#BeingHuman. Today is International Volunteer Day, and this year's theme is "If everyone did..." As Russia's invasion grinds on, darkness threatens more and more to overwhelm war-torn Ukraine... Yet, today, we pray and thank the Lord for nearly 400 volunteers in our 14 refugee hubs in Ukraine and Moldova (supported by Overseas Council-United World Mission in collaboration with the ScholarLeaders, Keys Connection, Open Eyes, OC-Europe, THF, and other partners). They bring aid, community, comfort, hope, and the light of the Good News.
Whether they once led congregations, served as seminary faculty, or wanted to help, volunteers use local church buildings and seminary campuses as refugee hubs and islands of hope. Here, the displaced find shelter, food, medical care, and trauma counseling. Volunteers also distribute aid to those unable or unwilling to leave their homes near the front line. Braving bombardment and chaos, these people deliver food, water, blankets, and more.
Volunteers serve Ukraine's defenders as well. They provide non-lethal support to territorial defense units and soldiers alike. It includes medical supplies, clothing, sleeping bags, power banks, food, communication equipment, and more. Such items bolster morale and readiness at the front. The volunteers remind us and the defenders that the Lord not only cares about us through people who share their resources but also protects us through those who give their lives for us... life for life...
One of the most vital work of the volunteers is ministering to the soul-weary. Their listening ears, understanding hearts, and hopeful words are themselves sustenance. As air raid sirens blare and buildings crumble, they share stories of faith and redemption when all seems lost under the touchable darkness that surrounds our lives. They pray and weep alongside those struggling with utter brokenness. They continue to bother the Stranger with their appeals, questions, requests, and gratitude on the way from the city of peace...
One of our volunteers helped evacuate expectant mothers from a hospital days before Russian bombs destroyed it. Braving constant shelling, he shepherded the terrified mothers safely out, whispering prayers and hymns to soothe their anxiety. Thanks to his steadfast courage, new life emerged even as bombs rained down... It's just a story for many of you... but it is the whole Life out of the hell of the full-scale ongoing war for the mothers and their unborn babies... life for life...
There will be even more dark days for Ukraine as there is no understanding of when and how the war may end... there is no understanding of who living and serving in Ukraine under the conscription age will survive the war... But the light and hope embodied in and through our volunteers cannot be extinguished. Today, we pray for their continued strength and protection. Please join our prayers about the volunteers in Ukraine and other countries that have not the conflicts... no... but the wars of all kinds...
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the volunteers who show Your love and compassion to the people suffering from the war.
• We ask You to bless, protect, and empower them by Your Spirit.
• We pray that You would provide for their needs, such as food, water, shelter, clothing, medicine, and equipment.
• We pray that You will give them wisdom, courage, and strength to face the challenges and dangers they encounter daily.
• We pray that You would heal their physical and emotional wounds and comfort their hearts that have seen and experienced the touchable darkness so much for almost two years already.
• We pray that You will fill them with joy, peace, and hope and renew their vision and passion for Your Kingdom, for not anything else "to become great again..."
• We pray that You would use them as Your instruments of grace and truth and make them effective witnesses of the Stranger during the war to the people they serve.
• We pray that You will bring an end to the war and that You will restore peace and justice in Ukraine.
• We pray that You will save and restore many souls... or at least some... and build Your Community of Hope in this land.
• We pray all these in the name of the Stranger, who joined our journey on the way from the city of peace...
Peace be with you, People of the Bridge, and thank you for supporting our volunteers and joining our prayers for them.
-- --
Taras Dyatlik (5 December 2023, Ukraine)
650 days of the ongoing full-scale Russian war against Ukraine
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Thursday, November 30, 2023
The Shared Darkness
#BeingHuman. #BrutalHonesty (part 6). You may safely skip it... The Shared Darkness That Binds Us: you, us, and all those who decided to step in with us into the touchable darkness of the Valey of Death...
On February 24th, 2022, Russia launched its unprovoked, brutal invasion of Ukraine. In an instant, millions saw their lives shattered - plunged into a crucible of trauma, loss, and gut-wrenching moral injury from which most of them will never fully heal.
For those defending on the front lines, each day brings the starkest horrors. Death skulks are omnipresent amid the relentless barrage of missiles and gunfire. For many, buried trauma compounds with each battle as they witness relentless devastation and lose comrades-in-arms... like our cousins... my brother... Their unwavering resolve comes at a profound cost - invisible scars carved into their psyche that no medal of bravery can erase... although they quite many of them...
Behind the lines, families see normalcy evaporate overnight. As missiles and kamikaze drones rain down and occupiers terrorize, they flee for their lives or cower in makeshift shelters praying for reunification, terrified their missing loved ones may never return. The sheer scope of loss - homes, belongings, community, security, identity - claws at their foundation, threatening to consume all semblance of hope...
