I promised I would dedicate a special chapter to Josh’s dad, Pawel, So here goes...
Pawel was born in the Caukasus region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. He told me the heart-breaking story of how as a young man he found himself in a place where a brawl broke out and someone had called the police. Tragically he was the only person left when the police arrived, so they arrested him! Eventually he was sentenced to spend years in a Gulag in Siberia. There he learned to survive by his wit and his skills as an artist and craftsman.
After his release he was forbidden to live in any large city, so he and his wife settled in Stanovka, a smaller town next to Yenakijeve.
Josh was their only son, and naturally his parents doted upon him. When Josh joined our team his mom and dad were of course curious about his new found faith, and in a short time Pawel whole-heartedly and enthusiastically embraced his son's faith in Jesus. On his living room wall Pawel painted a symbolic image with elements of biblical promises.
Every time we came for a visit it was a special occasion. There was nothing Pawel would not do for us. He left no stone unturned to make us feel welcome and offered his help in any way possible.
Pawel’s skills as an artisan came in handy, and we worked together on a number of project which gave us both a lot of satisfaction. Among other things he painted our first “Friend of Ukraine” sign on our van and later on made some beautiful trinkets of the aforementioned painting. I still have the one he hand-crafted for me made from various bits of metal filed and fitted together on his little work bench.
The years spent at the Gulag had taken their toll on Pawel’s health, and we discovered that he was in dire need of an operation for his stomach. It so happened that he was a friend of the main surgeon from the hospital in Yenakijeve.
When talking with this dear doctor we found out that "yes he was indeed able to perform the needed operation for Pawel, but alas in the chaos after the fall of the Soviet Union the needed instruments for the operation had disappeared."
What to do? - Long story short we contacted a medical company in Norway, who were supplying instruments for “Doctors Without Borders,” and explained the situation. On our next visit to Scandinavia we were able to pick up such a set of surgical instruments free of charge from the company in Oslo.
We managed to bring them in past the demanding Ukrainian customs, and deliver them in person to the surgeon. You should have seen the expression of happiness on his face when he opened the package and carefully took out each instrument one by one.
This was one example of humanitarian aid we used to bring in.
I finally had to conclude that caravans are not built for Ukrainian roads :-) especially not when overloaded with humanitarian aid, so I came across an old flat-bed trailer that I bought from a plumber in Norway. A kind benefactor owned a farm and we were able to build a top to the trailer in his barn. He even supplied us with some good waterproof plywood for the roof.
This was a much stronger means of transporting humanitarian aid, but even this trailer's undercarriage eventually started to crack under the load. A neighbour mechanic in Dnipro suggested we made a new undercarriage from Ukrainian iron bars with cross beams for support. That did the trick, and our trusty trailer never broke again :-)
In those early days we were the first pioneers. In later years we started seeing big trailers from organizations and churches driving truckloads of aid to Ukraine. Unfortunately I heard a good percentage of it ended on the black market. I can only hope that most of it reached the people in need.
I personally came to the conclusion that no matter how much humanitarian aid you bring, it would never be enough to really change things for the better. Regardless of how good a system or political ideology you have, if selfishness, greed and other interests prevail it's doomed to fail. Without the love of God in the heart of man history simply becomes a vicious downward spiral. Only love for God and our fellow man can truly make a better world.
Back to our story...
The grateful doctor from Yenakijeve invited us to a party at his home, insisting we needed to celebrate the occasion – which we did. The evening spent with him and his wife was a veritable feast. They treated us to special delights prepared with harvested food from their dacha along with the obligatory vodka and brandy. I was unable to partake of the drinks, being the "designated driver," (there is a zero alcohol level policy for driving in Ukraine) but - as you'll see - I was soon to be compensated for my "sacrifice."
After the celebration we drove Josh and Pawel back to Stanovka. On the way we came by a car that had slid off the snow covered road and landed in the ditch. I stopped to see if we could pull the fellow back up on the road. The gentleman was flabbergasted that a foreigner would stop to help him out of his predicament, and when we had managed to pull him out he insisted we accompany him to his place for a treat.
We ended up having a second celebration at his place. Josh was rocking out on the beautiful grand piano in the man's apartment, while I sang - guitar in hand. By this time our van was parked at Pawel's place, so now it was okay for me to partake of the champagne and chocolate being offered by our host :-)
Chapter 15 ~ Pushing Prison Programs ( TOC )