A Heart Wrenching Question

How Can We Pray?

“How Can We Pray?”

The question stares at each of us as we gaze—horrified—into the face of evil, destruction, suffering, and death. Today, I offer one shareable website, Stand with Ukraine, with regularly updated prayer requests. May this tool encourage you, your family, your friends, your Bible Study, your church, your small group, your book club, your cooking club, your neighborhood, your carpool, your choir to pray urgently and specifically for God’s end to this heinous war in our midst. As you gather in classrooms, fitness rooms, boardrooms, and family rooms, will you bring your heart and the hearts of those around you to pray for Ukraine and her people?

“I love the Lord because He hears my prayers and answers them. Because He bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I breathe” (Psalm 116:1-2).

Living with Eternal Intentionality®

The words of James 5:16b say, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (NASB). How does this motivate you to pray with confidence in the grievous day in which we live?

My prayer warrior friend Ruthie says, “I am learning more about praying without ceasing in regard to this war.” (I Thessalonians 5:17) Relate any way that can you identify with Ruthie.

A Bible Study in a Duffle Bag

Frozen in place, the three of us stared wide-eyed at each other. His haggard appearance told me that the trip had not been easy. Now our friend, Larry, and I huddled together for whispered conversation in our kitchen while the children slept upstairs. This discussion was not for their ears.

Backstory:

In 1977 our organization, Cru® (Campus Crusade for Christ International®) asked Larry and me to go live covertly—live a double life—behind the Iron Curtain in communist Poland.

Those were the bitterly cold days of the frigid Cold War. Missionary activity, illegal under that atheist government, required rigorous tactics. And, Cold War food shortages complicated domestic matters. Strict rationing, empty shelves, and long lines made meal planning daunting. Facing these economic challenges within the communist system became an ongoing challenge for our growing family of five.

This story brings you into our kitchen and into our lives.

Frozen in place, the three of us stared wide-eyed at each other. His haggard appearance told me that the trip had not been easy. Now our friend, Larry, and I huddled together for whispered conversation in our kitchen while the children slept upstairs. This discussion was not for their ears.

On the previous cold, nasty Friday afternoon, Wiesiek boarded a bus, duffle bag in hand, and left the city. Not for a moment did we naively dismiss the seriousness of his journey, and throughout the weekend we thought of him often. His wellbeing weighed heavily upon us. We knew his whereabouts; we knew his undertaking. If caught in this criminal activity, our friend would suffer certain punishment.

Now on this Sunday evening, at long last, he was back! Desperate questions hung in the air: “Was the trip successful?” “Did anyone act suspicious?” “Was he ever followed?”

As stated, the severity of food shortages in Poland in the ’70s and '80s, dictated that extreme measures be taken—meat had to be purchased on the black market. Our friend Wiesiek’s cousin knew a farmer, and the farmer agreed to sell one of his steers, provided someone else would transport the meat. To protect each party involved, every detail had to be kept from nosy prying eyes.

Wiesiek picked a weekend with freezing temperatures (to prevent spoilage) and left his own family to travel by public transportation to the village.

Wiesiek selected a weekend with freezing temperatures (to prevent spoilage) and left his own family in the city to travel by public transportation to the village. Once on-site, our friend made the rendezvous with his cousin, who subsequently introduced him to the farmer. The farmer kept his word, honored the commitment, and—for the agreed-upon hefty price in cash—handed over the fresh meat.

Whew.

But Wiesiek still faced the return trip to Warsaw, where his family—and ours—nervously waited. He must transport himself and the cargo to its final destination without being stopped, questioned, fined, or arrested.

After schlepping his baggage into the outside compartment of the bus, our colleague boarded the crowded public transportation, found his seat inside, and set his sights toward the last leg of this clandestine journey. Several hours later, to everyone’s great relief, he made it back!

Now with Wiesiek inside from the bitter cold and in our midst, my burning question had to be asked; I simply could not wait any longer.

“Where is the meat?” “Where is the beef you traveled so far to purchase?”

“Here. Here in the duffle bag.”

— Wiesiek

With that, he stepped back, pointed downward, and said, “Here. Here in the duffle bag.” Throughout the conversation, this bulging meat-filled bag had stood unobtrusively between us on the linoleum floor!

As if on cue, with reverential respect, Wiesiek knelt down, opened his battered brown companion, and gently pulled out—piece by piece—the contents, our designated portion of “the project.”

