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 encouraged by this Ukrainian family who had put themselves at our disposal so that our ministry could go on. The first step was to get our equipment repaired. There couldn’t be a ministry without it. The brother-in-law of our hostess, along with her husband, took us to the church to inspect the damage. The electrician was certain that he could fix almost everything but he would need parts. We were surprised when he asked if he could take Patrick with him to the electrical supply store. He explained that the parts would be expensive but he was going to try to get a reduced price on them. He said that Patrick would play a key role in all of this as he looked Chechen. Ukrainian people greatly feared Chechens as many of them were terrorists. He instructed Patrick to come into the store with him but he was NOT to open his mouth as this would ruin everything. Off they went and his plan worked perfectly! He got a big discount on the electrical parts and Patrick thought it was great fun to be mistaken for a Chechen terrorist!
But there was one piece of equipment that couldn’t be fixed – our amalgamator. In those early days of our ministry amalgam fillings were used quite a bit. Today a composite material that is hardened with a curing light has replaced these. There was a great need for fillings among the people we were treating, so the loss of this piece of equipment was a problem. Then the electrician said, “Actually, I think we have one of these.” We couldn’t quite believe that this could be true but off he went taking Patrick with him.
They drove behind a large hospital and stopped, but instead of going into the hospital, they walked into a large field behind the hospital building. Stopping at a metal door in the ground, they opened it and descended into total darkness with only a flashlight. It was an old bomb shelter left over from the Cold War years, built in case the Americans attacked. Now it was used by the church for storage. Moving from one cold, dank room to the next they searched for an amalgamator. Sure enough, in the last room, there it was on the shelf! It had been donated to the church years before by a medical team that had come through Kiev. It almost brought tears to our eyes to think of how God in His sovereignty knew all those years before that we were going to need it. There was just one problem. It didn’t work! But our faithful electrician friend stayed up all night and was able to repair it.
A generous family from our church had insisted on buying us an inverter before we left. We brought it with us, not even knowing for sure how to use it. It generates electricity from a car battery and we didn’t think we would actually have the opportunity to use it. It now became the key to our operation as we couldn’t trust the church’s electricity again. So with a new source of power and all of our equipment back in working order, God had amazingly made a way for us to go back to work!