No News Is Good News, Right?

 I haven't posted for a while because things have been fairly routine around here. I did finish and electronically file our federal and state income tax returns this afternoon. I also wrote my book review of the Fives Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride for this coming Wednesday's Winona Literary Club meeting.

A few weeks ago I used Hoopla for the first time through my public library because I had seen a review of a book I wanted to read but didn't want to purchase because I was unfamiliar with the author. Art and Faith by Makoto Fujimura was an interesting listen. Yes, the only thing available on Hoopla was an audio book. I prefer to read (even electronically) because I remember things visually better than by listening. For that reason, I won't post separately about the book. It becomes inaccessible on my tablet on March 17th anyway.

 Mr. Fujimura was born in Japan but became a United States citizen. He lived near enough to ground zero on 9-11 to have to find other accommodations. He writes on how the terrorist attack in New York affected him and his art. He starts the book with comparing the Christian life to the Japanese artform of repairing broken pottery (ceremonial tea cups) with gold. The gold represents the suffering and brokenness in our lives that God redeems to create something extraordinarily beautiful. He also has an intriquing chapter on the tears of Jesus. 

Once when I accompanied my husband to Chicago where he had a conference, I signed up through the Chicago Historical Society I think, for a tour of the Ukrainian Village, an ethnic neighborhood.

The Ukrainian National Museum was a delight to see. I learned about Chernobyl's nuclear accident, how Stalin starved Ukrainians by taking all of their grain and food products, and more pleasantly about the painted Easter eggs and the folk costumes of the country.

The museum tour guide had originally come from Ukraine. He mentioned that there were a lot of undocumented Ukrainians in the neighborhood who came on tourist visas but did not return. They blended into the community because so many people still spoke Ukraine in every-day life. 

We visited the nearby Eastern Orthodox Church where I was surprised to learn that the church ladies were preparing lunch for us. There had been no mention of that in the tour description. 

I mentioned several years ago about the Marcel Fund that provides for impoverished babushkas in Ukraine. I saw in an email from a local church that they had to relocate some of the workers in the eastern part of Ukraine to safer places. That was before the recent fighting by Russian forces, the actual invasion by Russia. Some of the workers decided to stay in danger in order to be available to the elderly ladies.

Our local newspaper had a story today about 2 local men who joined 2 others in a ministry in Poland to help distribute aid. These men had gone to Poland many times to preach and teach and had friends and contacts in Ukraine. They will be there a few weeks. They described the ministry of a church that they knew from their trips.

Continue to ask God to intervene and stop the killing. It looks dark from a human perspective, but a miracle could happen.