The Streets of Sevastopol

I realize it is Saturday but here is a recount of what happened to us Thursday around 5:00pm on a sidewalk in Sevastopol, Ukraine. I wrote this the night of the attack.


We left our apartment with our facilitator to find coffee for her. It was busy on the streets. There were 40-50 people (including Navy officers) on the sidewalks outside our apartment. A man heard Sasha, our facilitator, speaking English to us. I can tell more details in person but basically he hit hubby in the back, hit his face and tried to push him to the ground. Sasha started screaming for my husband to just go...start walking away. The man was screaming, "I hate Americans! Go back to America!" Noone around us did anything...just looked the other way. Sasha immediately called the police but the man wouldn't leave us alone. He told us that he worked with the police and didn't care that she called them. He chased hubby trying to kick his legs out from under him. I was screaming at him to watch out! The man only spoke Russian (except his bit about America) and grabbed Sasha and told her she should thank God she was a woman. Otherwise, he would have done something to her. This went on for about a 1/2 mile or so until the man turned around and disappeared. We waited for the police...they never came. Noone on the street batted an eye. Noone tried to help. We were afraid to return to the apartment not knowing where he was. Did he see us come out of the apartment? Eventually, we returned.

We have been beyond scared. The facilitators tell us this never happens (it just did). Sasha's husband is come to be both our driver and escort. This man was crazy, but many people here don't like Americans. What next? The anger in his eyes...I'll never forget it. Truly, we were afraid for our lives.

There have been many, many tears tonight (from both hubby and I), but enough is enough. I cannot come home single. We have 4 amazing children at home we must think about. We are taking the night to pray. Tomorrow we may be on our way home. Please, don't make this harder than it already is. We feel like failures, but in the end this system fails it's children. This system fails it's people.

God brought us here for a reason and one day we will know what that is.


Thank you for your prayers without even knowing our situation. It has been a trying week in Ukraine to say the least and I'm afraid we are far from it being over. Please, continue to lift us up. We have visited R several times now, but I will update more about that later. I am physically and emotionally exhausted.
In Him,
E