Mother Mission Trip to Poland and Ukraine Part 3

I'm finally back and writing, what I hope is, the last installment. However I cannot guarantee that. Anyway, let's get started. Oh yes, there is one thing I forgot to mention in my last installment. I love borscht! It's very good and everyone makes it a little different, sort of like beef stew. Everyone has their own little way of making it. Definitely try some borscht when you travel to Ukraine.

Near the end of my stay in Ukraine Rachael and her boyfriend and most of the little Lviv church I told you about traveled north (I believe) to a place that was a real tourist attraction (to the Ukrainians). I know Rachael could, but I cannot remember the name of the place. It was in the mountains and near a mineral water lake that everyone liked to bathe in because it was very good for what ailed you. It was a very hilly area and everyone walked up and down the hills to get where they wanted to go in the small mountainous village. Believe you me, I got my exercise that weekend! In fact, I really exercised the entire time I was in Ukraine. Everyone walks everywhere. It was good for me, but I was sweltering the whole time and my face was pulsating and beet red throughout my entire stay. (Not a good look for a single middle aged woman.)

On with my story....we all gathered in this pretty little village in northern Ukraine for a weekend missionary conference. Churches all over Europe and Eastern Europe and Asia that were affiliated with Greater Grace World Outreach were invited to attend this conference. It took place in a large building that could accommodate big crowds as you can see in the picture on your right. This building also had a cafeteria where we all ate. It reminded me of an old black and white movie of a mental institution cafeteria. It was grey and white and unattractive. The women who cooked and waited on us reminded me of matrons in a mental institution who made you tow the line or else. It was kind of creepy in a adventurous sort of way. Rachael and I stayed in sort of an Alpine inn, but Ukrainian style; meaning no frills and not that clean.

I met several people from all over the world. It was very cool. I remember in particular a young couple who had pretty much walked all the way from one of the "stan" countries. (You know, Pakistan, Kirghistan, Afghanistan, etc.....) They were married and very young and very sweet and very poor. The young man was sick with a sore throat. He had a scarf around his throat to keep it warm. Mind you it was probably 90 degrees outside. He told me he had never taken any medication! That in itself is mind blowing if you are an American citizen. I happened to have acetaminophen 500mg tablets on me. I gave him one tablet for his sore throat. He thought it was a miracle! His sore throat went away! I gave him all the acetaminophen I had left and told him to use it sparingly for aches and pains. The young man and his wife were so thrilled you would of thought I had given them a million dollars! I snapped a photo of them near the end of the weekend when he felt better. The missionary conference was a good time. I also met several Americans at the conference and I have since met up with some of them in the Greater Grace church in Baltimore, Maryland.

The time was nearing for me to go home to the U.S. and Rachael was still very much into her Ukrainian boyfriend. By the way, he had not been that nice to me during my time in the Ukraine. Rachael knew this but chose to ignore it. So, one morning in our "Alpine Resort" I broke down crying and told Rachael how I really felt about her situation. I explained to her that even if a man does not like his future mother in law he at least should try to fake it while he is courting her daughter. I went on to say that it is really bad when the future mother in law is a foreign country (his country!) and he is rude to her. I told Rachael that if he was so crass as to treat me this way for the short period of time he had to spend with me then he would never be good to her after the honeymoon was over. I told her I did not think he was right for her and that I truly felt she would be very unhappy if she married him and moved to the Ukraine for life. I reminded her that she was a wonderful girl, but a material American girl and the Ukraine did not have a lot to offer in the way of material things.

A few days before we left for this missionary conference I had called my sister, Molly, in Hope, Maine, USA. I was desperate to talk to her about my feelings on Rachael. The phone call cost Molly a couple of hundred dollars! I asked Rachael what she was going to do when she needed to call home. Was it only going to be a monthly call for 3 minutes? Rachael didn't give me a lot of hope. So, all I could do was leave it to God as I surely had no control. Later that day Rachael's boyfriend and another young man from the Lviv church gave me a ride back to Lviv where I caught a train that would take me to Warsaw, Poland. Rachael stayed at the conference. Let's just say it was a somber ride back to Lviv.

Once on the train I met a Polish lady who was traveling in my cabin. I forgot her name, but she was very nice. Thankfully, she could speak English. We talked and talked and got to know each other on the way to Warsaw, Poland. It was a very interesting trip. I love to ride on trains and it was so nice to see the countryside of Ukraine and Poland. I felt like I was in a fairy tale, except for one thing. Growing up in Maine I am a great believer in fresh air. I love to throw all the windows open and let the wind blow in to change the air. Well, the Ukrainians and the Polish people don't believe that way. No matter how sweltering it is they do not believe in opening windows. So, I was boiling hot all the way from Lviv to Warsaw! I think you can tell that by my picture as my face is beet red!

When I got back to Warsaw, Poland I was met at the train station by a lovely young Polish couple. They let me stay in their apartment in Warsaw overnight as my plane flew out for home the next day. Again, I cannot remember their names. They were very sweet and gracious. The young woman took me on a tour of down town Warsaw and showed me buildings that had been damaged in WWII. She showed me the building where the movie "The Pianist" was filmed. It had many bullet hole markings all over the front of the building. "The Pianist" had not yet come out in the states but you better believe I went to see it as soon as it came out. I thought it was a very interesting movie. I've seen it a couple of times.

The lovely young couple only had a one bedroom apartment. They let me sleep in their bedroom and they slept on the couch in the living room. I gave them my jar of peanut butter as they had never tasted peanut butter. I may be terrible at names but I will never forget their kindness to me. They are pictured above on their living room couch.

The next day I flew out of Warsaw and was very happy to arrive back in the states. Rachael stayed in Ukraine for a couple more weeks. Shortly after she got back home, she informed me that she had broken up with the Ukrainian. I thanked God for answered prayer! Not long after Rachael met her future husband, David and not long after that they were married. Now they have a beautiful son named Henry. Rachael's Ukrainian boyfriend was not happy that she broke up with him but he finally moved on with life and got married and had children of his own. So, all's well that ends well and that's where I am going to end the Mother Mission story.