Returning to the Park

Thomas, Isaiah and I returned to the park a few minutes before 3 this afternoon, hoping that the appointment would be kept.  Since I wasn't sure who would be meeting us, I was a little anxious and looking at every face very closely.  But before we even reached the park, we saw a woman with a little boy in a wheelchair coming towards us on the sidewalk.  As they got closer, my excitement grew because the boy was the same one whom I had seen the previous afternoon.

We made our introductions to Sveta and Gabriel and continued our walk to the park.  At first Sveta was like most Russian women when you first meet--all business.  She started telling us about the doctors that we needed to take Isaiah to see, the tests that they would need to run, and so forth.  Then Isaiah started to work his charm, and she started to warm up to us a bit.  We, well, Thomas, explained what we are hoping to do here in Russia, and she seemed very interested.  She told us about several services that are already available, that we knew nothing about.  She told us about "hospice", which in Russia doesn't have to do with terminal illness, but rather with helping invalids.  Her son receives hospice services, and she offered to call and see if we could receive them as well.

We exchanged information and invited them over for a future visit.  She asked me if we could walk together some time with the boys.  All in all, I think it was a very good meeting.  We're not sure about all the doctor stuff that she was telling us about, but we are excited about having our first contact in the community; hopefully someone who can help us learn and whom we can help as well.

Please pray for Sveta and Gabriel.  Please pray for wisdom for us to know the best ways to become involved.  And PRAISE GOD for how He is bringing us in contact with people!  He has been faithful (of course!) to literally put people in our path at just the right times as our language skills increase.  I love being able to see His hand at work.