God’s Glorious Grace
The agent who checked us in at the Lufthansa counter in Atlanta waived *many* overweight baggage fees (at $50 a pop), even though the adjacent agent was being very strict and charging the fee. As much as we tried to pack each bag to the exact limit, bathroom scales aren’t precision weighing instruments. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us favor!
A nice German stranger handed us 2 blankets and a pillow at the exact moment we decided to set up “camp” for our 11 hour layover in Frankfurt airport. Thanks to those plus the 2 Pooh bears our twins brought, we all caught some great naps on the floor!
Paul’s Russian reading skills ramped up when he inadvertently bought six 1-liter bottles of Keffir instead of milk (Keffir falls somewhere between buttermilk and runny yogurt). I’ve discovered it’s a great ingredient for muffins, popovers, and tuna pot pie.
The two Russian repairmen who came to our apartment to fix some leaking radiators apparently didn’t require any privacy when changing their clothes in the middle of our living room – a bit of a surprise for the Sculley females! A walk around the neighborhood at night also reveals that closing curtains is optional, too . . .
Paul figured out how to adjust the heat in our apartment, thanks to new radiator technology, so now we can sleep with the windows closed. Too much snow was blowing in, anyway!
What would be considered very minor medical issues in the U.S. translate here to phone calls to other believers for urgent prayer. We received one such call this week from some friends. Imagine having even a minor complication with no readily accessible drug store or trustworthy clinic. Living here is giving us a greater appreciation that our dependence is totally on God, because as wonderful as great medical care is, it can lure us into thinking of that as our first line of defense and only really praying about the “biggies”.
My morning quiet times have been so lovely – in our bright, cheerful little kitchen on the 3rd floor, I sit at the table facing the window. I see the city lights, then as dawn breaks through, I see many of our neighbors come out to de-ice / snow their cars or make their way to the bus stop for work or school. The sun casts a beautiful glow on the side of the adjacent building, and beyond that is the beautiful Volga River, a sash of ice at this time of year. It’s a lovely way to start the day, and I’m enjoying the arsenal of devotionals we brought (those and itunes worship music are essentials!). There really is something to “praying in high places” . . . it helps me to have much more of a heavenly perspective in praying God’s Kingdom down on a neighborhood, a city, a nation!
