Sunday, 14 February 2010 23:03
So this is what the internet looks like! It’s so big and…and red. I’d nearly forgotten; we’ve been without it for the last 5 weeks, which has meant no blogging, no Facebook, and no e-mail. If you’ve written to us sometime in the last month and a half, and haven’t heard back, that’s why. I confess I thought it was wonderful: sort of living way back in the golden age of the twentieth century again. From time to time while we were on the road, Tim was able to find a café with Wi-Fi and hook up long enough to pay bills and take care of the most pressing matters of business, but otherwise, we were back to the days of communicating by smoke signal and talking drums.
The journey was an adventure, as every journey is: The Ukrainian police harassed and robbed us all the way from the Russian border to Kiev, stopping us over and over again, and inventing reasons to fine us. After that, though, we got to spend some time in one of our favorite cities: Krakow, Poland. Slovakia is beautiful. We all agreed that it looks just like Middle Earth. (We’re pretty sure there was a hobbit living down the road from us there.) One week, we went to Budapest, Hungary to have some medical needs taken care of at an American clinic, and wound up the trip with a few days in Prague (Czech Republic) for Sarah’s 14th birthday. Truly though, for me, the trip was all about the sandwiches. Russia has great food, but one thing you can’t get here is a really good deli sandwich. You know: the kind with the thinly-sliced turkey or ham or roast beef…(cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, mayonnaise…anybody hungry yet?) Deli meat is just not sold here. The other countries we were in had it though, and for a whole month, eating sandwiches never lost its novelty for me.
We arrived home at 2:30 Wednesday morning, with visas in hand. The Russian consulate in Bratislava (Slovakia) processed them for us with no problem, and more quickly than they told us they would, so we were able to cut our trip short and get home earlier than expected. It was wonderful to see Nina, Vladimir and Galya again. Kopek, who lived outside in her doghouse while we were gone, was flourishing: very fat and very frantic about seeing us again. This morning, we had a second heartwarming “homecoming” with our Russian church family.
We got some great news this morning: remember the Internat (boarding school for “social orphans”) that we went to at Christmas? They’ve invited our church to come back on a weekly basis and teach a values-based course to the 9th and 10th-graders. We’ll use existing curriculum to teach about drugs, alcohol, sex and other pertinent issues. While we have to be careful not to mention any hint of anything “religious,” this is a great opportunity to give these kids some kind of handle on moral values and safe living. Our hope is that we will soon also be allowed to teach “life skills” there as well (money management, sewing classes, car repair, English classes, etc.)
Thank you for your prayers while we were on the road. We’re grateful to be back home and back in touch with you; to have a visa in our hand for another year, and ministry opportunities waiting for us. Praise God for His grace and faithfulness!
