A Texas View of Russia

It gets cold in Texas but just wait a day or two, it will warm up -- unless of course you are Jerry Jones and God is still punishing you for firing Tom Landry by freezing out your glorious Super Bowl week!  In Russia it might warm up in March but just wait a day or two, it will be freezing again.  Yesterday's warm up here turned out to be extremely hazardous for me.  The melting snow decided to fall in large chunks off the roof of the hotel where I am staying.  As I was doing some class preparation this morning I heard a big crash outside.  When I returned from lunch I discovered that they had roped off the sidewalk in front of the hotel due to the danger of falling snow and ice.  I suspect this was done for safety reasons.  However by closing off the sidewalk, this forced pedestrians to wade through the slosh between parked cars and step out onto the narrow street, where oncoming traffic made it much more likely that I would be hit by a car than I would ever have been clonked by falling snow and ice.  The good news is that it has turned cold again so everything will be frozen over by morning and we will all be safe once more! 

There are many more cars on the roads here in Russia than ever before.  My friends were telling me that Russian TV has this motor vehicle safety commercial that says the key to surviving Russian highways is as simple as 3-D:  Di Duraku` Dorogu -- which translated means:  "Let the fool have the road."  In Texas, we say it a bit differently.  We say, "Drive friendly..."  But I think it means the same thing!

Had lunch with my missionary friend Kerry and one of my favorite Russian friends Nastia.  They have this ministry to the elderly poor who live near the church.  They also travel to these two villages where they minister to the elderly poor.  It is hard being poor and it is hard being elderly and it is doubly hard to be poor and elderly.  These two single women demonstrate kindness that reflects Jesus to some people for whom life has become very hard.  At first these older women are very closed to the Gospel and skeptical of their kindness.  But my friends are persistent and in the end, it is hard to argue against kindness.  Their simple, persistent acts of kindness preach much more loudly than any sermon.  You don't even need a seminary degree to be kind.  Kindness evangelism works everywhere -- even in Texas!

My cross cultural adventure continues... as do my prayers for Japan...
Blair