This year literally started off with us moving back to Ukraine.
Hi, Melissa here. As I sit here and write, I am shocked that it is already August 13th. I want to be honest and say that I am sorry because I feel like I have been a little withdrawn. I have for sure still been invested in Open Arms but this year has been full of so many changes and truthfully, some really hard times for me. I definitely imagined 2018 totally different. For those of you who don’t know, Sasha and I were supposed to getting married in the U.S. on June 3rd, 2017. Then we pushed it back to September 9th because of document issues and being afraid he wouldn’t make it in time. But he was denied his visa and that was a huge game changer… Anika and I had already moved back home to California. When he got denied this obviously brought about some big decisions.
Anika and I moved back on New Year’s Eve. We literally started the new year here in Ukraine. Talk about crazy adjustments and not fully understanding what God was doing. We understood that God’s timing was for us to be in Ukraine but we were not fully understanding why. We opened a cafe that we poured our hearts into. But due to a lack of interest (we didn’t have alcohol) and how much money it was costing, we had to close it. That was a huge blow, to be honest. Dusya and Sasha worked tirelessly to try and make it work, but in the end, we just couldn’t.
What we have come to realize is that the village is a super hard place to live for so many reasons. And life is not what we thought it would be here. But we have learned that we are supposed to be here right now to be a light in this place. (If you haven’t read about The Orange Fence, you should check it out.) There have been many opportunities where we have just been able to help the people who live here in ways that others wouldn’t. Sometimes it’s literally just by being a neighbor.
We have an elderly neighbor who basically has made enemies of anyone who knows her. She is constantly complaining to the head of the village about something or someone. We have even had the police come to our house to ask us about her because she has called every number she can to complain. They quickly understood that she is just an unhappy person who makes conflict her job. I would like to say that we instantly loved her and could only think about showing her the love of God. But… sadly, that is not true for me (Melissa). Anyone who knows me, knows I am fiercely loyal and protective of those I love. So when she makes problems especially for Sasha, my go to is not to be loving. I am working on this. Sasha is probably the only on in the village that is just not all out rude to her. He will actually listen and try to do the things she is asking, but she still is almost never happy.
So you can imagine our shock when there is a knock on our door and it’s the neighbor’s daughter. She had brought us vegetables from her garden and asked if she could pick some of our apples. We have something like 10 apple trees on our land. We gladly let her pick the apples and she walked back home. A couple days later, there is another knock at the door and she brought us homemade pizza and cake she had made with our apples. I really felt like God had used our apple trees to build a bridge with a neighbor with whom we’d previously only had conflict. This may seem like something small, but in reality, here in the village it is huge.
And then today, we hear another knock at the door. Anika opens it and it is not only the daughter but her mom. The mom can barely walk and they needed a ride up the hill to the hospital. Anika was happy to oblige and even had good conversation with her. We had no idea when we bought our house and land that God would use all those apple trees to build a bridge. We’re hoping this will be the beginning of a change in a relationship that was previously such a struggle. We definitely haven’t been perfect, but we’re thankful for grace and an opportunity to do better as we grow. Stay tuned for more adventures of life in the village!