Waiting for a Miracle (cont.)

In September of 2003 I visited Saki, Crimea. At the time, I was still green as a missionary, but hungry to open new doors. I thought that God would open a door in Saki. He did, but not the door that I had assumed, and not in the time period that I wanted. I was thinking that I would become involved in some type of ministry there, as a third outreach.

While I was there, I met an eight year old little boy who was walking on his ankle. I recently learned that it was due to an error in surgery when he was an infant. A nerve had been cut, leaving the related muscles without control, causing the opposing muscles to pull his foot to one side.

Now, after six years of growing in my mission, I will return with some possible solutions for this little fellow. I had originally envisioned that Jesus would heal his foot in a miraculous situation. I still look for that to happen, but I have learned that Jesus heals in many different ways, with many different formats. Jesus created everything, so all forms of medical treatment are a part of His creation. How He will choose to heal, and how long the process will take, can be different in every case.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking about all of the possibilities that could develop during my visit. When I begin to think of all of the negative possibilities, I tend to become discouraged. My mission, all of it, is bigger than me. I have to always remember that. With all that is going on in this world, it is easy to lose my focus. I think the song that says it all is titled, Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus. So that is what I have to do.

I dream for the big miracle for this little fellow, but it isn’t up to me. When I get back to Illichevsk, I’ll post the results. I’ll be tweetin’ all about it probably in the middle of September, so stay tuned.

The Seashell Girl

Sunday evening I decided to go to the sea and collect some sea shells for my future visits to the orphanages in Marganets and Dobromel. I like to take the different little shells for the children to experience in art projects or science class.

The last time that I went hunting for the baby Whelk and Conch shells, I found that they were in abundance in the seaweed clusters of Mussel and other shells that are freshly washed upon the beach. They are hard to see at first, but once you train your eyes to search for the particular colors and shapes, they seem to pop out at you.

This time, I found a spot by the water’s edge and sat down. As I began my search, it was difficult not to keep every pretty shell that I saw. Collecting them, sometimes a few at a time, I would put them in my little bag. I must have stayed in that one spot for almost an hour. One man came to me and asked what I was doing? Of course, I had to guess what his question was. Then I had to ask him, using my Russian words, if I understood his question. He seemed satisfied with my answer and continued on, looking for larger shells a meter or so further out in the sea.

When I decided that it was time to go, I got up and brushed my pants off. I looked around, checking the shoreline for the August evening beach lovers, and slowly walked away from the sea. In the process, I saw a little girl about five years old, standing perfectly still, holding a little red container about two or three inches deep and maybe five inches in diameter. The expression on her face was not sad or happy, but maybe one asking a question. In the exact center of her red container, there was a half of a clam shell. It was a Norman Rockwell picture for sure.

As I walked past her, I remembered my childhood days. I stopped and looked through my bag. Earlier, I had found one larger spiral shell that was the best find of my evening. I pulled it out and walked back to her, still standing motionless. I carefully put my prize shell into her little red container. She looked at me as I began to walk away and whispered in Russian, “Thank you,” without changing the expression on her face the littlest bit. As I waved goodbye to her, it was as if she couldn’t believe that someone, a stranger, gave her a nice shell. I hope that it made her day. I know that it made mine.

Water???

How we take water for granted. When I first came to Ukraine in 2002, I was introduced to the water problems of Ukraine. My first experience took place in Patriky, Ternopol region, while I was in the lecture phase of missionary school. The village where the school was held had turned off the water for three to five days. This was not so unusual for the local people. What was funny, although not at the time, was my not knowing what to do. An announcement was made that there was an outhouse in the back yard. For some reason, that announcement was not translated for me.

In the second phase, outreach, my team lived in a city in western Ukraine for two months. We lived in a flat on the sixth floor, about a twenty minute walk from the center of the city. Our water situation was an eye opener for me. Hot and cold water were available for two hours in the morning, two hours at mid day, and four hours in the evening. What a challenge it was for me to coordinate all of the team water needs with our other activities. I learned a lot about living with other people during those two months.

Seven years have come and gone, and I have had a lot of water stories to tell. As I write this story, I am once again in Western Ukraine. This time I am in the city of Borislav, in the L’vov region. This is my fourth visit, and I am only beginning to learn about their water problems. For instance, during the last eighteen years, they have not had hot water.

In 2008, MUCH started to support the ministry that Volodya has. He works with orphaned children in the city of Dobromel. In his home in Borislav where I stayed the first three visits, I learned that he is an engineering genius. In his home on the fourth floor, they receive water twice a day for two hours. It is common for people in this city to fill the bathtub in the morning, using that water for the toilet, cooking and cleaning needs throughout the day. Instead of accepting this as normal, Volodya has installed a gravity fed holding tank and a gravity fed hot water tank. They still must be careful with their water use, but it is available all day.

This time, I stayed at Volodya’s son-in-law and daughter’s home on the first floor in a separate section of the city. A third problem in Borislav is that household gas is turned off two days a week. House heating is controlled by the city in the winter. Volodya created a new system to meet all of the need of this home throughout the year. He installed a hot water heater that heats water for the sinks and bathtub. It has a separate line that heats water for the house. In the basement area of the building, he installed a five hundred liter holding tank that fills when the water comes on. A pump moves the water up when it is called for. There are three filter systems to clean the water. I am continually amazed to see how the people of Ukraine meet their daily challenges!