Chapter 11
July 25, 2014 Since July 21, when Dzerzhinsk was taken back by Ukraine and the DPR was removed from our town, I have been seeing UA army men all over the city. I don’t want to be intimidated by them, I want to HELP them, since our U.S. government is a sham, to say the least. It is a sick joke their threats to RU while UA people are slaughtered. The army doesn’t have equipment, to fight off the Goliath of RU. So, today was an interesting encounter. God’s timing and my hearing and obeying was key to this situation.
I continue to be in awe of how God works things out. I needed to make a couple of stops today, get paint at the home store, some gas, talk to Yelena (a friend and translator), and exchange a ripped in half 20 gh. So the path I took was nothing planned, just the timing was what was important, had I taken a different path, different route, things would not have unfolded at they did. So first stop to the Home Store. As I passed the Route 20, gas station, all seemed normal. Got to the home store, and bought more house paint, and some screws to fix some molding. As a left, passing the Route 20, I noticed that there were 4 military men at the station, 2 at each opening, and cars blocking the entrance. Hummm, I wonder what is going on, but I had no time, I needed to get to the bank, and talked to Yelena, who said she would ask the bank director about ‘what’ was going on at the Route 20, as she is friends with the owner. They didn’t have a response. I get the 20gh exchanged for a new one, and go back out to the van, where, I see 2 vans approaching, and I see guns sticking out the windows, and UA flags flying. To say the least, I’m concerned…and then they pull off, literally 200 meters from me. One man dressed in a local police uniform jumps out and heads to the ATB, the local grocery. So I decided to just SIT in the van, pretending to wait on ‘someone’, but more interested to see ‘what’ is going on. I text Yelena and let her know what is going on, so she can ask and see if anyone in the bank knows what is going on. She responses, with no one knows anything~~ So about 5 minutes pass, and 2 more truck loads of men come up the road and join in the line of vehicles. I decide to get a better look, so I drove up to the ATB parking, which was in front of the vehicles, and then I was able to look back and see what was happening. Just as I passed the policemen came up from the ATB and got in the van. I was able to see them pass, but nothing unusual.
These Ukrainian soldiers are new to our town, as we have been DPR occupied for the last 4 months. My curiousity is getting the best of me, as I would really like to ‘do something’ and be of some sort of help to the UA military. I wait an few minutes and decide to drive past the police station, maybe something over there…but nothing over there…nothing out of the ordinary, people standing out front, no unusual vehicles, and none of the vans of soldiers. I knew that there were military men at the stadium, as Yelena’s mom lives across the street from the stadium, and she had told me that some army men were staying there. So I decided to do a ‘drive by’ and see if I could see anything. As I slowly go past the stadium, all is very usual…then I see on the side of the road 4 military men. There is a bus in front of me that stops literally just past the men, thus my van is stopped for the bus, and the 4 men are directly on my right. This is my God opportunity, this is my chance, so I look out the window, and one of the men and I catch an eye, and I smile at him and give him the ‘thumbs up.’ He smiles back and gives me the ‘thumbs up’. The bus moves, and I need to move, so I move forward, and I see the men cross the street behind me. I think, I have planted the seed in this man’s head…and he responded in a friendly way…so I ‘whip’ into the old sports club parking lot and turn around, back down the street, I see the men at a little kiosk. I pull to the side of the road, and the one that smiled at me, saw me and I motioned him to the car. I tried to explain in my poor Russian, that I would like to help the UA army in any way. He raised his eye brow, and motioned over another man and said something to him, they both moved closer to the car, and they said, I should go down to the stadium and talk to their commanding officer. I told them I did not want to do this alone. So the next thing, I know there is the smiling soldier sitting in my van, gun, grenade, knife, the WHOLE works, and he is motioning me to go forward towards the stadium. We arrived to the stadium, and he jumped out and went to a side entrance and tried to motion someone to come to the gate. When he got no response, he returned to the van, and motioned for me to go to the side entrance. It was well hidden, and I would not have found this on my own, nor would I have ventured to even go there alone. There were 6 men standing guard, and even with their fellow comrade in the van with me, they motioned for me to ‘STOP’, with their guns. Of course, I immediately stopped, and he jumped from the van, and explained to the men who I was and what I wanted. One motioned for me to park the van, while the original soldier told me to ‘Wait’ he was going to get their commander. About 5 minutes later, a very tall man, wearing a tee shirt with the word ‘ARMY’(written in English) comes out of the stadium area with 2 other men. They approach me and introduce themselves. They all speak English, though the commander has the best skills. He was very kind, and ask ‘how can WE help YOU?’ I explained that I was probably the last American here in the oblast, but that I wanted to help in any way, to help the UA army with this war. I explained that I couldn’t do much, but that I could cook, clean, wash laundry and even offer a place that the men could come and relax and have a hot shower. The commander, Andrei, explained that Dzerzhinsk was the place that the soldiers would come AFTER battle to ‘regroup’, clean up, eat, sleep, and rest. I offered him my business card, and in turn, he said, ‘here is my personal cell number, if you need ANYTHING at all, if you feel threatened, you feel unsafe, just CALL me, and I will send out some men to your place, I know where you live.’ That statement startled me a bit…’I know where you live.’
Seems they did know where ‘we’ are, since the separatist had shelled School #2, which is just about 4 blocks from the center. He called me to make sure that I had his number, and then we talked a bit more, as he explained that his battalion was doing ‘damage control’, since we had no police in our town, that they would be staying and acting as the police to keep up crime out of Dzerzhinsk. They would be interviewing new men for police force work, and they would NOT be leaving until they had a honest, solid group in place to be our new police. Also, he specifically said that he ‘had food to give away’, if I could help with that, and of course, I said ‘yes’. We parted, and I really feel much better knowing that they are here. God’s perfect timing for the meeting that was supposed to take place on this day!