JANUARY 31, 2007

BROWN BUS, LVIV, UKRAINE

WILLIAM R., Affiliate, COLFAX, CALIFORNIA writes:

Sodova Vyshnya home for the elderly was located in a 300 year-old former monastery.  The floors were uneven and sloping while the central corridors remained dark at midday.  There were frequent stiles between rooms that certainly would not meet our OSHA safety standards.  There were steep stairs between the three floors of this facility that the residents would have to use getting to the dining hall.

The elderly residents in this site each received a stuffed doll, which they immediately began to caress and hold like it was the most precious thing in the world.  They began to talk to the doll and stroke it lovingly.  One of the residents, who appeared to be only sixty years old, sang a plaintive melody of tender love and the room became silently transfixed as we listened to her song of appreciation.

One of the residents, whose body was twisted and deformed with osteoporosis, clung to my hand and tenderly stroked our clasped hands with her other hand even though it was bandaged in gauze from a burn.  She smiled as we touched and our eyes locked in fixation as we communicated without words.  It was a tender time as the Gospel message was heard and accepted by this woman.

By going to this site, we have the chance to share the love of Jesus with smiles and hugs, which are always well received by these lonely people who are trapped in an institutional life.  Our personal contacts are a rare and precious bright spot in the midst of a gloomy winter scene, which seems unending in this part of the world.

These trips are life changing events; I will never be the same as I remember the faces of these elderly persons who have been shut away in the dreary and decrepit old institutions that survive on the bare minimum of support.