It was a wet, wet night in Moscow

Pictures are from our time with RamCorps, a group of musicians from University of Mobile in Mobile, Alabama. We have had a wonderful time with them while they have served here in Moscow. The pics, by the way, are all by Sarah Beth, our budding photographer.

When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul. Psalm 94:19

It was the one thing I was determined to do while RamCorps was here. I was absolutely going to the American Center in the center of the city, I was getting a library card, and I was going to check out a book or maybe a movie from their huge collection. It was my reason for having Sarah Beth babysit John and Hannah after the RamCorps concert at Hinkson yesterday. It was the reason that I hiked from the metro gladly when we realized we'd gotten off on the wrong side of the train, making our trip even longer than it had to be. Nope. No complaining from me, because I was getting my library card. Or so I thought.

As I was putting my information in the computer to get my card (no small feat, since it was all in Russian, including the keyboard), we received a call from Sarah Beth. Now let me say this--Sarah Beth is very level-headed, so when she is upset about something, we are upset, too. She is not a drama queen, so when there is drama, it's usually real. And there was definitely drama on the other end of the line. Between sobs, I gathered that we had a water leak. No big deal, right? Water leaks from pipes all the time, even in America. I passed the phone to Marc so he could tell her where the shut-off valve was. The look of utter alarm that crossed his face was enough to tell me that we were leaving, and we were leaving quickly. We didn't have a leak, it turned out. We had a pipe completely break. And not any pipe--the hot water pipe. Sarah Beth was standing in 3-4 inches of steaming water trying, in vain, to get to the valve that shut the water off. Suddenly, Marc was saying in Russian, "Ma'am...ma'am...ma'am...", because the neighbor was there and was yelling into the phone. It turns out the flood in our apartment was also the flood in her apartment below us. Thankfully, our neighbor next door, Maxim, came over to help Sarah Beth when he realized what was happening and that she didn't understand what the lady from downstairs was yelling at her. Our friend Kris came over, found the shut off valve, and proceeded to calm everyone down. Soon, Marc and I arrived, Kris went to get his wet vac, and we began cleaning up the mess in our apartment. Inches of water everywhere have definitely left some damage, though Sarah Beth had the presence of mind to lay down towels in front of our room (where the equipment is) and the living room (where our guests are sleeping), so the damage to our stuff was minimal. The beautiful hardwood floors our landlady is so proud of are starting to buckle at the seams this morning from all the water underneath them. We are sad about this, but these sorts of problems are evidently not uncommon in Moscow. The handyman is coming today to fix the hot water (we don't have any right now), and life will go on. The damage downstairs is likely worse than the damage here, because we had several floors of neighbors who showed up last night to question us about what had happened. Good times all around.

What have we learned from this? Sometimes stuff happens. We didn't do anything wrong...the pipe just burst out of nowhere. It could not have been prevented (maybe better pipes?). I'm glad we have enough of the language to be able to converse with the neighbors and explain what happened. And culturally, how this would be handled in America and how it is handled here are different. Russians can sound unfriendly even when they are not. We must remember that we aren't in Middleburg anymore, and when things like this happen, Russians are going to show up at the door with questions. The key, I would think, is how we react to and handle those questions. Marc did an excellent job last night of calmly explaining what had happened, giving our landlord's name and number out, being kind and compassionate about the damage they had suffered, but firmly refusing their requests to see the pipe (it was 11:15 p.m., and we weren't letting anybody else in the house).

The other thing we've learned is that when we are actively doing what God has called us to do, discouraging distractions will abound. Could be the enemy, could be the Holy Spirit testing our commitment--I don't know. I know that whatever the reason or the source, it is very easy to be discouraged about these sorts of things. But we have decided that you can laugh or you can cry when stuff like this happens, and we're going to pick the laughing as often as we possibly can. And so we have. We cleaned up, got some chips and salsa out, and watched the season finale of The Office last night. I'm pretty sure we went to bed in a better frame of mind than if we'd cried our way through the evening.

So life goes on. It's time to get John up for school (Han's already there on a field trip today), and Sarah Beth is headed out to some sightseeing/prayerwalking with the team from Alabama. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you can laugh at the difficult circumstances in your life, and that you do not have a large rug hanging out your kitchen window to dry. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye