Here are four updates from those in Crimea who are regularly in contact with missionaries and others. Some of these came to me directly, some were forwarded to me, and some were taken from FaceBook. PLEASE READ THEM AND PRAY.
Thank you for your prayers.
Sometime I hope to get around to a ‘regular, normal’ newsletter to show you the ‘normal’ things that took place in January and February at the Center. Ministry goes on, though with fewer dorm residents and students.
Blessings,
Georges
Dear brothers and sisters,
the soldiers as well as military vehicles keep on coming in the Crimea.
people well enough. One military ex
ert said that in case the
started shooting, it would be like an arm man beating up an unarmed man – so great is the difference between the ammunition and the training of the Russian troops and the Ukrainian troops.
kidnapped in the Crimea as well as several activists. They talk about 11 people missing. The police actually do nothing and people are afraid of robberies and criminal attacks. Some parents to not let their children go to school.
referendum.
children out of the Crimea. However, many stay here because they have nowhere to go and some do not want to leave their houses and apartments and possessions
they are afraid of marauding.
ed of this ourselves. We are very, very, very thankful for your prayers. Please, feel free to ask questions. As long as we have internet we shall be eager to provide any information we can or you are interested in.
(3) I’m posting for Elvira again. Men in police uniforms are going around 2 Crimean Tatar suburbs (in Simferopol) that we know of (her parents’ suburb being one), asking for the occupants to hand over their passports. The “police” are saying that the passports will be given back after the referendum to be “annexed” by Russia. A passport in Ukraine is more than a Driver’s License here. It’s the only form of identification that citizens possess.
The first thing that comes to mind are memories of Stalin’s forced exile and genocide of the Crimean Tatars right after World War 2. Step 1: Crimean Tatars have no official identity; Step 2: Russians officially take over; Step 3: Crimean Tatars are exiled yet again because there is no way to identify them nor their possessions, homes, vehicles, etc.
So… at some point, intervention will become necessary. What is that point?
————
m working with French journalist today. Help spread information about two pro-Ukrainian activists who were obtained and being hold hostage at the moment. Met with son of one of the obtained.
Personally we are doing ok. Everyone waits what the referendum will bring.
(5) From YouthReach’s Joel Butts
Vika and I exhanged messages via chat on FB. Here’s the concern.
Joel B
Moscow still maintains — it ain’t us… in those green uniforms (or at least, no one that we are not allowed to have there anyway)
Russia says its only troops in Crimea are those normally stationed there with its Black Sea Fleet in line with a bilateral agreement, an assertion Washington calls “[President Vladimir] Putin’s fiction”. Kiev says there are 30,000 Russians in Crimea while the US Department of Defense estimates their number at around 20,000.
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Tammy Grinn
If you have 7 minutes, this guy does a pretty good job explaining things and it’s entertaining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nklduvTh