On the second day of the mission trip in Ukraine, David McKay’s group traveled across terrible roads filled with potholes to a school that was about 30 miles away.
The school held many refugees. That day, the two doctors and their staff treated about 65 women and children. The nurses evaluated the patients and treated who they could; the doctors treated the rest.
McKay said that the medical staff gave detailed evaluations. Both doctors and nurses took their time and stayed until the last patient was assessed and treated.
When asked about the primary issues the staff was seeing, McKay mentioned the following: “not being able to sleep at night, high blood pressure, pain and arthritis, diabetes, leg sores. When the medical staff began treating patients I would go and help take out numerous food boxes with others that were there.” The weekday routine was thereby established.
“On the third day we went to another school,” McKay continued. “The people would see our van, and word would spread that we were there. They traveled by foot or bicycle. Women and children of all ages either pushed or rode their bikes.“
Sunday arrived and the group attended two different churches. The first service began at 8:30 am. McKay described the experience.
“Our preacher was asked to preach. About 15-20 older people attended. There was no air conditioning and no music. An older lady got her hymn book and started singing. Her voice was so pretty it sounded like a piano playing. She sang in her language, and I knew the song from the tune, so I followed along singing in English. There were two interpreters for the preacher. One interpreted in Hungarian and the other in (Ukrainian). Then we went two miles down the road to another church. It was a house, but the church was downstairs, and the preacher and his wife lived upstairs.”
McKay said that most of the attendees were gypsies. He stated that the congregation changes because of the transitory nature of the parishioners.
McKay was asked to give his testimony at both churches, saying, “’I’m always glad to do that.”
Editor’s Note: This is the third of a five-part series on McKay’s mission trip to Ukraine.
