Peter Balentine

"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."  Wendell Berry. 

In the summer of 2004, I traveled to Ukraine to teach at a Bible college on its eastern border with Russia.  I spent time touring the capital of Kyiv, but also traveled by train across the Ukrainian steppe, a vast country-side filled with golden wheatfields and blue sky that gives the Ukrainian flag its two beautiful colors.  In the small city of Luhansk, I taught pastors who were also coal-miners, with the help of my translator, Slavic.

In Ukraine, I encountered a people with a history of terrible trauma, which included Stalin's famine, a world war with Germany, and then the Chernobyl disaster.  All of this fed the cynical humor of the ex-Soviet citizen.  Who could not be cynical when the average male was expected to live just 55 years, alcoholism devastated most families, and the country had more deaths than births?

But what I was surprised to discover was a people still operating with hope.  "Hope is the last thing to go", someone once said.  I found that the Ukrainians had not given up their hope.  People were excited to go to school, to start a new business and to dream about their country's future.  As a deeply spiritual country, Ukrainians were refurbishing their ancient churches and building brand new ones as well.  I dare say the Ukrainians were exhibiting joy despite the terrible facts of their history. 

Little did I know back then in the summer of 2004 that these Ukrainians would continue to be tested.  The Orange Revolution came that November, the beginning of a series of ongoing battles to fight deep-seated corruption and Russian power-grabs.  And now is one of their greatest trials with the Russian invasion.  My prayer is that the resilience I witnessed back in 2004 would continue to fuel that same hope and joy today. 

*Photographs were taken with a fixed lens Olympus Stylus Epic camera using Fuji Velvia slide film and scanned with a Nikon 5000 scanner.