Honor among thieves

For the third time in as many years, I was pick-pocketed this week.

• The first time it was a band of guys who pushed their way onto the subway, causing a big ruckus and push so they could reach in my pocket and take my phone.
• The second time someone reached into my man-purse as I was riding down the subway escalator.
• This time I was in Coffee House with Pastor Igor, and someone managed to take my whole purse right off of the couch I was sitting on.

I was depressed, but both Diana and I weathered it much better than the last time. The bad news was that I had just taken a couple hundred dollars out of the ATM. The good news was that what was not in the purse were my phone, iPod, or passport. I had also just taken a bill out that had our address on it, which would have come in handy with the keys.

A few hours later, after I had had a little time to fight back in prayer by thanking God for the positives, and to affirm that He is in control, that He is good, and that I will rejoice in all things, I got a call. A bathroom cleaning lady at an upscale hotel across the river from where I had been had found the purse and a piece of paper with our number on it. Preserved were:

• the keys
• all my discount cards
• all three credit cards (though we had already blocked two)
• my pen

The nice thieves had stuffed everything, except the money, my metro card, and chewing gum, back nicely in the main pocket and put it in a trash can where it would be found. It was as though they didn't want to put me out too much.

You think I'm crazy? I was telling someone about what had happened the next day, and she said she knew of incidents where pick-pockets would call their victims by phone and tell them where to find their purse, like in a grocery store locker.

They say there is honor among thieves. The Bible says we have all been given a conscience to remind us of the universal laws that point us back to their Creator. C.S. Lewis even said that the universality of these principles and our universality of our agreement on them is evidence that they are built in to our hard drive by Someone.

But my chewing gum? . . .

The Lucky 13

After over 6 months of incredible labor, with constant setbacks and pointless fights with government officials, MIR succeeded in getting 13 kids out of Russia and into the hands of Christian families in the U.S this week, out of the over 100 originally approved. This video tells the good news. I wish I could relate the behind-the-scenes work it took.

I met with Andrei Gvozdovsky on Monday, (who works for MIR on the hosting program) right after he and Masha (the director, his wife) had spend most of the night traveling around the city to pick up the kids and take them to the airport. The kids aged between 2 and 15, many of whom are handicapped. Andrei's heart went out to these kids, and he expressed hope that they would be adopted as a result of this experience. He related two short, but telling moments.

One little boy asked him, "When are we leaving?" - and the Russian word implied by car. Andrei pointed out that they would be flying. The child didn't understand.

"Like a bird," Andrei explained.

"That can't be. People can't do that."

The other case was of a little girl who called all caregivers "mama," whether men or women. As there are no men in her orphanage, and she apparently knew none at home, she has no idea what a father is.

That's the orphan spirit for you - not knowing your Father.

Our fifty hour fridge

It's been cold here lately. I mean cold. It hit -9F before the end of November, which is cold even for Russia this time of year. Our windows look like this picture to the left. A few days later we lost our heating. What does that mean? Heating is centrally controlled here. We all have radiators that have hot water pumped from somewhere coming through them. So an accident happened a few blocks away, and it got cold.

The first night was tolerable.






The next day, we were living in the kitchen with the gas stove, and trying to heat another room with a small space heater. We all slept in the same room that night.

The next day was Kerith's birthday party. As you can see from the picture, they had to get under the blankets. They didn't mind; they were watching Empire Strikes Back.

That night it came back. And then we lost it the next day again before it had gotten normal. Looks like we are now finally doing ok. At least until the next issue....