Sunday Afternoon with Igor and Vladimir

I was riding the marshrutka to church Sunday morning when I got a call from Igor. Igor, if you recall, helped me shop for modems a while back (see Internet Access in Russia). It had been a couple weeks since I'd talked to him, he's been busy. Turns out he and a friend of his were going to be at church that morning, also. I think Igor was there to talk to the Musgraves about Skylink interaccess (Igor is a salesman) and Vladimir decided to tag along. Igor had mentioned Vladimir in the past, saying that he'd be interested in meeting me and practicing his English. As it happens, I had randomly bumped into Vladimir in town a few weeks before. He overheard me trying to buy a phone card and helped out. Funny.

The weather was actually nice (it's been raining for weeks), so the three of us decided to wander down to the waterfront. We also planned to see if one of the museums was open. The museum plans were cut short, though, when I slipped on the muddy slope by the old German bunker and fell on my butt. I got cleaned up in the bathroom in a nearby hotel lobby, but Vladimir and Igor decided that walking around with a soggy bottom would be the death of me. They were very empahatic, so we headed back to Igors house. Igor washed my pants (which was very kind of him) and also cooked up some lunch. We hung out at Igor's house until evening. This morning was the first time that either of them had attended an evangelical service before, so they had some questions about protestant churches and churches in America. The both said they enjoyed the service, especially that they were allowed to sing and pray. In Orthodox services, the priests perform the service and the people are mostly spectators. Being able to participate in the service was very different for them. While Igor was cooking lunch, Vladimir asked me how I came to find God so I briefly shared my testimony with him. We had a good talk while lunch was cooking. Vladimir also came to the Bible study Wednesday night and seems interested in growing closer to God. I had a great time with both of the guys. I was pretty annoyed about the soggy bottom at first, but it ended up providing a good opportunity to hang out with Igor and Vladimir. Funny how these things work out.