Winter is fighting to stay in Lugansk. Monday we turned our backs on our wintery home to travel to a conference further north in Kharkov.
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| Waiting at the bus station to go to Kharkov. |
Amazingly, the Monday the conference began was the beginning of a short warming trend that lasted that week, took temperatures up to three degrees above zero and melted ice and snow from the roadways and sidewalks. That first day it seemed as if the sun came out just for us.
Here in this center-of-our-mission city, we were blessed and enriched. Since we arrived in Ukraine, our mission has been limping along with just three couples, and it feels good to be joined by more, wonderful, " salt of the earth". As we visited and met these new couples in person for the first time we immediately felt a bond because of experiences we have in common. We each knew of and understood lives and people left behind and sacrifices made. Most of us are serving in the nether-most fringes of the vineyard and feel somewhat isolated. Two couples will be going home before we gather again so we were asked to share what we have learned. Cannons are from Riverton, Utah and are serving in Mariupol. Their previous missions were in Moldova and China. Bices are serving in Moscow. Bralliers are from Portland, serving up in Sumy. Southams are from Colorado and serving in Gorlovka. This is their third mission, their last one being in Siberia. The Baileys are from Liberty, Utah and are the CES couple serving in Kharkov. The Burrs are the Humanitarian couple from Provo. They are serving in Kharkov and will go home next month. All are wonderful, wonderful people.
For three days we shared and were taught by the other couples serving here in the Ukraine Donetsk mission.
Our long train ride home through the night was smooth, but this train had no announcements over the loudspeaker, no digital read-out of cyrillic characters running across a screen overhead, no stern-faced steward tossing out offhand comments to appraise of toilet stops, not a single indication of any kind about which stop was the one near our home. And outside the windows everything looked the same -- dark and lonely with a few trees, and a few shadows moving on and off. It is kind of a miracle that we did get off at the right stop, and are not out in the middle of Russia somewhere right now.
so so glad that you take time to post.
ReplyDeleteThat ride home sounds a bit like one of my nightmares. I loved the feeling you wrote with and I could feel the spirit that was there at your conference in your few words.
ReplyDeleteOh, to send you some spinach, some green onions and carrots for your warming soup and fourleaf clovers, sugared violets, and dandilion wreaths for your table decor
ReplyDelete.... and princess grass, sorrel and sweet redbud flowers. they're tangy-sweet. And chickweed, says Bree, for your table.
(And did you know, she says, when thorns are barely starting to grow you can peel them, chew on them, and spit them out when you've got all the juice."
Oh? what do they taste like?"
Like wild things.All wild things taste alike when they are young, except wild onions. Like lettuce. You can chew on cherry leaves right now, but don't swallow them. They are like construction paper.And did you know that if Dad chops down a good silver maple, the inside bark if the tree is cut down at the right time, tastes like tangy honey?")
Just some more proof of spring for you. Even Kharkov must have maple bark...And Lugansk has kids somewhere inside or outside of it who also think they are deer...who belong in primary...or Young Women's, as in our case....
dad, you look extra cute in your russian fur cap atop your head! with the snow falling all around you . . . I have mixed feelings about this whole thing! it sounds dismal and dreary but then again, it doesn't.
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