And everywhere - malice, cruelty, devastation without end. All darker for its wanton malevolence and complete absence of meaning... and because there is no understanding of how and when the war will end, the darkness takes over and over more and more... shared darkness...
We, theological educators-volunteers, dwell in the crucible, striving to ease those drowning in despair however we can. We aid displaced families robbed of all security, homesick soldiers defending foreign turf, and communities struggling without basic amenities...
Our spirits also plunge into the darkness when choosing to immerse in their suffering. We are not obligated. But we chose to step in... Without consulting with you... Because it is our blood and our shared darkness... our way of following the Mission that ... that has not changed...
The scale of trauma defies all attempts at comfort. No reassuring word or compassionate act can restore all that was lost. It is not your fault... it is our fault... to be at this particular time and specific location of History... it is His will that allowed (why?!) all "these" to happen... We share with our soldiers and broken civilians in the abyss of shared anguish... our very souls screaming out against injustice and searching for meaning amid such senseless ongoing devastation... by the war... by the corruption...
Yet our shared shining darkness also forges a profound connection. Just as we strive to light candles of hope for those on the brink, so too do our partners - you - illuminate our paths. Your solidarity renews our stamina when exhaustion looms. This interdependence makes space for light even when numb desolation threatens to consume all capacity for our human emotion...
And so often, our shared darkness reveals life's essence, too. A displaced mother, trembling as she recounts losing her home and husband to aerial bombardment, whispers almost in surprise, "Now that everything's been taken, I realize what truly matters." At that moment, staring into the void strips all else away, laying life's most profound truths bare... The truth of the shining Darkness of God...
The crucible, harsh as it sears, makes space for revealing life's bedrock. And there, etched into our very marrow, an unwavering conviction flickers through the dark. No matter what is taken, no one can extinguish each soul's intrinsic dignity and worth... We can break and give them away... someday... but no one can take it from us... in our shared darkness...
Elie Weisel, in his "Night," being a victim of humanity's most twisted atrocities, unearthed this bedrock truth even in the death camps where millions perished. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself," - he wrote, chronicling a journey through every circle of hell. - "No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions... I speak from experience that even in darkness, it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. There it is: I still believe in man in spite of man."
Weisel's words reflect a revelation many Ukrainians describe, too. Ground to dust, we unearth an ember burning steadfast, however dim - that no outside force can extinguish our soul's intrinsic connection to the Eternal...
This foolish, dangerous, childish (in your eyes?) trust is perhaps what hope is built upon in the end in our shared darkness... The decision to love through hate destroys us to the ground, but.... it encroaches. To see God's image in even the most broken souls... And to nurture that divine spark within and between us even as malicious forces conspire to snuff it out...
The shared darkness of trauma will surely leave scars on Ukraine's psyche for generations... and on you, too... on those of you who chose to step in with us into the Valley of Shared Death and Darkness... Yet somehow, even with life at its bleakest, the human spirit chooses resilience. Out of rubble, hands reach to comfort the bereaved and rebuild shattered neighborhoods. Exhausted soldiers somehow emerge from night skirmishes, ready to defend our homeland again at dawn, not because they deny the darkness but because love for family and nation burns brighter still... despite the corruption...
Laying in the rubble is a child's toy... Next to it, a single flower bud pushing up through broken concrete... Signs of life determined to bloom even here...
The shared darkness will long touch Ukraine in the aftermath of the war and, in memory, seared into our identity... But flowers can grow in graveyards, too... Have you ever witnessed the flowers in graveyards, friends? Individual souls can heal through compassion's salve. And national psyches, when faced with unthinkable trauma, somehow can choose resilience time and again... through and by shared shining darkness...
Herein lies the paradox of shining darkness - that even as bullets fly and missiles and drones drop, an undying conviction pulses in each soul and between those united: no outside force holds power significant enough to sever our intrinsic bonds to one another in our shared darkness... and the Eternal Light that binds every living being across time and space. Not in life, not in death, not ever...
On February 24th, 2022, Russia launched its unprovoked, brutal invasion of Ukraine. In an instant, millions saw their lives shattered - plunged into a crucible of trauma, loss, and gut-wrenching moral injury from which most of them will never fully heal.
For those defending on the front lines, each day brings the starkest horrors. Death skulks are omnipresent amid the relentless barrage of missiles and gunfire. For many, buried trauma compounds with each battle as they witness relentless devastation and lose comrades-in-arms... like our cousins... my brother... Their unwavering resolve comes at a profound cost - invisible scars carved into their psyche that no medal of bravery can erase... although they quite many of them...
