May 23 -- Sunday
Today was our last day in Vypnarka. We had a wonderful day of celebration with the church. There is a sense of sadness, however, in that we are leaving. There is also a sense of relief too. We’ve worked very hard and many of us are ready for the niceities of “normal life”. I look forward to a bed for instance.
Church went for 3 hours today. Last week’s service didn’t even go for 2 hours. We heard testimonies from people in the church. I enjoyed hearing how God has been at work in some of their lives. One of them men from the recovery center shared how God has been working in his life and how thankful he has been for the people at the recovery center. One of our students accidently hit Ira with a Frisbee yesterday. She came to church today with a black eye. She testified to her gratefulness that it didn’t hit her eye straight on. (I think we were grateful with her!!) Scott and I gave our testimonies too. I enjoyed this! Our group sang 2 songs for the church--Be Thou My Vision and Lord I Lift Your Name on High. Song has played a significant role in this mission trip. The kids love to sing, the Ukrainian people love to sing, and our gift of songs has been received with such thankfulness. I’ve never known song to be so loved and appreciated as I’ve experienced to be here.
Today was Pentecost. I love that I was in a Ukrainian Nazarene Church with a mission team from NNU on Pentecost. As the passage from Acts was being read I reviewed it in English. I was struck by how unified our group had become this week with the Ukrainian church. We haven’t understood each others language like what happened on the day of Pentecost, however we have understood something of each others hearts much like they did on that first day of Pentecost.
After lunch almost all of us took a walk to visit Babushka Marushka. She is the grandma of the former pastor of Vynarka Nazarene Church. Dan and a few students had visited her on Friday when all of us experience our home visit. She has been homebound for 6 months due to a broken leg and asked if the whole group would come to visit. Of course! She was hilarious! She danced with Dan at the end. We sang for her and she loved it. As we were leaving she wanted to point us in the direction of a nearby pond. (she called it a lake) Instead of pointing to it she ended up walking the whole way with us. It was the first time in a year that she had walked to the lake. We were a bit concerned that this was going to be too much…but how do you tell a Babushka no? She was determined to go with us an be with us. Some of the students got to hear her talk about her life during the Nazi occupation. Her families house was used as a safe house for Russian soldiers who were fighting the Nazi’s. She remembers her whole village being taking over by the Nazi’s.
For dinner we had a special celebration with the whole church. There was much food, great sharing of hearts, exchanging of gifts and a lot of dancing! Yes, Nazarenes from Ukraine, Scotland and the USA danced together. Maybe this ought to become a Pentecost practice! ; ) We had a blast together. I missed out of the Scottish dancing that happened a little later. The pastor gave me a wall hanging of the Lord’s Prayer written in Ukrainian. What a cool gift! He said that after we visited the family on Thursday and after we had shared our hears with them (I had talked about the Lords Prayer) that he had stayed with them for several hours. And yesterday one of the ladies called him to talk.
All week there has been a special “someone” in my life. : ) The Vypnarka church has this cat named Sasha and for some reason this cat took an incredible special liking to me. She was for me this week a means of grace. She is pregnant and all week we were hoping we’d get to see her kittens. It didn’t happen--which is probably ok since if she would have had them I think she very well cold have made a mess on my stuff! This cat would follow me during the day and in the evenings come find me. Several times she’d come in at night and sleep next to my head. I’d wake up to a cat purring right beside me. When I’d rest in the room she come and jump on my lap. It was pretty incredible. I joked with the group at our last debrief in Vypnarka that I was considering committing my first criminal act---stealing the cat! So on Sunday night I sadly said my last goodbyes to Sasha too. And not to my surprise she came and found me. She snuggled up in my lap as we all gathered to share what had happened in our day and as we shared what God had been calling us to. Maybe God’s calling me to get a cat. Ha. If I knew it would be like Sasha, I’d do it…
We boarded the train bound for Kyiv at 12:30am. The core group from the church accompanied us. This was a goodbye full of great emotion. As we waved goodbye to the pastor, the men from the recovery center, and the ladies from the church there were tears. We all have experienced the grace of God at work in our lives this week. A lot of work was accomplished but a lot of connection happened too. We are going to be missed, no doubt. And they will be missed too! Thanks be to God for the connections that were made with the people in Vypnarka.
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