June 2000, Ukraine
“The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble; And those who know Your Name will put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You” - Ps. 9:9-10
We were so relieved to be away from the airport and turn our attention to where we were to work. We were to have our clinic in a Baptist church in Kiev that had nearly burned to the ground several days before our arrival. Our desire was to use our dental ministry as a way to draw unbelievers into the church to hear the gospel message presented by Russian speaking Christians who were to help us. But soon we realized there had been a mix up in communication. In fact, a lack of communication would be a major theme during our entire time in Eastern Europe. It was the beginning of learning many important lessons from the Lord. This one we would title “We make a plan but God often has another plan. His plan always overrules our plan.”
So instead of believers coming for care, many Christians came instead, very needy Christians. We asked those in charge if they were inviting friends and neighbors to come so they could hear the gospel but the answer was no. They had no interest in doing that. Living under Communist persecution for seventy years had made them wary of opening their church to the lost. We were frustrated that a major reason for us coming was being thwarted by the ones we were hoping to help in their ministry to the unsaved. Not only was that frustrating but our contact who had kept us waiting in customs for three hours was nowhere to be found. He was to be our translator and liaison with the Russian church people where we were working. He was busy elsewhere helping with the cleanup from the fire. So we struggled with understanding and being understood by frightened patients as we worked without a translator. We were having trouble with our equipment as well. The fire had caused major problems with the electricity and as it fluctuated, it doubled the difficulty of doing the work. This went on all morning. We were in the middle of doing a filling when we were called to lunch. Not being able to explain that we couldn’t come right then we just nodded and continued working until we were finally able to finish and head to lunch. We then found that lunch was over and everything was cleaned up and put away. We hadn’t come when called so there would be no lunch for us.
So back to work we went, hungry, frustrated and concerned about how our equipment was acting. The motors on one piece after another then overheated and burned out. The equipment didn’t even belong to us but to the nursing home where Jack worked in the States! They had bought it for us to treat their elderly residents but had agreed that we could use it overseas as well. Thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment was now out of commission. What was happening? Why was God allowing all of this? We wanted to do the work, but He was wanting to work in His workmen! He had lessons to teach us that we would need to know for years to come in our ministry.
Unable to keep working, we waited tired, hungry and discouraged for someone to transport us to our host family’s home. No one was available. Instead a man from the church informed Jack that he, Jack, would be preaching at the church service that was to begin in a few minutes! Again we were hit with no communication but lots of expectations. As graciously as he could, Jack told them that he was not prepared or able to speak that evening and finally someone drove us to our host family’s home. It seemed like our day had been a total disaster. If we could have gotten on plane at that point, we would have and flown home. But we still had almost two weeks before that would be happening. How were we going to work? It seemed like our dental ministry was finished.
We said as much to our hostess as she was preparing supper for us. We ate and went to bed, anxious to put an end to a hard day. But our faithful God was at work while we were sleeping. Our hostess had listened sympathetically while we shared about our disastrous day but she hadn’t said much. As we slept though, she was on the phone. Her husband was away at the time we arrived but as we began the next day, thinking we wouldn’t be working, she apologized for all the confusion of the previous day. She told us her husband was now home and he would be transporting us all week, back and forth to the church. Their daughter, who was on break from college, was bilingual and would be our translator for the week as well as our liaison with the church, making sure we were fed. Our hostess’ brother in law was an electrician and would fix our equipment. God had put us with the very family that would be capable of meeting all of our needs so the ministry could go on. Once again God had made a way for us!