Home at Last

Well at last I can hug my DH in person & debrief my very ordinary month of wearing two hats in our business.........his & mine!!! He has amazing stories of thirsty souls desperate for someone to see their needs. The level of privation in the Ukraine towns they visited was suffocating as such a small team of people (serving within a greater network) could only do so much. They took over 60 kg of hand knitted hats & scarves to give away, which were quickly exhumed by desperate people. DH eventually was confronted by need so great that he gave away his own gloves to someone that was homeless.
There were stories of the dichotomy of economics..........the castigated poor & homeless & the incredibly wealthy driving luxury cars. The irony is them being covered in mud up to the windows because the roads that they were driven on were not much more than we in Oz would consider a bush track, potholed, unsealed & poorly maintained (if at all). Stories of encounters with beautiful souls, people that were touched by the hope that the team bought were captivating & inspiring.
One of the intriguing tales was the bridge pictured above. There is a local tradition where couples in love purchase a padlock (some are engraved with messages), lock it on to the bridge & throw the key into the river as a symbol of them being eternally 'locked' together. There was a married couple in the team and the husband rushed off to find a padlock & carried out the beautiful ritual, every woman wanted to be his wife!!