“Shock gave way to wonder as I stared at God’s provision: “And my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” ”

— Philippians 4:19

Shock gave way to wonder as I stared at God’s provision: “And my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). A Bible Study in a Duffle Bag—not in theory or concept, not in assumption or presupposition. No. Right before my eyes was a Bible Study, a realization of faithfulness from the Hand of God. And, painted in the picture was Wiesiek, one who exemplified the words of Proverbs 18:24b, “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

In the years to follow, over and again, God demonstrated His generous character and His Word became my personal testimony: “I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25). Despite barren stores and empty shelves, even during the ongoing severe communist economic crises, not once did we go hungry; not once did we miss a meal. Throughout, God used people like Wiesiek to help us. Food Angels, don’t you think, Food Angels who delivered A Bible Study in a Duffle Bag.

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

Put yourself in Wiesiek’s place. How would you have felt, risking punishment, to help these foreigners?

When have you seen God surprise you by providing for your needs? Did He use other people?

When has He used you to be the provision of blessing for someone else?

From My Heart

This post from my dear friend Audra is shared with permission.

I have greatly hesitated in writing this post, and I have a hard time articulating why. One reason is that I feel like it draws attention to my minor inconvenience in a sea of suffering, destruction, death, and loss that all of Ukraine is feeling right now. My whole community, my whole country, is experiencing bitter loss. Another reason is that I am afraid to make myself look spiritual, but I am a broken, sinful person struggling through life to be what God wants me to be.

But I write . . .

In March 2019, I sensed the world was irreversibly changing, and I prayed that God would give me a garden. God answered my prayer and gave me a "garden" that happened to have a house with three bedrooms. This made it possible for our children to each have their own bedroom and for us to work more comfortably at home through times of quarantine. God gave us this house as clearly as if He wrapped it Himself and placed it in my lap; it was so clear to us that it was God's doing. And with the gift He also gave me this verse from Job 1:20b as though it was written on an accompanying card:

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."

With the message of this verse, I accepted His gift to me, this incredibly beautiful spot that filled me with joy.—my beloved happy spot, given to me by God, for a time.

“I did not want to take anything because taking things felt like affirming something would happen. ”

— Audra

When the February invasion began, my children and I had already been evacuated for three weeks. But I left everything behind, including my husband. I didn't take anything beyond clothes for a typical visit to my parents. I did not want to take anything because taking things felt like affirming something would happen.

Then the invaders came and began attacking homes, some with bombs. As the bombs dropped and people fled, I began thinking of my friends and acquaintances all leaving everything behind just as I had done—leaving homes and businesses and communities they had built as suddenly everyone scattered in all different directions.

Now, a bomb has hit our village, destroying houses. At the top of our street is a crater. The activity center of the village has been damaged, the place where just two months ago my children attended art lessons and I taught English. It feels like my community was destroyed in one second.

In the towns north of us, homes have been invaded. I began to envision soldiers in my own home, going through my personal things, discovering who I am, and eating the preserves our grandma worked so hard to prepare last summer.

Another distinct picture in my head is the village in central Ukraine where my husband’s grandparents lived and fought off the Nazis. Ukraine was ripped apart in World War II, and a monument stands in that village as a tribute to all the men who died in that war. Every time I visited the woods and fields of war, I felt the sense of what went on as the Nazis invaded and the defenders of that village fled. Eventually, the villagers fought back, sweeping the Nazis back east.

“Now I realize that the woods and fields of war have become my woods and fields.”

— Audra

Now I realize that the woods and fields of war have become my woods and fields, and the lake surrounding my house. My happy place has been invaded, the beloved spot where only two months ago I was sledding down the hill with my children, where we were skating on our pond.

God has been so good to me. Though my husband is still in Ukraine, I am in a safe place with my children. My heart aches at the horrible things people are experiencing, the elderly who cannot leave or who are so stressed by having to leave, and the children suffering trauma.

“Then I held between my hands the 38 chapters of suffering. ”

— Audra

And then, I return to the verse God gave me: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." I had such a clear sense of that verse when I received His gift. So, facing the tragedy, of our situation, I opened the book of Job with my children and read parts of the first chapter to explain the story. Then I held between my hands the 38 chapters of suffering. Those chapters are long and hard. In the end, we read how God restored.

We trust our "restoring" God, our Redeemer.

Lord have mercy on Ukraine!

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

How do you respond when you read Audra’s story? What situation in your own life allows you to identify with her loss, her suffering, and the suffering of those she loves?