Divine encounters

"Zenész vagy?" (Are you a musician?)

"Igen!" (Yes!)

That's how our divine encounter began with Zolan and Marta, two young Christian believers who are volunteering for a year, each serving in different venues in Ukraine. Zolan had his guitar slung over his shoulder and mine was on my back, and after our greeting in Hungarian, he offered to help us get our luggage off the train. We then struck up a conversation with both him and Marta and learned about their work in Ukraine. Zolan, who is Romanian, teaches at a gypsy school in a village outside the city of Uzhgorod; Marta, who is Hungarian, teaches and lives at an orphanage which houses 67 girls, most of whom are handicapped, and all of whom speak Hungarian!

We could have stayed and talked with them all day as they were as curious about us and our work as we were about them and theirs. But after exchanging phone numbers and email addresses, we parted paths, hoping that we might meet again.

As it happened, our fearless leader, Mary Jill, had worked in just enough "gap" time in our week-long schedule to make a trip to the orphanage where Marta serves. She was thrilled to see us arrive and proceeded to show us the building and grounds and explain the history of the orphanage. We had arrived just as Marta was finishing up Bible study with a room full of girls, and when she cut it short, some of the girls became very sad; we asked why...she said, "They are quite heart-broken because we cannot finish Bible study!"

The orphanage was funded and built by a Danish Reformed Church and now employs people from the neighboring village in its fields and daily workings. The girls are well taken care of and we heard of their wonderful love for each other: there are a few girls who are completely bed-stricken, and on nice days when everyone goes outside, the able-bodied girls carry the bed-stricken girls on their backs outside so they too can enjoy the activities!

I left part of my heart at this orphanage........