The dam

It's been a week since Russia blew up the dam at Kakhovka. The Bible study we host here is made up of mostly of people from Kherson, and last week's study was a somber evening as we met and were sad together. Even though our family hasn't felt the physical effects of the disaster, we've been so sad. This is a new low place in a long run of awfulness.

Our house and our church in Kherson are high and dry, but the dacha that we bought just before the war isn't. This video is probably somewhere over in that area. And before Kherson we lived for 5 years on the bank of the beautiful Kakhovka Reservoir, which is drying up now (before and after). It feels like we know two sides of this tragedy ourselves. There's yet another side that's even worse. On the other side of the Dnepr River, where the Russians are and were the flooding has been worst, people are suffering even more. Please keep praying for Ukraine and especially for Kherson region!

Here's an old photo of happier days, July 8, 2008, little Jaan floating in the "Kakhovka Sea":

There are more old photos here, too, and everywhere else in our family memories. That beautiful "sea," the other shore was almost too far away to see.