May 13, 2022 Though I've been home since April 19, I am just now having time to get my legs back under me, so to speak. There were a number of events and activities that were in place before I ever planned to go to Poland. In the airport in Krakow, at 4 am, on my way home, I met a 24 year old Jewish Ukrainian woman, Sophie. She lives in Kyiv and was on her way to Frankfurt to visit family, then planning to return to Kyiv. A slight woman with long hair on one side, the other side shaved bare, she was a delight to talk with. She is a passionate Ukrainian, loves her country, or rather, what it has become since the democratic revolution, and her hope for what it will yet be. Sophie told me her country had been "transformed" in 2014, when she was 16, when democratic reforms were instituted and the country turned towards the West. She said much had been accomplished, but a lot remained to be done. She was proud that her country was turning towards democratic structures,
April 20, 2022 I am back home. This is where I stayed in Krakow. On Monday, I wandered into this church. It was the first walk from where I was staying to someplace other than where the van was parked. Easter Sunday continues into Monday in this predominantly Catholic city. This modest exterior opens into an almost painfully beautiful chapel, with stained glass windows. I walked in and it seemed natural to walk then kneel in a pew. Looking up at Christ on the cross, I immediately started to sob. So much suffering. Not with any disrespect, and certainly not the first person to have felt this, I wanted to admonish him to climb down from that cross and do something, do more, to help those suffering. What was the Resurrection if not hope? Isn’t grace supposed to flow, not to those who have earned it, but those most in need of it? I imagined Rob Sturgill’s voice. I think Rob exists in a state of grace, optimistically and enthusiastically preaching the gospel through not words, but