Sunday - Not Gone Fishing

An addendum: The day after we gave out thank-you photos, blank note cards and blank recipe cards, one of the kitchen workers came to me in the green corridor and handed back all the index cards - with five recipes written. Hurray! We thanked her profusely and can’t wait to find out what they say. Sergei has agreed to translate them for us.

Surprisingly I had no problems falling asleep last night around 11 in spite of the evening espresso and I slept pretty soundly until about 5:45. I gave myself the day off of exercising (Jillian probably wouldn’t approve). During the hour it took to get on the Internet I wrote the letter to Natalya and made myself some coffee. Sure tasted good first thing in the morning.

A correction: I listed the wrong web address for the LHM devotional yesterday - it is corrected now. The one I wanted was for March 6th (which comes into my mailbox before it is available on the website). Today’s is definitely worth checking out: http://www.lhm.org/dailydevotions.asp?date=20100307

The IVP Hard Saying of the Day: Genesis 3:16: Is Childbearing a Curse or a Blessing? It is a good discussion, although in the end they weren’t trying to make the point I was expecting. What came to mind were the many discussions up on the Mother-Baby (Labor & Delivery) floor in the hospital where the nurses recount their own personal nightmare deliveries. At the end of these I raise my hand and say with great relief, “And then there’s adoption.”

Christine’s report: Today the fiery men are Me-shadrach, Meshach, and Go To Bed. From the day the Internet was down: “[Dennis] had dropped a toy motor for a K'Nex set on his foot and wasn't too happy about that. Then, he showed me something and bumped his head on a chair Ben was sitting on as he walked around it. He wasn't to happy about that either. So I kissed it better. Then as he walked around it again, he bumped it again. Another kiss. Then he bumped it again. Kiss. Now his chin. Another kiss. Now his nose, cheek, head, eyebrow. Kiss, kiss, kiss ,kiss. We must have played this game for a good 10-15 minutes and got his "kiss bank" all filled up.”

I just love how kisses can make things all better at that age!

Eggs, yogurt, multivitamin juice, what else? John put all of our towels in the wash for one last round. He admits he likes running the washer here.

We arrived at the Musical Institute(?) building to join a number of church members just inside the entrance while Igor, who led the service this morning, obtained the key to their usual room. It was another happy reunion with Tanya and Katya and we got caught up on the week’s events. I was very happy to hear Katya’s first week back at school here went better than expected. They told me of only one significant “bump” that God has already smoothed out. She and her brother will still be studying for the cumulative exams coming the first of April. We continued talking upstairs and sharing photos of Daniel until we were all called to worship. John had a conversation with Peter who had been a professor at a Bible college in Ohio (somewhere between Akron and Cleveland). The eager gentleman who last week was sorry he didn’t take advantage of his chance to learn English didn’t need any words at all to ask for and enjoy the photos I had on hand. After the service we gave him one of the three of us, and John gave him his e-mail address because he has a son who will help us communicate. With Katya and her father we exchanged Skype id’s.

We began with prayer and a number of hymns, between which Igor would sometimes share some thoughts (no interpreter at that point): “How Great Thou Art”; “Holy, Holy, Holy”; and unfamiliar one but a refrain we caught on to; “Softly and Tenderly”; “Just as I Am”; “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”. Another lengthy children’s message. She lost me after “good morning” in Russian. John heard her say the Russian word for ‘apple’ so he followed a little longer. Then Alec arrived and graciously sat behind us to whisper the translations. She was talking about sin and disobedience and how God in his great love did not stop loving us. He provided the ark for Noah and his family, later prophets, judges and finally his own son. She referred to the “Pearl of Great Price” parable and said God in his love sees us as that pearl for which Jesus set aside his power, glory and riches. I haven’t thought of it that way before. She finished up with an upbeat round of “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know” and we know enough Russian to join in the refrain.

Alec was called up front to play a hymn unfamiliar to us, and presumably to Tanya. Igor read from the book of John, chapter 6 beginning at verse 27. He shared his recent thoughts about how he anticipates events such as a new baby, a trip, the approval of a visa and how we can anticipate heaven, too - the joy of eternal life with God, and without tests or hardships.

