In 2013 we visited this farmer in Ukraine.  Sometimes what I write gets summed up in fewer words than what were spoken.  Sometimes it’s several different conversations merged into one.  In my blog, this particular farmer, Kees Huizinga, is the one who makes the comment on Ukrainian villagers and what they read.

Kees is immediately likeable. He talks with a passion and energy that is infectious. If there was any momentary barrier in language, it didn’t matter. Who he is translated perfectly.

His respect for the Ukrainians shone through.  He talked about what a pleasure it was to share homemade vodka in their homes. How they made him feel welcomed, and what a rush it was to have a conversation with a people so engaged on the really big questions of life.

Watching these people fight for their country. I think of how our own must have been once, before it is like it is now.

The village near him was remote. Livestock roamed in people’s yards. A huge community garden was just outside. We would think of them as poor. At the time some were survining on a little more than $600 a year.

Were you or I passing by, we wouldn’t have said two words to the people we found there, but the conversations Kees was having were changing his life.

Today we have this western notion, that everything is going to work out, because usually it does, I guess. We find comfort in the hope that maybe everything is happening for a reason yet to be revealed. Maybe were we in their shoes, because of those thoughts, we would rise to the occasion and fight.

I don’t think the folks you are seeing on TV have those thoughts, however. In the last hundred years alone, Ukraine has no doubt witnessed millions of people killed worse than cattle. From the Holomador, to their Jews in the Holocaust, their soldiers in WWII, and Stalins whims and Nazi incursions. I don’t know if that’s much of a departure from the rest of their history.

I don’t believe the Ukrainians are comforted by the belief it’s all going to work out. At this point, I don’t suppose they think someday there’s going to be a reason big enough to soak up all the blood thats be spilled in the last century. I would guess many do know God is with them, and they probably feel like He’s the only one at times.

I lost count the number of times I heard people express, ‘God’s in control’ during the last two years. I don’t know how I feel about that. If He’s in control, He’s letting a lot of shitty stuff happen. Maybe He’s just expecting you and I to do a little of His work.

There are some Ukrainians and Dutch working their asses off. They might not expect a thing, but they do know you sure as hell better try. It’s hard not to notice that, thanks to Kees.