Terrifying realities face citizens in Israel and Ukraine where daily life occurs in the echos of sirens and explosions. What is on the other side of those realities?
Alarms and Sirens
Where were you very early on Sunday September 15th?
Enjoying a second cup of coffee? Sleeping in? Waking up to your alarm clock? Across Central Israel, sirens screamed a warning of incoming missiles. 2,000,000 people rushed to bomb shelters. Even the protection of the Iron Dome couldn’t keep everyone safe.
As missile debris rained down on Israelis, a missile slammed into an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Jocelyn and I were at our church in Edmonton where a young lady was translating the message of a pastor and friend from eastern Ukraine. Her parents live in Kharkiv. They are just 30km from the Russian border. Residents have only a few seconds to react when the sirens go off. There is no Iron Dome in Ukraine. Kharkiv is rocketed every day, with schools, apartments, and shopping centres as targets. 
Terrifying Realities
Hezbollah attacks northern Israel from Lebanon every day. Their stated purpose? To eliminate Israel. Israel faces seven fronts of attack from: Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, and Iraq. Their near neighbours are dedicated to the utter destruction of Israelis.
In Russia, Putin’s stated purpose is a hostile takeover of their neighbour.
These realities are completely foreign to our Canadian way of life. Unimaginable. And a nightmare we pray we are never forced to endure.
Here’s the irony. Ukraine is not perfect, nor Israel. However, they are the hope of their enemies. Ukraine and Israel are democratic, secular states neighbouring dictatorships. Russian citizens and those living as Israel’s neighbours would find freedom and respect through the very people their leaders are trying to annihilate.
Fire and Floods
There is a growing number of Canadian friends called to go to Ukraine and Israel to support the work of the gospel. We’ll never make the six o’clock news. At least we hope we don’t because that would likely be bad news. However, what we’ll be doing is good news for these countries.
We may face fires and floods but there are provisions for those realities.
Isaiah 43:2 declares God’s commitment:
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
when through the rivers,
they won’t sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you won’t be scorched
and flame won’t burn you. (CEB)
Clearly, God does not promise a life free from rushing floods or fire. Those will inevitably happen. In fact, Isaiah assumes that the future life of God’s people lies on the other side of these terrifying realities.
Hope
We still have our goal of raising $70,000 for Ukraine. We are just over $50,000 at last report. Thank you to all who gave. If you want to know how to support the work please email us at bob.pb.jones@gmail.com or post a comment below.
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