Behind the lines, families see normalcy evaporate overnight. As missiles and kamikaze drones rain down and occupiers terrorize, they flee for their lives or cower in makeshift shelters praying for reunification, terrified their missing loved ones may never return. The sheer scope of loss - homes, belongings, community, security, identity - claws at their foundation, threatening to consume all semblance of hope...
And everywhere - malice, cruelty, devastation without end. All darker for its wanton malevolence and complete absence of meaning... and because there is no understanding of how and when the war will end, the darkness takes over and over more and more... shared darkness...
We, theological educators-volunteers, dwell in the crucible, striving to ease those drowning in despair however we can. We aid displaced families robbed of all security, homesick soldiers defending foreign turf, and communities struggling without basic amenities...
Our spirits also plunge into the darkness when choosing to immerse in their suffering. We are not obligated. But we chose to step in... Without consulting with you... Because it is our blood and our shared darkness... our way of following the Mission that ... that has not changed...
The scale of trauma defies all attempts at comfort. No reassuring word or compassionate act can restore all that was lost. It is not your fault... it is our fault... to be at this particular time and specific location of History... it is His will that allowed (why?!) all "these" to happen... We share with our soldiers and broken civilians in the abyss of shared anguish... our very souls screaming out against injustice and searching for meaning amid such senseless ongoing devastation... by the war... by the corruption...
Yet our shared shining darkness also forges a profound connection. Just as we strive to light candles of hope for those on the brink, so too do our partners - you - illuminate our paths. Your solidarity renews our stamina when exhaustion looms. This interdependence makes space for light even when numb desolation threatens to consume all capacity for our human emotion...
And so often, our shared darkness reveals life's essence, too. A displaced mother, trembling as she recounts losing her home and husband to aerial bombardment, whispers almost in surprise, "Now that everything's been taken, I realize what truly matters." At that moment, staring into the void strips all else away, laying life's most profound truths bare... The truth of the shining Darkness of God...
The crucible, harsh as it sears, makes space for revealing life's bedrock. And there, etched into our very marrow, an unwavering conviction flickers through the dark. No matter what is taken, no one can extinguish each soul's intrinsic dignity and worth... We can break and give them away... someday... but no one can take it from us... in our shared darkness...
Elie Weisel, in his "Night," being a victim of humanity's most twisted atrocities, unearthed this bedrock truth even in the death camps where millions perished. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself," - he wrote, chronicling a journey through every circle of hell. - "No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions... I speak from experience that even in darkness, it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. There it is: I still believe in man in spite of man."
Weisel's words reflect a revelation many Ukrainians describe, too. Ground to dust, we unearth an ember burning steadfast, however dim - that no outside force can extinguish our soul's intrinsic connection to the Eternal...
This foolish, dangerous, childish (in your eyes?) trust is perhaps what hope is built upon in the end in our shared darkness... The decision to love through hate destroys us to the ground, but.... it encroaches. To see God's image in even the most broken souls... And to nurture that divine spark within and between us even as malicious forces conspire to snuff it out...
The shared darkness of trauma will surely leave scars on Ukraine's psyche for generations... and on you, too... on those of you who chose to step in with us into the Valley of Shared Death and Darkness... Yet somehow, even with life at its bleakest, the human spirit chooses resilience. Out of rubble, hands reach to comfort the bereaved and rebuild shattered neighborhoods. Exhausted soldiers somehow emerge from night skirmishes, ready to defend our homeland again at dawn, not because they deny the darkness but because love for family and nation burns brighter still... despite the corruption...
Laying in the rubble is a child's toy... Next to it, a single flower bud pushing up through broken concrete... Signs of life determined to bloom even here...
The shared darkness will long touch Ukraine in the aftermath of the war and, in memory, seared into our identity... But flowers can grow in graveyards, too... Have you ever witnessed the flowers in graveyards, friends? Individual souls can heal through compassion's salve. And national psyches, when faced with unthinkable trauma, somehow can choose resilience time and again... through and by shared shining darkness...
Herein lies the paradox of shining darkness - that even as bullets fly and missiles and drones drop, an undying conviction pulses in each soul and between those united: no outside force holds power significant enough to sever our intrinsic bonds to one another in our shared darkness... and the Eternal Light that binds every living being across time and space. Not in life, not in death, not ever...
Standing together, may we carry this light for each other through our shared darkness... And when trauma threatens all capacity for hope and love, may we nurture the seeds of wisdom planted in our hearts before time becomes time... In life's marrow, an unshakeable knowing carries us forward even through the deepest night: no shared darkness lasts forever. Dawn always comes... even through the strongholds of the shared darkness... Will we... will you... have enough patience with us? Will you? We wish you and your families peace and Silent Night... not the shared darkness visible through the broken windows of our souls...
