Thank you so much for praying these past few days for safety and smooth travel. My team arrived about 30 hours ago and we are still exhausted. We had a wonderful welcome at the airport from two of the international campus staff as well as two university students. They brought us water, pizza, cookies, toilet paper, and breakfast to start us off in our new place. After we got settled into our flat, which we LOVE, I went right to sleep and didn't wake up (or probably move) for eight hours. It was heavenly. :)
I woke up this morning to sun shining through the windows in the kitchen. I was the first awake and still had plenty of time before needing to get ready for the day, so I started a new Bible reading plan (a 90 day chronological plan), and finally got to sit down to journal. I felt such peace & joy in having finally arrived here in Russia! God has provided so abundantly and faithfully -- and now we get to move forward and see how He moves in and through us here!
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Forget jet lag, I think we need a day to recover from our trip to IKEA today. There were masses of people swarming everywhere, all speaking a foreign language, signs we could not read, no cell phones to stay in touch, etc, etc. About half way through the afternoon, I felt like I was just in a daze. I no longer cared what color comforter I would have for the year or if my pillow was the exact type of softness needed; I just wanted to get out of there!
I'm so thankful for friends on the team that was here last year and the international staff for helping us get around in the city, learn the language and customs, and provide ample amounts of encouragement.
We learned a lot about patience & flexibility on the way home from IKEA -- we left there around 6:00 and got home around 12:30 am. It's a long story, and I don't think I could relay all of the details, but it was a little like a "series of unfortunate events" kind of night... waiting on a moving truck (this one turned out to be GOOD because the friend we were waiting with had TULLY's coffee from the Pacific Northwest that he got out to share with us -- I could have cried, I was so happy!), a whoooole lot of walking, because the marshrutka (mini bus) was never on time or where we wanted it to be, not being able to find the other girls' flat, and everything we needed seemed to be stuck with someone who was not with us - including the keys to our apartment and the map that Kim made us. Also - somehow in all of that mess we forgot to eat dinner.
Needless to say, we're completely exhausted and ready to sleep hard tonight! Please pray for stamina and energy to push through the transition. Tomorrow we will all meet together for a briefing -- I'm so excited to start praying and dreaming for this city! Thank you, God, for the opportunity to be a light here in Moscow!
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