If you are a Racer, then you know how crazy travel days can be. If you’re not, understand there are no true words to describe our traveling experiences so what I write can only be an under-exaggeration of the events that I am about to disclose.
We had a wonderful experience over a 5 day period that we are calling WATL (Weekend Ask The Lord). Our team got the chance to go on a “mini-vacation” of sorts. We prayed about it and came together to talk about our options. The itinerary we decided upon was 2 days in Budapest, Hungary then an overnight train to Poland where we would spend 2 days in Krakow and 1 day at Auschwitz. It was an incredible time for our team to rest and tour Eastern Europe.
Our original plan was to take a 5 hour train to Uzhgorod, Ukraine to start month 8 of our Race. We were asked to make plans to be there by Wednesday so we did our research and found a train that left Krakow at 8:00 pm. Our group was split in two for the day doing various things. Amaris, Kat and I arrived at the train station about an hour before our departure time. We were greeted by Shannon, Maggie and Jessica who informed us that we weren’t going to make our train ride. Apparently tickets had sold out. No big deal, right? We will just leave on the next train and be on our merry way.
It’s always a big joke among my team about how little we are really able to spend out on the field. We knew that ahead of time when reviewing the break down of how our money would be spent. It’s different though seeing it on paper versus living it in real life. So understanding we have a really strict budget to adhere to, I will proceed with this story.
The next train out of Krakow was due to leave at 8:45, the next morning, of course. Tickets were purchased and lodging decisions were made. Where were we going to stay? In the train station lobby. It wasn’t the first time and I am sure it won’t be our last.
Unbeknownst to us, the station turns into a landing pad for people who are either homeless or drunk at around 10 pm. We watched as the station filled one by one with people who were staggering, fighting and yelling towards one another. I really felt like I was in a scene from a movie. It took all we had within us to view our roommates as people the Lord loves. This was especially hard around 12 am, when the station was filled with smells of alcohol, urine and passed gas, sounds of snoring, sleep talkers and Polish music and even more so when a fight broke out that made us a little fearful of our safety.
During the course of the night, starting right after the first fight, it became apparent to us that maybe we were here by God’s doing. Louisa was our first clue. She was a young girl traveling alone. We invited her to sit with us in the safety of our guarded corner (praise God for favor with the security men). We got to share with her what we were traveling around the world for. She was so excited to hear our stories. We passed along our blog information (so I hope she is reading this right now…Hi Louisa!) and made a new facebook friend.
The second person we met was a young Polish boy by the name of Konrad. Konrad speaks no English. But, by God’s grace, the combination of an iPod translator and the translation master, Google, allowed us to somewhat carry a conversation. By the way, have you ever tried to communicate face to face with some using a technological “translator”? So many things are lost in translation. Even though most of the 5 hours spent with Konrad consisted of confused facial expressions and unsuccessful games of charades, I was able to figure out he was on his way home from technical college for Easter with his family. I took a step of faith to ask Konrad if he knew why Easter was celebrated. He responded via Google translator “Easter is for risen Christ stand up.” AMEN! That’s exactly what it’s for. So I felt like our card games could proceed now that I knew I could have been playing with a fellow brother in Christ.
Before we boarded our train, Maggie and I were able to carry a gestured conversation with one of the drunk men in the lobby. This must have been the reason God didn’t allow either of us to sleep all night. Although I had to warn him several times to scoot away from Maggie, he seemed to understand that God (pointing up) sent (gestured by “flying” arms) us (pointing to me and Maggie) to pray (that one is easy) for Poland (or Polska) and you (pointing to him). I really don’t know if he will remember our conversation at any point in his life but we couldn’t help thinking what if this was his only chance? To know that God loves him might be the beginning of something greater. Oh what fun we had.
We boarded a train that went from Krakow, Poland to a small border town near Ukraine. We took a bus from there to the border where we walked a mile through the different points of immigration (carrying 50+ pounds of stuff each… we are always such a sight to see). We then boarded a second bus that drove us 2 hours to the city of Laviv, Ukraine. We had found a train that went from LaViv to Uzhgorod prior to our bus trip. We knew that the train left at 4:35 pm. Our estimated time of arrival to LaViv? 4:15 pm. After some brief moments of anxious planning, a Ukrainian man interrupted our conversation to inform us that it was not 3:30 pm as we had thought, it was actually 4:30 pm. Once we realized that we weren’t going to make it anyway, we were quite relieved.
The man was very kind and offered to help us buy tickets upon arrival. He even helped us unload our ridiculous packs from the bus. It never ceases to amaze me how much God must love our team. Its hard being on a team of females at times, but he always sends someone who offers to help and is happy to do so.
Our tickets were bought immediately upon arrival. Departure time? 8:45 pm. We bought dinner and played cards in the train lobby for 4 hours. During one of our card games, a lady overheard us speaking English. She introduced herself as Olga. She spoke fluently and flawlessly with us for 30 minutes or so. She shared with us that she recently became a Christian. Her family was not happy with her for leaving the Orthodox church but God has shown her so many blessings. She just got accepted to study at NYU in Prague. We were able to pray with her after our conversation. She hugged every one of us despite our smelly, dirty appearances. It was a humbling moment that meant so much to each of us.
We boarded our last train to Uzhgorod 30 minutes before it left. We were blessed once again with a man that spoke little English. He offered to help us find our seats and put up our bags. We went to sleep for 6 hours completely exhausted but overwhelmed with the blessings that God gave us. We met people that were in need of love and companionship but we were also blessed with people who just wanted to help us out of the goodness of their hearts. It was an amazing, ridiculous and frustrating experience all in one but the one truth that I cling to in these times remains present. There are no such thing as coincidences just divine interruptions.
All of our luggage that the sweet Ukrainian man from our last bus ride helped us unload. The picture doesn't even capture the amount of luggage we have.
