What Is A Country and It’s People Worth These Days? …Good morning Hump Day readers, glad to have you with me on this middle-of-the-week day and I hope you are having a good ride on that camel! I was all set up with another devotion but the Lord continued to press on my heart to urge people to pray for the folks in Ukraine and Russia, as well as Belarus, Poland, and the other surrounding border countries.

And that is why my question for today is “what is a country worth?” Is it only for it’s oil, natural gas, diamonds, agriculture, wealthy oligarchs, forget the people they are collateral damage. How unbelievably cruel but we see it unfolding right now, something we thought wouldn’t happen in our lifetime. We know the answer—ALL things matter to God because God created ALL things—AMEN?!

My brother-in-law sent me this information about the country of Ukraine and it blew me away. I want to share this with you and then end it with an urgent message to pray!

For those who ask: “Why does Ukraine matter?”…This is why Ukraine matters.
~It is the 2nd largest country by area in Europe by area and has a population of over 40 million—more than Poland.
~Ukraine ranks: 1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores
~2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves
~2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world’s reserves)
~2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons)
~2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves
~3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves with (22 trillion cubic meters)
~4th in the world by the total value of natural resources
~7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)
~Ukraine is an important agricultural country: 1st in Europe in terms of arable land area
~3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world’s volume)
~1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil
~2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports
~3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world
~4th largest producer of potatoes in the world
~5th largest rye producer in the world
~5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons)
~8th place in the world in wheat exports
~9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs
~16th place in the world in cheese exports
~Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people
~Ukraine is an important industrialized country: 1st in Europe in ammonia production
~Europe’s 2nd and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system
~3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants
~3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km)
~3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment
~3rd largest iron exporter in the world
~4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world
~4th world’s largest manufacturer of rocket launchers
~4th place in the world in clay exports
~4th place in the world in titanium exports
~8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates
~9th place in the world in exports of defense industry products
~10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons)
~Ukraine matters. That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world.

Now you know why Putin is doing this, what he doesn’t have he wants to take from other people, and if it causes war and devastation, he doesn’t care. After all, communism says there is no God so do what you want. What Putin didn’t think about was the people of faith in the Ukraine whose churches and mosques and temples are open so people can freely worship. They know their source of power—it is the power of God who lives in them. We know all lives matter to God so keep praying that Russia stops hurting this country who wants to be a free democratic society rather than another minion for Russia to use up for their own greed, then spit them out like rotten tomatoes.

Pray also that God will stop this … I had to repent last night because I asked God to “take Putin out” – I know, sounds awful, but he is filled with hatred and loathing and he needs to be stopped. I know one thing, Putin will have his time with God and I don’t think I would want to be in that room when he and God meet face-to-face!

Pray for the people of Russia who also want this to stop and they are filling the streets with protests knowing that they also could be harmed. In fact, their government told them if they continued with their anti-war protests, that they would be shot. What kind of leader shoots his/her own people?

And last, pray for the people in our country who follow politicians who think Putin is OK because he can be a dictator and can do what he wants without consequences—declaring war on a country that has done nothing to provoke war. These people are only about greed, and what they attain in power for themselves—true narcissism, greed, and a soul that is dark because they have absolutely no conscience.

Is this what we would want here in our country? I hope not, so don’t follow those political crazies, it will just take you down a rabbit hole that is more than dangerous—it is deadly. Just ask the survivors of the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, Yugoslavia…the list is long as we see how evil pervades its deadly poison. Do we want that here in our country, no–would we want it anywhere else–I hope we all say NO!