Jared's sister Kelli and I lived in Russia for five months teaching English to kindergarteners there. I went on a whim really. Many of my friends were leaving on missions, and I was dating someone that I didn't know how to break up with.
So I went to Russia. It sounded like an adventure! It was! It was a cold adventure. But it was life-changing and I will always remember the time I had there. In Russia I became converted to the gospel. I felt God's love for me. And I finally understood why I would want to be with him again.
But there were a few things that happened there that are still inexplicable. I believe they were miracles.
Kelli and I were walking home from the orphanage one cold day. In Russia the snow doesn't get shoveled. You just drive over it, or walk over it until there is a huge sheet of ice covering the roads and sidewalks. Somehow they learn to deal with it.
So we were walking along the icy sidewalk when in an instant we both simultaneously jumped several feet into the road. There was no thinking at all involved in this jump. No shot of adrenaline. We just moved. I don't even know how. I assume it was angels.
But right where we had been walking a huge wall of ice came crashing down. Several people had already died that year from falling ice. The buildings along the sidewalk was three stories high, and the chunks of ice were at least 6 feet across. It easily could have killed us both.
When we realized what had happened we were both just shaking. Neither one of us could understand how we both knew to move into the road. But we knew it was a miracle of some kind. Neither of us had looked up or had seen the ice. It wasn't a conscious thing. We felt very lucky to be alive!
I am grateful for this experience. It was one of MANY that I experienced in Russia that let me know that I was known, and that I was important. I also felt that I was being protected. Looking back and imagining my Elise in two and a half years doing the same thing makes me shudder just a bit! I know too much about how crazy things were at times. We were definitely being watched over.
Russia changed me in so many ways! I came home after doing five months of service a different person. I was more mature and had a stronger sense of who I am and why I am here. And I think Russia led to me meeting and marrying Jared. I am so happy I went.
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| In Russia you see old traditional buildings on one side of the river and mostly large concrete buildings on the other |
