Black and White

My sister is serving a two-year mission for the LDS church in Ukraine. From the letters that she has written home, it is apparent the devastating condition of families there. The majority of the male population are severe alcoholics, and feel it is their duty to discipline their wives abusively. There is also a lack of education which affects many. I wanted to share this section from a letter sent recently:

". . . We then met with our investigator Angelica. A man was helping her clear away her movie stand as we approached, and began to speak with us. I could barely understand his words; he was very drunk, and his heavily-slurred speech fell from a mouth of rotting teeth. He left me little personal space and attempted to put his arm around me once. He was a man without morals and without direction--a man who will search for happiness in all the wrong places and end up dying in his 50's as a result of alcoholism. Then I saw this man's granddaughter--a sweet little 3-year-old with curls and big, eyes--clinging in complete trust to what should have been the hand of a loving grandfather and was instead the hand of this pitifully-degraded man who had become utterly and hopelessly entangled in the snares of the devil. Pure innocence and complete degradation stood, hand-in-hand."


This applies so well, not only to illustrate the kind of situation occurring in Ukraine, but also to us. Rarely do we see a tangible example of this stark contrast, but it always exists.