Every evening after family prayer, my husband looks up news about the war in Ukraine on the Internet. During the day I also look into the chats of our town in the Lugansk region. From time to time, the names of those killed and wounded from shelling are written there, and we check to see if anyone we know is among them. This is an integral part of our everyday life here in Tajikistan.
Most often, the news is of the same type: one or another area of the city has been shelled, there is partial destruction, damaged electrical networks are being repaired, etc. But sometimes cold water is poured over reports of dead and wounded without specifying their names. You have to seek or wait for information, trying your best to trust God and not allow anxiety in your heart.
During our absence from the Lugansk region, several brothers and sisters from our church were killed, the homes of several of our close friends were destroyed, and a precious friend of our family went missing during our two-week trip to Tajikistan.
It’s been almost a year and a half since we left the front-line territory, and the war still trembles in our hearts with the roar of heavy equipment. After all, our relatives and friends remained there, there are not so many of them, most left for a safe place, but some remained at home, despite the hostilities. For example, my parents and little sister, who get in touch once every couple of months. And also elderly sisters in Christ, with whom we held prayer and Sunday meetings for 8 months during the war.
Here, in Tajikistan, few people remember Ukraine; our friends only sometimes ask: «Well, what do you have there, will the war end soon?» Thousands of kilometers and months of living in a peaceful, safe city separate us from this war. But part of our heart still remains there, in the front-line town, and we can’t do anything about it. The war in the Gaza Strip or the tension in Afghanistan (which, by the way, is now much closer to us than Ukraine) could not divert our attention from Ukraine.
I wanted to share this so as not to create the false impression that we so easily and completely devoted ourselves to serving in Asia, and Ukraine remained somewhere in the past. Now I am writing a book about the events of 2022 and I understand: traces of this past are still fresh in our hearts.
Thank God, we are not drowning in worries and worries, the Lord protects. We just put it all in the hands of Jesus, and every day He renews us and gives us a lot of reasons for joy and thanksgiving (even for this war we are grateful). And we have enough to do here in Tajikistan, my husband has a particularly busy schedule. But some part of our heart, our emotions and our time invariably flows in the direction of the Lugansk front.