More Than We Expected
It's been a long day for us. It is after 10pm and we just arrived home from our last home visit .As you might know a night before we go off to bed we discuss about the plans for our next day. So this morning we started to pack some of our care hampers for the people we had on our list for today. But God had few more things HE decided to add to it.
During our breakfast John and Nadya received a phone call from a younger sister of the two widows we visited yesterday and shared with you about. The news was shocking : her oldest sister was gone to Heaven So after few phone calls that Nadya and John had to make and few adjustments to out program, due to the news we finally were in the van on the way to change money for the funeral and John dropping us at the first house visit on his way to the house of mourning. Here we were again visiting bedridden, really ill people, trying to encourage them somehow with the HOPE in the LORD. But God keeps teaching us so much more. The thing that touched us the most was the people who sacrificed their lives to look after the ill. The first house we visited was a widow's home. She's been sick for 29 years. The last few months she's been totally bedridden. Her daughter who is in her early 50th quit the job and is looking full time, 24/7 after her mother. It was so touching to see the look of calmness and content and deep love in daughter's eyes. It wasn't a burden for her to care after her mother.
The situation in the next home was even harder. There we saw a beautiful 19 years old girl looking full time after her 46 years old father, who had a stroke and is half paralyzed, for the last 3 month, and the last 18 years of his life he's had some mental and physical disabilities he received during the war in Afghanistan. The father is not a believer and she says she is not sure about herself either though she used to go to church while her Mom was alive, but after the death of her mother last year, to whom she gave full care for the whole year before, due to a cancer, she stopped coming to church .It was so sad to see no hope, no way out in her eyes and the huge load of responsibilities and decisions she had to make for the last 2 years. Our hearts were broken for her. We spend over 2 hours there. She served us tea and chocolate , we just chatted about what she is planning to do in her future .It was hard to find words of advise or encouragement. Yura (the bedridden) kept telling us ,"please stay some more, nobody ever comes to visit, I haven't seen a sun for the last three months, I don't see anything but these 4 walls day in and a day out. Anita shared with him her testimony while me and Edna prayed over the home and for them that the Holy Spirit will come down and fill their hearts and home with peace that passes all understanding. Please pray for this beautiful young lady, her journey is not easy. Her name is Oksana.
After a quick bowl of soup we left to Viktoriya's home. We were amazed to see their huge perfect garden that had everything from 5 kinds of berries and I don't know home many kinds of fruit trees to the 20-30 kinds of vegetables to tons of beautiful roses. The parents and Viktoriya were gone so we spent some time with smaller kids , brought clothing for them, talked with them. They were so proud and pleased to show us their new rooms. The transformation was unbelievable! Thank you all who gave towards that. You would be very pleased to see the change.
We came home to a very nice barbecue meal that was prepared by two young fellows from the church. At that point we thought our day was over , so we chatted and laugh, relaxed and talked about our experiences not even realizing that the work was not over yet. At about 9:20 pm the decision was made to call on the bereaved sister. A group of six of us hoped in the van and headed over to the apartment. Here we were with ,the two sisters and the prepared body all in one room. What an experience. There we saw again how much God cares for His children. The wish of the grieving sister was to have a Christian funeral service but the nephew in charge said there would be nothing but just a burial. She had no say in the matter .But God granted her her wish. we sang ,we prayed, words of encouragement were given. Here was the teams first funeral service. You never know what a trip to the Ukraine will entail.
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