Goodbye North America, Hello World.
While we were trekking uphill to some ambiguous hostel location, my teammates and I invented a new game -it’s called: how many Ukrainians can we make smile.
We were tallying up our smile points when we ended up having a little conversation with this nice gentleman – Vadijah.
We were basking in the glory of pretty much hitting the jackpot with this game -considering we had won a smile, words, and a cheer, when we saw he had come back to us to talk some more.
We ended up talking for a while, which consisted of us trying so hard to understand his feeble, yet sincere English, and then we reverted to Pictionary on the pavement, and cherades as communication modes – haha. We laughed a bunch and this man’s sincerity was so evident.
Our Ukranian friend eventually conscripted a passerby to be a translator.
The message he was persistently trying to tell us was simply that he welcomes us to his country and that he is really glad we’re here!
So crazy that amidst the reserved culture Vadijah was compelled to greet and welcome us to his country. I feel like even during the first hours of us arriving from North America, God is welcoming us to the land he is sending us to…. And God is even using Vadijah to let us know what’s up. Also, this man is an example for me. I’m here to help people with their physical needs and also tell them about hope, and share love with them. I’m looking up to this Ukranian man on the street as an example of sincerity and persistence.
