As Ukraine struggles and lurches toward a national presidential and parliamentary election this Sunday, please continue to pray. I truly believe that a stable government with the democratic mandate of a “free and fair” election will go a long way toward bringing needed equilibrium (not “stability” yet) and beginning the long, complex job of national…
Tag: EuroMaidan
What I saw in the hotbed of Extremism, Part Two
I visited Maidan just before it was transformed by the massive murderous violence of late February. At that point it was still a (some said desperate) attempt to carve out and define what free society might look like… or else it was a seething hotbed of violent insurrectionist neo-Nazis. Again, what narrative is being told,…
What I saw in the Den of Extremism – My visit to Maidan (Part One)
As the focus of recent events has turned to the Crimean peninsula in the south and the eastern provinces of Ukraine, part of a narrative being spun to justify the assimilation is that Russians or Russian speakers in the East are under grave threat from violent, neo-Nazi fascist extremists from Kyiv and the West. It…
Table talk in crisis time – real people seeking real answers to real problems
I signed off last time with an urgent request for prayer, sensing that the situation in Kyiv was at a critical point. Since then, we saw an all-out violent assault on Maidan, in which scores of people were killed, the majority shot in the street by snipers, an abortive attempt at a “negotiated settlement” (which…
Prayer on Maidan
Following on my last post about the significance of spiritual unity, particularly prayer, on Maidan in Kyiv these days, I wanted to pass along my translation of a post “Euromaidan on its knees” that illustrates it well. The original can be found at: http://paus144.livejournal.com/20705.html It was an indescribable sight! I saw it with my own…
The heart of Maidan – touched by prayer
It was -15F, the frost on the window next to my bed has become a thick coating of ice. But the sun is shining for the first time since I arrived. I had an opportunity to meet with Sergei, an evangelical leader whom I had not seen for many years. We met at a nice…
When objectivity breaks down
Despite the fact that Kierkegaard thought that “Truth is Subjectivity” there are some good things to be said for objectivity. But what often passes today for objectivity can be anything but. Here is a bad recipe for being objective: 1) Identify the different positions or perspectives involved. 2) Hear them all equally and balance each…
Leadership failure on Maidan
In the last 10 days of January, things in Ukraine changed, and people around the world began to take notice. Sad to say, but, given the “Hollywood mentality” of many in the “developed” world, nothing really important happens anywhere until a) it gets covered by our media of choice and b) there are pictures and…
Mill Pond Porch 