Last day in Dnipro...

Monday, October 31st, is Dr. Lev and my last day in the Dnepro region.  It has been an extraordinary experience in every way- with the family we stay with, the Bokoch's, with the wounded soldiers, the churches we have been  with and the doctors here who are so incredibly valiant!!  

I woke up this morning to air raid alarms, a jet flying just over the house and an emergency alert on my phone!  The Russian military has stepped up their bombing campaign, covering all of Ukraine and changed their strategy.  They have been bombing almost exclusively the high rise apartment structures and suburban housing, to kill and dismember as many civilians as possible in order to create fear and panic!  But most people have only dug in deeper, so now they are putting the bulk of their attention on the infrastructure, primarily trying to knock out power, heat and water facilities.  

There are three families in the house we are in, not counting Lev and I.  When we gathered for breakfast this morning, everybody was excitedly sharing the latest bombing information from a special app they all have on their phones. Basically it said every city in the Country was being bombed right then! One family here is from Kiev and four bombs fell all around their house and knocked out a water facility.  Today they said over 80% of people in Kiev (the capitol) were without power or water, including Lev's family! Lev's brother, Max and Max's wife are the senior staff at the largest hospital in Kiev and they told him the hospital is packed with injured people and they are operating on emergency generators!  

A second family here is from Zaphorozia, a large, beautiful, European type city that has been under constant shelling and they also were without power and water today. Sergei is a dentist and is heading back to Zaporhozia tomorrow to care for people who are in the most immediate need! Amazing folks!  

A couple of the women here were pretty shook up this morning with the latest information about the bombing...It was interesting watching them, I know they had a certain amount of personal anxiety but the 'mother bear' mode slipped into gear and without consciencely realizing it they drew all their kids in close and were hanging on to them tightly!  

Ukrainians have a really unique connection with nature!  They love the outdoors and plants of just about any kind!  The table talk got a little intense, so about 7 or 8 of them said, come on jerry, we are going for a walk in the forest!  It is a beautiful time of year, the leaves are changing colors and covering the forest floor!  As we walked and talked for several kilometers, there was a sense of joy and gentleness- a godly peace came over all of us!  It was almost as though the War  was no longer happening...and the mom's I mentioned earlier were laughing again and playing with their children!  

We had a wonderful last evening together tonight- great dinner, worship singing and prayer for two nights in a row!   Tomorrow Dr. Lev and I are going to start a two day journey from Eastern Ukraine here in the Dnepro region, all the way across the Country to the furthest city West- Lviv. With every city being bombed and power outages, gas and other necessities may be hard to find.  There are also 2 or 3 times as many military check points now as when I was here in the Spring- often with long lines which really stretches out the travel time! As of yesterday there are no  internet connections so communication is getting increasingly challenging!   When we get to Lviv, Dr. Lev and I will part. He has work to do back in Kiev and I will take an all night bus ride to Warsaw Poland. From there I plan on flying the next morning to Frankfurt Germany and then take a train to Cologne where I hope to spend 3 days with Taras Kushnir and family and many other dear Ukrainian friends who have immigrated there recently! All of this is of course as God wills!    

Finally, I have a ticket to return to Seattle on November 7th- from Frankfurt via Dallas, a 20 hour journey!   I would be grateful for your prayers for our travel across the Country and the return trip home- but even more,for God's mercy over Ukraine and an end to this War!   I love my wife and family more than anybody else in the World and miss them terribly but it is difficult to leave these dear loved ones  when it appears that the War is escalating right now! But our dear Lord made clear to me when I was supposed to enter Ukraine and the time I was supposed to leave- so everything is in His hands...