The title is not meant to be a cliche because we literally built a bridge today. I hope we have built figuritive bridges with the relationships we’ve developed over the past 3 weeks, but today we made one out of wood. It has rained pretty much every day we have been here and yesterday evening was no exception. The rainfaill wasn’t too bad at our camp, but off to the east it looked pretty threatening. Well sure enough a couple hours after it looked like the storm had passed out of sight the level of the river going through camp surged to the point that it washed away the bridge connecting both sides. This basically left one side of the camp seperated from the other, to include Casey and I with our tent on one side with the campers and, the rest of the staff and our other 4 team members on the other side. This wasn’t a major issue since about a mile or so down the road there is another bridge that we were able to use. So due to this inconvenience todays project was building a temporary bridge. It’s been an interesting process to see how jobs are done to keep an independent camp up and running. Igor and his staff that do the upkeep on the camp are definately do it yourself’ers that also go by the creed “Waste not, want not.” They have learned to make due with what they have and make the best out of anything they are given. If I experienced nothing else from my time in Ukraine I could learn so much from that simple idea.
I have had the opportunity to see and learn other tidbits of wisdom that the Lord has shown me. Our job these past three weeks has not exactly been as expected. Most of our days are filled by manual labor. Carrying brick upon brick, or wood pallet after pallet from one part of the camp to another. Sawing wood to help in the construction of cabins, repairing tents, and leveling fields for soccer as well as helping to construct a new future kitchen. Don’t forget the bridge, its no modern marvel, but hey we helped build an actual bridge and that’s pretty awesome. The ladies of our team have most been helping out in the kitchen, preparing meals, washing dishes and being so kind as to wash our clothes.
As I said before it’s not exactly the type of ministry we expected, but then we were told in our training camp to try and drop all expectations. I’ve come to realize that sometimes the best ministry is the willingness to do whatever task is needed but those you are here to help. We sometimes don’t know even what the project is that we are doing due to the language barrier, but we know that the work we are doing is needed and we are glad to help. To me it’s become symbolic of a life of faith. We often don’t understand God’s plan for us. We don’t understand why our lives go in the direction they do. We can take comfort in the knowledge that God knows the plan and has our whole lives mapped out so that we may fullfill his purpose for us. So on that note I hope I wish you all well and please keep us in your prayers!
