It’s the little things that make your day sometimes. This story isn’t worth writing in a newsletter, I guess. But it meant a great deal to me. On Sundays, for a little while at least, I’m checking out churches to pray about which to make my home church. This Sunday, I went to the largest church in Ukraine (in membership). I am told that they have 30 services a week and 20,000 members. It’s called, “Embassy of God,” and it’s a Pentecostal/Charismatic church pastored by a Nigerian. An interesting mix and flavor to say the least.
I went with my friend Zholti (from Uzghorod), and another student I hadn’t met before named Larissa. As it turns out, I have a half hour walk ahead of me, a bit cold. Zholti is a good friend, mainly because we like to hang out at the Good Ship Venetzia, pull out the worship songbooks and worship together. He plays guitar; I play the piano. The funny thing is that he sings all the songs in Russian and I sing them in English, and we do that simultaneously. Which is, by the way, another great avenue for me to learn Russian.
So we have a limited vocabulary in each other’s language. I think perhaps we sound like a couple of Tarzans. “You… want… playing… new… song?” On our walk, I find that Larissa speaks less English then Zholti, or has less confidence. So the three of us plod through conversation. Zholti being the translator
Then I remember that Zholti told me he was adopted by a family in Germany. So when I can’t explain the English word, I pull up the German one. As it turns out, Larissa spent a year in Germany and can speak it fairly well. So for the rest of our walk to church, we spoke this strange hybrid of German, English, and Russian.
This came in especially handy because Zholti left church early. Believe it or not, it was a four hour church service. So it was just Larissa and I walking back home. I was so thankful for the German language that sort of lays dormant in me most of the time. We actually had a real conversation about our pasts and futures, former jobs, etc. A funny part came when I asked what she did for work in Germany. She told me but I was unfamiliar with the word. Then she explained it and I thought she was a Nanny. But when I asked, of course she’d never heard the word English word, Nanny. Finally I said, “You were Mary Poppins.” And to this she said yes, something like that.
Strangely enough, speaking German made me feel more at home. Even though we never speak German at home, unless we don’t want English speakers to know what we’re saying. But there’s a certain warmth to me about the language because of my heritage. Your language must be close to your heart.

¶ 2:34 AM

 Lori said...
That's awesome!  

 Anonymous said...
Both Mom and Mrs. Nevil would be proud.  

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