Sunday was stupendous! I had a WONDERFUL morning praising our Lord at ICA (English speaking, Christian church)! For the first time in 7 weeks, I actually had a feeling of "home." With my eyes closed singing "How Great is Our God," I could have been on the left side, third row of SBC. Oh how I pray I will be there next week! I had asked a missionary where we could go to a Christian church, and he told me about his church. It was about a 15 minute taxi ride away, so we went! As we got there, a man looked over at us with recognition or confusion on his face and came over for introductions. As soon as I said V*ktor’s orphanage region, it dawned on him where he had seen V*ktor. He and others from this church do the orphan camp in that region during the summer, so he had met V*ktor last summer. He was also the youth leader of the church, so he snagged someone to translate during youth worship! After all singing together a great praise time, C went to nursery and V went with the other youth.
I cannot even express how good it felt to be in church praising God with other believers. I have MISSED it - even more than I knew until I had it again. I think the last 7 weeks would have been so much better if there had been a church like this available in region. Nothing can really compare to true Christian fellowship. It is a crucial part necessary to strengthen one’s relationship with the Lord. It sure is for me, anyway!
1 John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
After church, we visited for a few minutes and then caught a taxi to the market area where we ate at a café. It was actually the same place where we had lunch after our SDA appointment on our first day in K*ev. I got my first "MOTHER, you are so embarrassing" look. I had been told there are a lot of pickpockets in this market so don't wear your backpack on your back. So, I put it on the front using one strap kind of under my coat. Apparently, he thought I looked ridiculous. Guess I'm officially Mom of a teenager! We went through the market and got a few more souvenirs. My friend M better feel super-loved because I bought a Florida Gators matryoshka (the stackable wooden dolls) for her. Yuck! Can’t believe I’m putting that in my suitcase - haha. I know she would get a Vols one for me if I needed it, so I’m willing to make the sacrifice of putting something so ugly in my luggage J After our outdoor shopping, we were frozen, so we took a taxi back to our apartment to thaw out. I connected with another adoptive family, and we decided to meet up for late supper. More awesome fellowship, laughter, and sharing experiences took place. They are from Alabama and brought their 2 teenage daughters to adopt teenage son. A friend of theirs (native-speaker) was with them visiting, so it was nice to have a translator for the boys. We sat and visited for hours until we realized it was after 10! So, we headed back to the apartment and went straight to sleep since we had to get up early Monday!
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