Hammer and Sickle Emblem

In 1992 we traveled to Chernivtsi, Ukraine, which was part Romania before WWII.  I spoke at a large Romanian church on a Sunday.  There believers from many ethnic groups in attendance that Sunday.  As I preached, one translator spoke to a group in Romanian, another in Russian, and another in Ukrainian.  It was noisy but thrilling.  I focused only on what I was saying, and it went well.  That afternoon, waiting for dinner, I wandered through the sanctuary.  I looked through the song books in the choir loft to see if I recognized any hymns.  To my amazement, the hymnals were composition notebooks with handwritten hymns!  I explained to our host, Alexandru (nicknamed Sasha), that I wanted a Hammer and Sickle emblem for a friend in America.  He said that he would work on it.  Two days later, as we were driving to the border leaving the Ukraine for Romania, we drove past thousands of acres of windblown fields.  Sasha had me stop and pick up a man walking.  He crowded into the back seat of our rental car and we continued toward the border.  I discovered that this hitchhiker was a border guard supervisor.  Since we had given him a ride, he would expedite our paperwork when he arrived at his post.  As the guard got out of our car, he “accidentally” left his hat in the back seat.  I started to return the hat, but Sasha stopped me with a wink.  The guard had traded his Hammer and Sickle emblemed hat for a free ride to work.