We have moved so much and it’s been hard to meet and say good bye to so many, but I am racking up a few days I’ll probably never forget… like yesterday.
All I knew was that we would be hanging out with some people from Bible study, and that we were going to spend the day at a drug rehab center. When I picture rehab, I think hospital except with people coming off of drugs and trying to get sober. The Ukraine rehab that we visited though was very different. There were no hospital beds, no nurses, no pain killers, no security… just a house in the middle of nowhere. There were eight residents, two ministers, a bunch of geese, two cows, and a fresh litter of kittens. These men check in to this house and stay for at least 6 months, take care of the house and animals all while being ministered to and keeping up with daily duties.
What I wasn’t expecting was that they would be probably the funniest and most fun group of men that I would ever meet. They barbequed kabobs for us after excitedly showing us their animals and their home. A few were shy and did not want to talk at first, but pretty soon everyone was laughing and eating and asking questions and just enjoying each others’ company in the outside country atmosphere. A few of them had recently given their lives to Jesus and were living for Him so radically… it was really encouraging to see.
They really liked music (luckily we had a guitar, so I started to play and sing. Pretty soon my new friend Eric (or Ed as we were to refer to him) put on his shades and became my drummer for the day – hitting on pots and tables and anything else he could find with two water bottles. (He actually kept really good tempo) I feel like I played forever — ergo the finger pic above…
After eating and fellowship, we walked down the street to their new home that had just been given to them to be fixed up. It is twice as big as the old one and will be able to house more men in the future. We walked through a strawberry field and took pictures and laughed and then said goodbye.
