Photo: Memorial Cemetery in Lviv for fallen troops. I am standing next to Colonel Vasily (on my right) and General Nicholi (on my left). This time last year there were very few graves.
The horrible evil of carnal war is present 24/7/360 in the eastern regions of Ukraine. The trenches offer shelter but the constant artillery fire requires the critical and constant work detail of shoveling the collapsed earthen walls back into a solid form. The trenches of today have changed little from those of “The Great War.” Troops rotate in and out of the trenches. It is seldom that the same number rotate out that entered.
Every time I survey the carnage of warfare I instantly flashback to my 9th grade literature class where we were required to memorize John McCrae’s “Flanders Fields.” When assigned that memory task I did not understand the prose as I do now…“We are the dead. Short days ago, we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved, and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders fields.” The verse illustrates not only the horrors of Ypres, Belgium but reflects the somberness that shrouds every battlefield in any land where youth’s vitality is extinguished and they lie there “forever young.”
Throughout Ukraine and Russia there are cemeteries with fresh flowers and sobbing mothers. As I ride through the various villages, a constant sight is freshly covered graves or a funeral parade where the casket is carried by foot and followed by the village.
It is not only the graves of the fallen troops that are observed. There are small caskets. The missiles and rockets have struck citizens sheltered in their homes or convoys of cars transporting those attempting to flee.
The ruin is incalculable. The destruction is devastating.
I will always recall distributing Family Buckets in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion in 2014. A young mother and three small children came to us. The mother was doing everything she could for the children, but she had hit a wall. She had just received news that her husband had been killed as Russian troops swept through the city of Donetsk. She looked shocked and weak. All she could think of at the moment was how to care for her children. We gave her a bucket, canned meats, and a sack of fresh vegetables. We had prayer with her and with all of the others who had come to get relief items.
And, ten years later the trauma has multiplied exponentially.
As we deliver the relief items we see the trauma and try to soothe the hurt. The appreciation shown is sincere. But the pain is still present. Sometimes this pain sits in silence. Sometimes this pain erupts with a deadly energy.
Our objective is stated by Inspiration: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
YOU are the instruments through which God’s “comfort” is being given to those devastated by evil. YOU are seizing the doors that are being opened for the comfort of the Almighty to be provided.
Below are photos of memorials to the fallen in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv.
The team continues exceptional work in Ivano-Frankivsk. Their Saturday ended with an evening Bible study with a group of university students. Anya Skoleba has been involved in discussions with some of those present and others heard of the class and wanted to join!
Continue praying for our efforts! “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way that I ought to proclaim it.” (Colossians 4:2-4)
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
Wrocław, Poland (Dalraida Church of Christ, Ukraine Missions, P. O. Box 3085, Montgomery, AL 36109)
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