When I stepped off the plane in Ukraine, I declared that this is going to be the month that I will learn to be unoffendable. Basically, I say this because most Ukrainian people are just mean. Blunt, but true. I got yelled at, spit at, pushed aside, glared out, and chewed out in 3 different languages. It just wasn’t a warm welcoming place.
As the month progressed I started seeing glimpses of people through new eyes and I began to just love them!
Let me introduce you!………….
-I met the sausage lady who lit up when she knew we were from America.
-I met the grocery story attendant who was from Moldova. Although she spoke no English, that didn’t stop her from having a 10 minute conversation with me in her own language.
-I met the barista who brought me a glass of water and napkins when me and John were having a one-on-one conversation and I was crying my eyes out (why was I crying? See my last blog lol)
-I met the sweetest waitress who waited on me and Auston. Later that day she ran up to me as I was walking by the restaurant again with a huge smile just to return something we left.
-I met the homeless woman on the street who told us her story and let me and my teammate Alisa pray over her.
-I met Christine, who works 8-7 in a little aromatherapy store every single day and needed a friend.
-I met Ira in the drug store who became me and Caitlin’s precious friend forever.
God recently asked me, what if I lived unoffended by other people’s pain?
I mean it makes since right? Most times hurting people hurt people, and yet if we walked in a manner that deflected the pain and accepted the person, who would we be? Who could that person become?
We can choose to go through life seeing watermelons. We can choose to allow people’s pain to offend us. Or we can choose to see the real person, to dig deep past the shell, to choose to see the truth about someone, to choose to see others with God’s eyes. This concept may sound generic, but it was what God taught me this past month…To love to an endless measure.
