Ekat Friday update

Hello everybody!

Today is Friday and I've been running all over town and have not had much time to post any information .... which all things considered is probably a good thing. :-)

On Wednesday Jerry and I were invited to the "International Day of Translators" at the Humanitarian University. Debbie told us they might want one of us to give a brief talk. Little did we know that we were going to be VIPs on stage along side a Russian teacher and a French teacher. BTW, they wanted BOTH of us to give a talk. Luckily I don't suffer from stage fright and I got to go last <G>. We gave a little speech to ~100-150 university students. One of the students was from an old Talk the Talk class of mine. So I got to spend a few minutes after the class catching up and gave an invitation to our weekend retreat.

After the "ceremony" they had a tea and coffee reception for the speakers and staff. It was a lot of fun. I was talking to Olga who is an English teacher at the university. She told me she was in Talk the Talk classes last summer. There is "summer project" that is like our fall classes but I think the University of Kentucky puts those on. So I got to asking her if she thought the stories (parables) were real or just metaphorical? She wasn't sure and I got to talk about Jesus and the Bible with her. I think, by the end, she was beginning really think about spiritual things. I doubt I will see her again, but lift up a prayer for Olga.

I think I have a class that is really open to hearing the parables in our Talk the Talk lessons. One student Ivan is really exciting to me. He is very smart and he is very caring. When we talked about "love your neighbors", he was right there. No matter who the neighbor is, a begger, a drug dealer, a Chechnyan, etc... No matter who it was, he said he'd help them no matter what.

Yesterday, Thursday, he and some of his friends met Jerry and me and took us on a tour of Ekaterinburg. He went all out to show us a good time. He bought us ice cream and paid to take us to the top of Ekat's tallest building to its lookout point. Since students don't have much money to begin with, this was a grand jesture. After classes that night he said he wished our tomorrows to be as great as today. He also said you have "black days" and "white days" and now we will have our "white days". Please pray for Ivan.

Tonight is the scavenger hunt, which means about 1 hour of non-stop running. It is always a highlight for the students and I have a 2 year winning streak to defend. :-)) Please pray for energy and endurance for all.

I have lots of pictures to share once I get back home.

God bless .... Rodney