Alyec (also spoke our first Sunday) came up next. Referring to Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 6:5, Romans 10 and Psalm 4:6 he talked about the ‘righteous’ inheriting the kingdom of God, and that our righteousness cannot save us, in fact we can not be righteous without God. To inherit the kingdom of God we can only trust in His mercy and love.

Igor spoke a bit more and then we sang, “When I Survey the Cross”. A few people brought up prayer requests. We had only one round of “Happy Birthday” today. We did some more visiting upstairs before moving down to the basement café for tea and cookies. It is just so good to have this time to spend with Tanya, Katya, Denis, Alec and Nadya. We will have a much better opportunity to stay in contact this time. And who knows - perhaps some day we will be able to return? (God does know, He just doesn’t overload us with information too far in advance.)

We grabbed our lunch in the Metro tunnels on our way back to the apartment - the hotdogs in dough from two different vendors, as well as the familiar chocolate pastries apparently from a branch of our Naukova French bakery. We took some time to relax and listen to a CD of a Ukrainian Orthodox priest in America that Oleksandr had graciously given us as we left Kyiv. In this series of presentations he is going back to the basics: why we believe what we believe. It is very interesting. I appreciate his view that once you become a Christian you are not required to turn off the thinking part of your brain, that it is important to know God as much as possible in order to have a closer relationship with him.

We called Nick and Dennis a little before 7 AM their time. They were excited about yesterday’s mini-golf outing with Brian and Caleb. We are not quite sure why, but it seems Dennis didn’t sleep for a couple of hours and he wasn’t happy that Nick tried to tell us about it. Dennis hung up on us once by accidentally pressing a button with his cheek. Nick dropped “us” all the way down the stairs with the same result. We are all glad it was the phone and not the boy that took the tumble.

The modern department store/mall across the street advertises a Blaser Café upstairs. When Anya was here we checked to see if it was a good place for lunch. They only serve coffee. With a day chillier than usual and a little extra time, we stopped there today before going to the orphanage. They do serve only coffee beverages, but the selection of 15 different beans we chose from made for a non-average mocha experience, and that was even before the works of art were delivered to our small table! The view (we were on the third floor surrounded by glass) and soft, pleasant music made for a nice calm interlude. It opens at 8:30 AM, and we might just have to stop in tomorrow morning again. We hope to have a chance to bring Sergei.

At the orphanage one of the caregivers had two note cards to give us while we waited for Natalya to dress Daniel. She made it clear (with no English required) that she would very much like to have us send photographs after we go home. Later up on the landing she let us take her picture with Daniel. Daniel was happy to see us and the feeling was mutual. On our way through the corridor Daniel indicated each couch we passed, but agreed to go all the way upstairs.

We made ourselves at home per usual. What was unusual was that neither bag was ever completely emptied tonight. Usually he upends every bag available at some point. The magnetic fishing and puzzle never saw the light of day today.

John pulled the train out of our ‘evening’ bag and he did dump this out. We brought along the stuffed koala and blue bunny tonight. Koala was allowed to help throw the train pieces back in the bag. Koala also prevented Blue Bunny from eating the cookie Daddy was holding for Daniel.

During this visit another caregiver brought us two completed note cards and when we asked for a photo she called the other writer out, too. We are so grateful for these momentos for Daniel.

Daniel said a nice ‘cracker’ tonight and again asked for the ‘Bump’ game. He and John spent some time looking out the window and we saw Natalya with another child looking out a window in his group room across the courtyard.
He laid up on the couch for a while with John on the floor right next to him, reading a small board book someone had left behind. I helped him drink some water and he was much better tonight. Although he tends to inhale as the water enters his mouth, he only choked once tonight.

He also had his first knitting lesson. John caught it on video.

For supper we had the frozen mixed vegetables we purchased some time last week (I think). They were very good - a mixture of red and yellow bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini and a few sliced olives in a light sauce of soy sauce, mustard and lots of basil. Just two or three suppers left here in Kharkov.