--
Taras N. Dyatlik, Ukraine
645 days of the ongoing full-scale war
--
Photo: early May 2022, Borodyanka
--
Taras N. Dyatlik, Ukraine
645 days of the ongoing full-scale war
--
Photo: early May 2022, Borodyanka
Thursday, November 23, 2023
To Uninvited Guests Who Bring Unexpected Grace
#BeingHuman. To Uninvited Guests Who Bring Unexpected Grace... As your #Thanksgiving feasts stretch before you, we picture the Stranger reclining in a Pharisee's respectable home. Yet who dared interrupt but a disgraced woman, weighted by shame, weeping desperately for restoration? Uninvited. Undeserved. Unexpected. Unrespected. She crashed the pretentious gathering and scandalously worshipped at the feet of Jesus - the sole party crasher to pierce religious pretense with raw reverence…
This vivid scene reminds us that we all carry shame that feels too cumbersome and regrets that whisper lies we are unworthy of restoration. Like this vulnerable woman, millions of Ukrainian refugees now mimic her desperation on foreign soil. Thrust unwillingly among unfamiliar hosts by war's cruelty, they come as uninvited guests to your towns, churches, and homes. Yet you have stunned the world with your grace-filled response... like a guest, the Stranger, not like a host, Simon…
Despite the wounds of war leaving many Ukrainians intimately acquainted with trauma's shame, your open arms powerfully model the welcome of the One this woman sought. Your hands passing warm "bowls of borscht" (aid and Hope) to weary exiles reveal His hands passing the bread of life to outcasts. Your compassion mirrors the Stranger who saw beyond her scandalous story to call forth the woman she could become... not for the sake of Simon... but for the sake of the Stranger…
When forgiveness seems impossible, faith foolish, and God distant, this account shouts that the Guest sees us differently than the hosts of this world. He knows the men and women we can be when we fully embrace the restorative power of grace…
So, in this poignant hour between gratitude and grief, we lift our prayer and glass to you, courageous People of the Bridge. For by clothing, feeding, embracing the shivering exile, you point to reckless trust in lavish grace given through earthen vessels like us…
As daunting challenges lie ahead, we draw strength from friendships that transcend borders and from His faithfulness that flows even through fractured ones like ours. May we never forget the hard lessons learned... the sacrifices we have made and witnessed... and the hope that has sustained us... nor waver from welcoming the marginalized so that war-weary souls find sanctuary until the Stranger's Appearance.
May the essence of unrestrained gratitude, unbreakable community, and undying hope be alive in this uninvited woman's story and infuse our celebration as you gather this Thanksgiving. Until we feast together again... peace be with you <3
—
Taras N. Dyatlik, Ukraine
638-th day of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine
This vivid scene reminds us that we all carry shame that feels too cumbersome and regrets that whisper lies we are unworthy of restoration. Like this vulnerable woman, millions of Ukrainian refugees now mimic her desperation on foreign soil. Thrust unwillingly among unfamiliar hosts by war's cruelty, they come as uninvited guests to your towns, churches, and homes. Yet you have stunned the world with your grace-filled response... like a guest, the Stranger, not like a host, Simon…
Despite the wounds of war leaving many Ukrainians intimately acquainted with trauma's shame, your open arms powerfully model the welcome of the One this woman sought. Your hands passing warm "bowls of borscht" (aid and Hope) to weary exiles reveal His hands passing the bread of life to outcasts. Your compassion mirrors the Stranger who saw beyond her scandalous story to call forth the woman she could become... not for the sake of Simon... but for the sake of the Stranger…
When forgiveness seems impossible, faith foolish, and God distant, this account shouts that the Guest sees us differently than the hosts of this world. He knows the men and women we can be when we fully embrace the restorative power of grace…
So, in this poignant hour between gratitude and grief, we lift our prayer and glass to you, courageous People of the Bridge. For by clothing, feeding, embracing the shivering exile, you point to reckless trust in lavish grace given through earthen vessels like us…
As daunting challenges lie ahead, we draw strength from friendships that transcend borders and from His faithfulness that flows even through fractured ones like ours. May we never forget the hard lessons learned... the sacrifices we have made and witnessed... and the hope that has sustained us... nor waver from welcoming the marginalized so that war-weary souls find sanctuary until the Stranger's Appearance.
May the essence of unrestrained gratitude, unbreakable community, and undying hope be alive in this uninvited woman's story and infuse our celebration as you gather this Thanksgiving. Until we feast together again... peace be with you <3
—
Taras N. Dyatlik, Ukraine
638-th day of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine
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