Olena Blagodarna

This morning, I fish an email out of my spam filter. It is from Olena Blagodarna; she lives in Lima and is interested in helping Diospi Suyana. Since I will be in Lima the next day, I call her and we agree to meet.

A day later, I am sitting in the lobby of the small Tinkus hotel in Miraflores. The young woman from the Ukraine, who sits next to me, listens attentively as I am telling her the story of Diospi Suyana.

What she has to tell me when I am finished with my story makes me think: "When I was four years old, I fell out of an 8th floor window of an apartment building – and survived."

Olena continues slowly. "Yesterday, my friend said to me, maybe you survived that fall so you can be part and help with this missionary hospital Diospi Suyana!"

"How did you become a believer?" I ask her. "My teachers in Kiev told me that God didn’t exist. But deep down, I knew the opposite was true. Finally, a friend invited me to come to their church. The people of that community told me that, of course, there is a God! And I said to myself, I have known this all along!"

Olena has been living in Lima for two years. She is a believer. Maybe her journey will lead her to Curahuasi. As I am outside besides the BCP Bank building, I look up. The 8th floor is quite high. Rare that Olena is still alive. /KDJ

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