A Lull in the Day

(I wrote this yesterday, but didn't post it since internet was down.)

Right now there’s an unusual lull in the day, since Deb and I aren’t having Russian lessons for a couple of days. Deb needed some time to just get the house organized a bit without being swamped with Russian homework as well, and Svetlana wanted to keep Deb and I together in our lessons. I thought that was a good plan.

So I practiced my Russian from last lesson, plus some random vocabulary (I keep thinking that if I do ten words a day for 300 days out of this year, I’ll have 3000 words…that’s not a bad start for a language) Ten words a day is a lot though. I just figure I’ll do ten words a day whenever I can and not freak out about it too much. I’ll learn. It’s exciting how much just learning one common word can enhance your understanding. It’s such an “alive” feeling to understand even part of what someone just said because you took a few minutes to learn the word being used in conversation.

I have the sniffles. I’ve had a snuffly head and scratchy throat for about a week, but just in the mornings and evenings. Today I feel droopy and tea-drinky. And-lay-on-the-couchy. But I don’t have a fever and I’m not throwing up, and it’s an easy going day, so I’m glad. I’m drinking a foul tasting mixture of green tea and squeezed orange juice…I’m not sure why I’m drinking it…it just seems salutory at the moment. I really don’t like green tea. It seems like I ought to, but I don’t. I’m just drinking it because that’s what I made and that’s what’s warm and does a decent job of washing down peanut butter toast. :)

I’m just praising God, because since coming home from the conference I’ve slipped into a new rest and peace. I feel a lot more at ease with the Crowes and life in general, not so anxious about what I should be doing and when. It’s amazing the difference, and I don’t know how it happened or why exactly.

The Crowes have been great about welcoming me into their home, but it’s taken me a while to really accept it and relax. So I’m gradually getting better at that :) I think going away and coming back “home” helped in some way. I have roots, and that’s a nice feeling. I know Jesus said that, unlike the foxes and birds, He had no place to lay His head, but I’m taking it as an extra blessing to feel at home somewhere. I’m willing to follow Him even if it means wandering, but right now I’m grateful that He takes it in little steps! Wandering to the conference and back was pretty big for now! I came in the door with my suitcase to the smell of lasagna cooking and the sweet voice of Clarky yelling “I love you, Cassie! I like your hair!”

After supper…

Those little lulls don’t last long :) Actually, I stopped to play a game with some of the kids. Jesse (Gollan) came up looking for Rodge, who was in Russian lessons, so we played a card game while he was waiting. He taught me a fun one a little like Dutch Blitz that made me a tad homesick :) Then Rodge and Bron joined us and it was super fun…it’s a fast game, especially with four people, and you have to think quickly.

Then I worked on my room a little while. It’s been a mess because I really haven’t unpacked or reorganized since I got back from the Gollan’s…how many weeks ago? Close to two, I guess. Every day I look at the increasing disarray and piles of clothes and socks and toiletries and think something akin to “it’s hopeless” or “not now” or “maybe today.” Living out of a suitcase is making me incredibly grateful for the smallest bits of luxury furniture. Now I get a night stand with drawers-- beautiful, sacred drawers! I hold them in such reverence that it was hard to decide what to put in them. And then yesterday Bruce and Deb came in from Kiev with a clothes rack for me, which I have yet to put together. Yay! So I dived in and tried to get my belongings straightened up a bit. Sometimes I feel like I have SO MANY unnecessary clothes, but then some days I’m scrounging around trying to find something to wear that remotely matches :)

Svetlana stayed after Russian lessons to help cook supper and eat with us. I adore her. She is so fun to have around. She hardly says a word, but she’s very observant and eager to learn. She keeps insisting she wants to learn to cook American food, because her husband, Altu, prefers it to Ukrainian food. So she watches everything we do in the kitchen, and was asking Deb for recipes today…it’s so fun! I feel a little awkward when she asks me questions, because she’s 11 years older than I am, but we’re both learning. We can learn from Deb’s experience, and from Deb’s experiments as well. It’s still quite different cooking in a foreign country. It seems that we’re able to make a lot of dishes from home, though. Today we had macaroni and cheese (not Kraft!) for lunch and sloppy joes for supper.

When Svetlana is here, I feel more confident because don’t have so much of the “new kid” feeling any more :) I get to be part of the Crowes welcoming her into the family, sort of. Once again, I love it that we can share Jesus simply by welcoming people into our home. I see Bruce and Deb and the Gollans being a light to nonbelievers as well as discipling believers (like Svetlana and me) along the way as they share their lives with us and we get to see them interact with their kids, with each other, and with others outside the home.

On Tuesday night I went to the ladies’ Bible study Priscilla was hosting. I had been uncertain about going because they said the teaching was on marriage, and I knew I was going to be the youngest there…but, armed with my fresh burst of confidence I called Priscilla about it and she said anyone who was interested could come. So I went, and loved it! There were more single girls there than married anyway, and it really helped me feel a part of things to join them. I guess that subject is so close to every young lady’s heart no matter what stage of life they are in, that there was a special warmth there.

The teaching was basic, solid stuff that I lapped up eagerly…it all seemed to be so applicable, not just for the future someday, but for right now even in my relationships with the Crowes and most of all with the Lord.