Ukraine Prayer # 474

Ira Kapitonova
O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 97:10
Our brain is fascinating. Sometimes, a faint smell or an accidental image can take you to the depths of your memories and discover something you never thought was meaningful to you.
At other times, your mind would try playing tricks on you, making up stories to replace the sad reality:
 
Your friends are living across the ocean now? That's because they decided to take an extended vacation there (not because they had to seek refuge from war).
You are looking up protective gear for your friend? Oh, you must be confused. It should be protective gear for a computer game character. It can't be for real!
Your friends are making trench candles? It must be some sort of fun craft, not a necessity. Trenches? In the 21st century? In Ukraine? No, it's something from World War I.
I had something like this going on in the back of my mind last week. Almost two years into the full-scale war, and it's still hard to comprehend that it is happening. May we never get used to it! May it never become normal to us!
 
It’s hard to imagine that to day in the 21st Century there are thousand of soldiers in trenches being warmed by trench candles, but it is reality. Can we pray for them.
Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team
 
Today's picture — soldiers trying to keep warm by the trench candles. Photo by Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberov.