Today is my day off… and I am not even sure what to do. I have some books I need to read and the website to update and we will visit our friend at the hospital. Sasha* (name changed) has been in the hospital for a while now – he has lung cancer. We visit him and bring him some food, since his Mum can’t really be there. The other day his Mum wanted to meet with us at her place. The family lives in a poor area in Vladivostok – it took us quite a while to get there.
There are about 10 people living in that tiny two-room apartment. The kids were happy to see us; the two older boys were with us at camp this summer, so it was good to see them again. The smaller girls were climbing all over us while the Mum was sharing her problems and her sadness. Some of her kids were taken form her and put into an orphanage. Sasha is one of them. The older son has just died a few months ago. A very sad story with not much hope left.
But I do firmly believe that with Jesus there is always hope, He can bring light into the darkest situation. We are not sure yet how we can invest in this family and help them best, but one thing is that we can share Gods love for them and bring some joy to their sadness.
So now I’ll call Sasha and see what he would like us to bring. In Russian hospitals the food is not as it is in the west, so usually the relatives take care of feeding the patient. Sasha likes fresh vegetables and salads, sometimes ice cream. He is at his last day of chemo therapy today and when he gets released from the hospital he probably can’t go to his family but has to go back to the orphanage, which he doesn’t like. We tell him that God has not forgotten him, but at the end it is up to him to believe it or not.
We also visit a girl that is paralyzed and a group of deaf orphans. God really reveals to us what it means to care for the orphans and the sick.