Independence Day and another big day

Today is Independence Day, Ukraine's 19th birthday. We have enjoyed fantastic music from a massive stage set up on the square (although we wore earplugs last night in order to sleep); as I type this, some of the most beautiful choral music you can imagine is floating in through the windows, but in the last two days we have had some of the most popular pop groups in Ukraine (we got familiar with some the current hot songs from listening to music videos in our hotel restaurant at lunchtime), folk rock, comic operetta, opera, orchestral music, and a variety of traditional dancing and music.

Being out at noon today was spectacular. The city's main street was closed, and there were different activities going on in the street, for example a BMX bike obstacle course competition. There was blue and yellow everywhere, with a true atmosphere of celebration all over Independence Square and Khreschatik Street giving you the sense that people appreciate independence most who remember what life was like without it.

It is clear from the city's monuments and conversations we have had that the suffering under occupying powers is still very vividly remembered. Just in the last hundred years it is easy to think of a quick list: unspeakable atrocities during the Russian Civil War, the political famine of 1932-33 when all Ukrainian wheat was taken by force to Russia resulting in the death of over 6 million Ukrainians, a brutal Nazi occupation (see the history of Dynamo Kiev for an interesting story of how soccer played into that), the deportation of entire people-groups by Stalin, and the Chernobyl disaster including the Soviet cover-up during the early days when a lot of people were needlessly exposed. Their enthusiasm about independence is a good reminder for us to be grateful, too.

We went back to the square in the evening for about an hour and a half and saw even more impressive acts: opera, orchestra, folk ballet, and lots of traditional dancing (the most interesting was one where two rows of women stretched long colored ribbons between them and then interwove them as they danced between and under each other's ribbons). At the end there were fireworks possibly precision launched with compressed air, since there was no noise and no trail before the airburst, which was consistently just above the building tops, about 10 stories high and 50 yards from us.

Tomorrow will also be a big day, our second appointment at the SDA scheduled for 12:00 local time. This time we have a better idea what the event will be like, but at the same time we are not sure what to expect. We are less optimistic than the first time about getting to see several reasonable choices, and we don't have the same excitement or the mystique of being there on our anniversary. We are very aware of how unable we are to control this outcome and counting on God to drive the whole process and to guide us whenever we need to make a decision.

But faith is moving without knowing

Can I trust what I can't see to reach my destiny?

I want to take control but I know better.

God, I want to dream again, take me where I've never been.

I wanna go there, this time I'm not scared.

Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable.

No one can touch me, nothing can stop me.

Forget the fear; it's just a crutch

That tries to hold you back

And turn your dreams to dust.

All you need to do is just trust.

- Fireflight