Tuesday April 12th
We were expecting to go to a sanatorium for recovering children today but could not make the right contact, so spent the day visiting some shut in people who needed a visit.
The first one was Maria. She has been visited for several years and may be saved but still looks to the church to be her help, I think. She is a very sick lady but always wants to have us for a meal. She has had multiple surgeries on her back and uses crutches now. She is Diabetic and is waiting to go in for another surgery after Easter. We tried to give her some comfort in her dilemma. She has no one except a sister who lives in a village. We ate a good lunch and left some help for her medication and future hospital visit.
We then went to visit Lesia and her little boy, living in the most depressing room anyone can imagine. It is located in a building that used to be a student hostel. The room were intended for one student and there are communal bathrooms and cooking areas. The room was as large as a walk in closet about 4 ½ ft wide and about 10ft long. It had a fridge a bed/couch and the baby’s bed at the end. Unbelievable!
It was clean and smelt nice. Her husband was raised in an orphanage and has no skills and so was out sweeping the streets. Lesia has and still does come to our meetings since we first came to Ivano and I’m sure she is saved. She has a speech impediment but is a sweet lady in her early 20’s. Pray for Lesia.
Well pm came and another meeting. There were a good number of people out and we were encouraged once again. Our girl Natalia, who we picked up at the bus stop, was there again and sat in the front row for the first time and seemed to take in every word. We would really like to see her saved.
We were told that Andre, the man we told you that was not coming out because of dizzy spells, had a birthday on Tuesday. We thought it would be nice to visit him and take some goodies and have a little party. We did that and I don’t think he could believe it. He said that he should be inviting us to his birthday, not the other way round. We left him some help for medication and wished him a return to health and the meetings.
So another day done and only two left in Ivano for me. Dan is staying on and so will continue to let us know how things go on.
Malcolm and Dan.
Wednesday April 13th
We were still having a problem getting in touch with the Administrator of the Sanatorium and so decided to get another visit in while we waited for a phone call. We went to visit Dana, the wife of the man who suffers from radiation sickness from Chernobyl. We found her home with one of her 6 sons, her only daughter Marianka and a grand-daughter Maria. I don’t know of anyone who has more problems than Dana. Marianka has just got out of hospital and is waiting to go back in with some blood problem that they can’t solve. Dana’s husband has moved out and he can’t handle the stress of all the problems. They are being threatened with eviction because they can’t pay the utilities. We think they owe about 10,000r or $1,250.00 dollars. The father of the grand-daughter is in hospital for some reason. And so it went on and on. We could only tell them to be sure that they were saved and then God will hear and answer their prayers. Dana and the one son who was with us (who lost all his toes with frostbite) said they were believers. I don’t understand how one family can have so many problems. I want to correct a past idea that we had, that the Chernobyl accident had something to do we their health problems. I don’t think it did as many of the problems happened before Chernobyl.
Well we got the go ahead to visit the Sanatorium in an “end of the road” town of Yasen about 80 km’s away. The roads were so bad for the last 30 km’s that I videoed it on the way home. Anyway it was well worth the trip. We got to speak to all the 130 kids from Grade 1 to 12. Plus at least 10 staff.
The attention was amazing and so encouraging. We gave them all a new testament or a junior picture bible, a laminated text, a scripture book mark and 2 candies each. The Staff wanted the bibles and texts too. When had finished about 50 of them wanted us to sign their N/T’s. Writer’s cramp or what?
The staff then ushered us to a private dining room and gave us a nice hot lunch. On the way home the Administrator phone Vadym and thanked us very much and said we could come back any time. That was nice.
We were all zonked when we got back, because of the 2 hour ride and the jostling about in the vehicle. So we shopped for some things for my “farewell party” tomorrow after meeting and came home.
All for now.
Malcolm and Dan.
No comments:
Post a Comment