Baseball and the Ukraine

It’s Friday night and we can’t believe that in a few days we will be heading back home. This place has become almost familiar. The baseball game Thursday was a lot of fun. It was the first day here that it was warm enough to wear just a t-shirt. A bunch of little kids showed up to play and they really enjoyed it. Trudy, Russ’ wife, showed us around their village, Mikapercs. It was simple, quaint, and beautiful. We all went back to Russ’ house after the game, had some tea, and helped him plant a Christmas tree. We also heard that the Ukraine team had returned. We took the bus back to Debrecen and met up with everyone to go out for dinner, minus a few of us who went to Romania for a church service (Romania is only a twenty minute drive from here).

The team who went to Ukraine, Teagan, Tim, Jill, Deej, Will, and Kristi had what they could only describe as an intense experience. As soon as they got to the border, tensions were high. The security at the border was not very inviting and had a lot of questions for the team. After they got through, they met Ladi, the interpreter, who drove them to a children’s’ hospital for orphans. When they got there, the nurse showed them around the facilities. The nurse spoke Ukrainian to Ladi, Ladi translated to Hungarian to Bodi, and Bodi to English. The hospital was in horrible condition, they barely had any equipment and what they did have was years outdated. What really hit the team was the kids in the hospital. They were probably less than two years old and had been living with almost no affection in their lives. All they wanted was to be held, and that’s what the team did. When it was time to move on, the kids screamed because they knew they weren’t going to be held for a long, long time. It really hit the team hard who explained it as unreal and disturbing. From there drove to a boarding school where there were about 80 high school students. The students did a session for them with worship, a testimony from Kristi, and Tim Barley did a bible study. Everything before this was bleak, from the hospital, the border, and even the terrain which was all run down. But these students had hope and promise, some of them knew the Lord, and they were excited about life. It was really refreshing for the team. They then went to Ladi’s house where they were fed like kings and well taken care of. But they were happy to get back to Hungary where there was civilization.
We all met up again for dinner at an amazing restaurant and ate in this stone catacomb-like room with some of our friends we have met along the way. Dinner was great Hungarian food. Once again we were spent, and off we went to bed around midnight to try to rest for another full day.

Today, Friday was another amazing day with a tour of Debrecen and a session with the youth group, then dinner with Bodi and many of our friends. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to write about it. Tomorrow we are headed to Budapest. Be encouraged, just as we are. We have made many, many good friends here.