood-soaked day of the last three months of the revolution, in which dozens of unarmed protestors were picked off by "police" snipers using automatic weapons and armor-piercing rounds, a ray of hope appeared last night. While ordinary citizens around the country were blocking railway lines and roads to prevent government -ordered troops from entering Kyiv, the political opposition was able to call an emergency session of parliament and - miraculously - gather enough deputies to pass a special bill which ended the state of emergency which had enabled the acting minister of internal affairs to treat all protestors as "terrorists" and shoot to kill with impunity. The bill also ordered all troops to return to their bases and forbade all law enforcement agencies from using live rounds against protestors. Interestingly, members of the president's party were fleeing the country in a huge wave of private flights from a small airport near Kyiv.
We thank God that the undercutting of the evil policies of the government was accomplished through legal parliamentary means. After the passing of the all-important bill last night, the final action was to pass a resolution that the parliament will continue to work - without a break - until the crisis is fully resolved and a legitimate government is voted in. To say that this "turning of the corner" was accomplished peacefully or solely through legal means would be an over-simplification, of course. It was the horror of an all-out bloodbath, the anguish over the sacrifice of so many men and women and the endless eyewitness videos from around the country, showing innocent unarmed protesters being shot and killed that pushed things to the brink.
Yesterday afternoon, I watched an interview on one of the internet TV channels with Boris Gudzyak, a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in L'viv. He said words to the effect that "in our post-modern world, we don't like to think about the concept of sin and evil. However, today people have clearly seen that there is good and evil at work here in Ukraine". One hallmark of the revolution has been the unity in prayer of Christians...It is undeniable that even in light of the heart-wrenching sacrifice and the shameless evil at work, that God has miraculously protected Ukraine from a far-worse fate: one of all-out civil war along the lines of what befell Yugoslavia.
We mourn for the losses of our countrymen who laid down there lives for the future of their children and grandchildren (and yes - that includes the future of our daughter Solomiya). We thank God for the fragile peace that now allows lawmakers and citizens to reach for an honest government. We thank God for those brave police, soldiers and officials who have publicly stood with the people and against the orders of the government. And we continue to pray for God's mercy to cover Ukraine and give wisdom and mercy and even forgiveness to the those who stand on Maidan and those who work in parliament for a legislated re-creation of Ukraine as a country whose government serves the people and not the greed and lust of a privileged few.
Please continue to pray for Ukraine!!!
- Mike
After the most awful, blood-soaked day of the last three months of the revolution, in which dozens of unarmed protestors were picked off by "police" snipers using automatic weapons and armor-piercing rounds, a ray of hope appeared last night. While ordinary citizens around the country were blocking railway lines and roads to prevent government -ordered troops from entering Kyiv, the political opposition was able to call an emergency session of parliament and - miraculously - gather enough deputies to pass a special bill which ended the state of emergency which had enabled the acting minister of internal affairs to treat all protestors as "terrorists" and shoot to kill with impunity. The bill also ordered all troops to return to their bases and forbade all law enforcement agencies from using live rounds against protestors. Interestingly, members of the president's party were fleeing the country in a huge wave of private flights from a small airport near Kyiv.
We thank God that the undercutting of the evil policies of the government was accomplished through legal parliamentary means. After the passing of the all-important bill last night, the final action was to pass a resolution that the parliament will continue to work - without a break - until the crisis is fully resolved and a legitimate government is voted in. To say that this "turning of the corner" was accomplished peacefully or solely through legal means would be an over-simplification, of course. It was the horror of an all-out bloodbath, the anguish over the sacrifice of so many men and women and the endless eyewitness videos from around the country, showing innocent unarmed protesters being shot and killed that pushed things to the brink.
Yesterday afternoon, I watched an interview on one of the internet TV channels with Boris Gudzyak, a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in L'viv. He said words to the effect that "in our post-modern world, we don't like to think about the concept of sin and evil. However, today people have clearly seen that there is good and evil at work here in Ukraine". One hallmark of the revolution has been the unity in prayer of Christians...It is undeniable that even in light of the heart-wrenching sacrifice and the shameless evil at work, that God has miraculously protected Ukraine from a far-worse fate: one of all-out civil war along the lines of what befell Yugoslavia.
We mourn for the losses of our countrymen who laid down there lives for the future of their children and grandchildren (and yes - that includes the future of our daughter Solomiya). We thank God for the fragile peace that now allows lawmakers and citizens to reach for an honest government. We thank God for those brave police, soldiers and officials who have publicly stood with the people and against the orders of the government. And we continue to pray for God's mercy to cover Ukraine and give wisdom and mercy and even forgiveness to the those who stand on Maidan and those who work in parliament for a legislated re-creation of Ukraine as a country whose government serves the people and not the greed and lust of a privileged few.
Please continue to pray for Ukraine!!!
- Mike
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