Who'd Have Thought?

When I was 2 years old, my family moved from Greenville, NC to Graham, NC.  I have no recollection of this, of course.  Graham has always been my home.  Even now, when people ask me where I'm from, I say Graham, NC; and then I say, well, my husband and I are from MS.

Graham will always be HOME.

And one of the biggest parts of home for me is the church that I attended from the time my parents made the move to Graham.  Beacon Baptist Church in Burlington, NC is home to me as well.  I have family there, who though not blood-related (well, through Jesus' blood, yes!), are just as precious to me as my kin.

So you can imagine perhaps my utter delight and even giddiness when this man came to stay with us for a week in St. Petersburg.

This is my pastor.  He isn't just the pastor of the church that I grew up in; no, he's my pastor; and that is probably how I will always refer to him, even though I am in Beacon only a few times a year at best.

Thomas helped arrange a small conference sponsored by the church we attend here, and my pastor came to be the keynote speaker.  We got to have him with us for a whole week!  Isaiah would follow him around the apartment calling for "Grandpa", which I thought was great.  You can never have too many grandparents, in my opinion.

The conference went well, but Thomas will have to give details of that, since I stayed home with Isaiah.  Thomas was able to spend some time with him touring the city and introducing him to some of our friends.  They even celebrated their birthday together!

Pastor got to enjoy borscht, a traditional Russian soup, prepared by our friend Julia.

Thomas said he didn't realize that he and Pastor are the same age. :)

I got to hear my pastor preach in St. Petersburg, Russia!  And it was a really good sermon, too, in case you were wondering.

Who would have thought that a little girl in NC would be living in Russia and be able to host her pastor while he spoke at a Bible conference there.  It's amazing what the Lord will bring to pass!

Outside The Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood