**wrote
this exaclty a couple weeks ago, but we didn’t have internet, so I’m
post-posting it 🙂
It
is Tuesday afternoon,
and I’ve just woken up from a lovely nap– it’s day two of ministry!
We’re
kind of nomadic
this month–during the weekends we stay with the MacDonald family in
Lutugino,
where we can just rest up from the week and go on other fun adventures.
Monday
through Friday, we do ministry. This week we are in a town about two
hours away
from Lughansk, staying with this incredible Christian family: Dr. Maxim,
his
sweet wife, and they’re kids. Dr. Maxim is a surgeon, and an incredible
man of
God. Last night we got home from ministry and just sat around the table
with
coffee and tea and talked to he and his wife about pretty much
everything– we
got to just ask questions about life here in Ukraine, and he wanted to
know
everything about how the Lord has changed our lives. Doctors make very
little
money here in Ukraine, most of them either go to Russia or Eastern
Europe where
it’s actually worth it to go to medical school for 6 years. In about 30
years,
there won’t be any doctors left. But Dr. Maxim is staying, because
“these
are my people, who else would I serve?” He said he wants to be a tree
with
roots that grow deep and strong, rather than shallow, brittle, and
easily
moved. And the Lord has blessed him for that obedience. This house is
warm and
wonderful and timeless– he and his wife are hospitable to no end,
serving us
huge delicious meals (with food grown outside in their amazing garden)
at 11 at
night and sitting to talk with us for hours. I absolutely love it here!
So…
you must be
wondering, “What exactly is this ministry that allows you to nap during
the day and eat lots of home-grown food at all hours??” This can be
answered in two words:
“Play
ball!’
Every
night we go out at
about 4 to the park of what you could call the “inner city” here in
town. We pour out three big bags of baseball and softball gear, and we
start
playing. Ukrainians don’t really know much about baseball, they’re a
soccer
country (not gonna lie, kinda jealous.) So when we come in and start
offering
free softball clinics, it would be like someone coming to us and
offering to
teach us rugby. It’s something we’ve seen and looks interesting, but we
haven’t
the slightest idea what’s actually going on. And as soon as we break out
the
bats, we get all their attention. They love those things! It’s pretty
fun. So
we started last night just teaching them the basics about throwing,
catching,
fielding, and we let everyone try hitting. Tonight we’re going to start
teaching
rules so that hopefully we can get some scrimmages going on Wednesday
and
Thursday night!
After
we play from 4-8,
we set up a movie in the park for everyone to watch. Before it starts,
Dr.
Maxim gets up and shares the Gospel. And several times throughout the
night we
break and there are opportunities for us to tell them why we’re there on
the
World Race, because they’re also kind of fascinated that there’s a group
of
Americans playing baseball on their soccer field. They really seem to
love it!
It’s just something new and fun, and they’re skeptical at first but by
the end
they’re just having a blast. It’s a huge honor to get to just hang out
with
them and play with them and answer their questions about America (no,
I’ve
never met Justin Bieber… yes, George Bush is from Texas…
[seriously]).
It’s
really driving me
nuts not to be able to post pictures with these, but I’m working on it! Pictures soon!
