This month in Ukraine was amazing! The Lord was so good to us. We were able to live in amazing conditions and have amazing ministries this month. Everyone on the team was able to do at least one ministry that fit who God made them to be! It was amazing to get the opportunity to do something that The Lord built you for. The ministry that I was blessed to do this month was with an amazing woman named Annie.
(Annie is a missionary in the Ukraine with her husband and almost 2 year old (adorably cute) little girl. She is an occupational therapist that makes house calls for free to the locals in Uzhgorod. All of her clients are word of mouth and her vision for the future is to build a physical therapy clinic for patients that can't afford rehabilitation. She is an amazing powerful woman of God that I can't wait to keep in contact with and see her hearts dreams come true! )
We met in a coffee house through our friend Rudy and we started to talk. I told her that I was an Athletic Trainer and she got super excited and said that she had been praying and asking The Lord to bring someone that could help her out with her patients. I asked her what was going on with her patients and she told me that they were stroke patients. I began to tell her that that wasn't actually what I went to school for but that at my last job I worked with a lot of patients that were recovering from strokes and Parkinson's disease. I told her that I learned a lot from my last job and would love to show her some of the things that I have learned.
On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for three weeks I was able to work with her and her patients and build amazing relationships with them. I didn't know how this was going to work or if I even knew anything that she didn't know or that would be helpful to her and her patients. However, I knew The Lord made this divine appointment and I was excited to see where this was going to go.
The first house that we went to was with a man named Ludvic. He has been recovering from a stroke for over a year with many ups and downs. He was very discouraged and low in spirits but I gave him a few new exercises to do. He got excited about the new exercises but was still discouraged when he wasn't able to do them to [his] full expectations. We tried to encourage him that He was doing much better than many people in his position were but, he was still in low spirits and didn't want to do anymore.
The next patient that we saw was an older lady that was also recovering from a stroke. Her granddaughter stays with her to help her in her everyday living and with her exercises. This lady was amazing! Her excitement for new exercises and determination for excelling in them brought my spirits up. At the end of the session her granddaughter looked at me and said we pray after every session. This was also a delight to see that they are trusting not only physical help but also The Lord for full healing.
The next couple of weeks were so amazing! We were able to use the broken English and Russian translated into Ukrainian to build relationships with these special people. Our friend Rudy joined us to help translate our sessions several times which was a huge blessing! We also got to speak to Ludvic more in depth of why he was in such low spirits. Rudy was able to communicate with him more easily and was able to encourage him especially as a man. We were all able to pray for him and his family several times. On the last day that we were all there everyone could tell the difference in the atmosphere and also in Ludvic. The Lord didn't just use us to pray for physical healing for him but also to pray against depression and low selfs steam.
Throughout the several weeks I was blown away with how much I was able to use and do with my knowledge of physical healing and spiritual healing to help each of these patients. Two of my passions were combined into one ministry with prayer and ministry by physical activity. God is so good! It amazes me that My Daddy knows what I need before I even do.
When I think about what I am actually doing here on the race The Lord just starts to show me that He was preparing me every step of the way. He has shown me that the last couple of years have been training ground to lead me every step of this race. He showed me that my last job was training ground and also was an answer to Annie's prayers. That working with patients with an average age of 80 was not a waist of my degree but was exactly what I needed to learn how to help people in Uzhgorod, Ukraine. I didn't even know how much I missed working and interacting with my older patients (shout out to My friends at Tidewater! especially Mr. Grinch) until I was with my patients in Uzhgorod.
I have been so blessed this month to do many things that I love with amazing people. Especially many things that I never thought I would be able to do while on the race. For example I have even gotten to watch several soccer games live and cheer for people I know! (I didn't even know watching sports live was such a huge part of my life that I missed until I was on the sidelines cheering) These little things comfort me and let me know that My Daddy is taking care of all of my needs even the ones I don't even know about 🙂
