When we first decided to move to Mukachevo, we didn’t have any contacts in that city. Everyone from our past trips lived in Uzhgorod, a city about 30 minutes away. Originally, Uzhgorod topped our list of future homes, but the Lord kept leading us to think of Mukachevo. For a little while we were lost…who could help us? We knew NO ONE. And, internet is not much help when it comes to some small obscure town in Ukraine. It seemed that we were just going to have to wing most of it…asking around for help once we arrived.

Until one day in October when I opened up my email and read “my name is lori and i am an american missionary in mukachevo, ukraine…i would love to get together.”

Skin tingling, heart racing, eyes bulging…I knew that God orchestrated this meeting. I quickly emailed her back, yes! yes! yes! of course I wanted to meet with her…she was an answer to prayer. I asked Lori how she had found me. She responded:

“it is a small world, isn’t it? especially the missionary world. yes, i found you on your website. i was looking for another american missionary in uzhgorod that i had heard of – patricia who is also married to a ukrainian. i googled “uzhgorod, american missionary” and came up with your website. i was looking for her b/c she has 3 children and i was wondering where she delivered them.”
Several things amazed me…circumstances that only God can orchestrate:
  1. The one missionary that contacts me happens to be living in the tiny city we’re moving to.
  2. Out of all the websites that she could have stumbled upon, it was ours.
  3. I KNOW the missionary she was trying to find and was able to give her Patrice’s contact information. Not only did God answer my prayers, I was also an answer in her research as well.
Since then, Lori and I have stayed in constant communication..mainly with me asking mountains of questions, and Lori graciously answering them all. I knew that God had sent her my way, but I was not prepared for just how much of a blessing Lori would turn out to be.
Here’s just a small portion of what Lori did for me and Josh during (and in preparation) for our trip several weeks ago:
  • secured accommodations and all breakfasts for our entire team
  • cleared 4 days and evenings of her schedule just to be with us
  • ordered all our meals (we ate out every lunch and dinner…and she was there for most of them…many times running between home and restaurant to take care of husband and 10 month old daughter)
  • Walked us around the city, taking us wherever we needed and wanted to go (with 10 month old Abigail in tow)
  • called all our taxis
  • searched for apartments with us, called the landlords, accompanied us to the apartment and negotiated with the owners. She also agreed to be our middle man with the landlords since we cannot speak the language and will not be there for another month or so
  • let us hang out at her home for hours between appointments
Above all, she did it joyfully. There’s really so much more…but I think you get the idea of just how great she is…a true blessing from God. More than likely she will not want all this attention I am bringing to her, but I cannot help but share how God has truly blessed me with Lori and her friendship.
Lori and Abigail