This weekend Lena's mother, sister, and niece (whose photos are often featured on this blog--she is not our child as some readers have thought) came for a visit. Though we were still struggling to get over jet lag, they woke us up a bit. We had other excitement while they were here. A leak in our kitchen sink/washing machine connection emerged while we were gone. Lena and her mom tried to fix it, but the neighborhood plumber had to be called in. He showed up Monday and fixed it. Of course, it's about the 10th time it's been fixed.

We had a great worship service on Sunday. A mostly full house. Dima Zhyovov preached. The church is organizing a round-the-clock prayer vigil for Natalya who has again been diagnosed with cancer. She was there and had begun the first round of treatment the government will pay for. The other rounds, she has to find the money for the medicine. $2,200 a treatment. The church gave about $400 this Sunday in a special offering for her. We are still a long way from reaching the goal for the first treatment. After that first major treatment, doctors will be able to tell if the cancer will respond and then further treatment will be needed. Join us in praying for her healing.

After church, I had lunch with Oleg and we caught up on all the news of the last month or so. He had just returned from a business trip to Italy and had been in Paris over Christmas break. I then came home and collapsed. More jet lag. Jet lag really hit me hard on Monday and this cold I am battling didn't help any.

We got some other good news on Monday. We thought we were going to have to go to Moscow to settle some government business but we learned on Monday that we don't! We can do it all through the mail. Praise the Lord. That will save us several days and several hundred dollars.

Our hot water came back on. That's always good. And it's not so cold today. Lena's family left this morning at 6:00AM. They had about 150 pounds of stuff to take back to Zhitomir and Vanya came to pick them up in a car.

Can I complain for a moment? I bought 3 CDs of music while in the States. I usually space them out over the year but I normally open one up right when I get back. I am the kind of person who listens to one CD hundreds of times, just over and over, and then I don't want to listen to it anymore and usually I give it to the UEC. The CD I opened turns out to have about half the songs of another album I have. Exactly the same songs, same singers, everything. Sort of makes me sick. Isn't this unethical? I guess I am going to have to be less naive in music purchasing. I bought it used on Amazon so it didn't cost much. Just disappoints.

I have about finished a book on the 16th-century Reformation. My theme this semester is church history. I am also a few chapters into a biography of Martin Luther. That Reformation was a bloody mess, literally. Even though they were mired in their own fallenness, we owe them a lot. They paved the way.