STREET CONTACTING

It was a pretty morning here and we decided to celebrate my mother's birthday with a little street contacting.  Really, we were trying to squeeze in a little bit of our missed preparation days.  We needed to buy some DVD's for the office and some groceries for home. We walked a long way out of our known area and took a planned stop at a pretty park.  We sat on a bench and practiced Russian words like приветствувем  (pre vetst vu yem) or "welcome" and заключителъный   (zack lee you cheetel nee) or "closing".  Lots of pigeons were dancing around us to see if we had bread crumbs.  At least two males tried to entice different females with their fanfare. 

One female pigeon had only one leg.  

She  hopped up onto the bench by Sister Hatch and then another followed.

Well, in the middle of this activity of sidewalk contacting with the pigeons, a human girl walked directly up to us and started to talk in Russian.  We didn't understand even the substance of her monologue, much less the details until she got to the part about our Church.  Those were words that we knew!  What?  Did she ask us to talk about our church?  Here, sitting on a painted bench with the pigeons, in the middle of a city park?  Janet (Sister Hatch) did the most marvelous job talking to her for at least 45 minutes.  We still do not know why she stopped because she could speak so little English and vice-versa.  When she made a comment we listened until we caught a word or two which could be used as a springboard from which we could launch one of our few explanatory Russian sentences.  Did we give her what she asked for?  We don't know.  We do know she didn't want to leave and we were running out of words.  She gave us her telephne number and accepted an invitation to dinner.  Her name is Lira.  She is twenty and a very sweet girl.

Later we took a wrong turn and got lost . . . well, maybe not lost, but definitely not heading toward our intended destination.  We decided to make an about turn to more familiar territory.  As we were walking back along a busy street we passed a young couple sitting on a bench.  I nodded as we passed and he said, "Hello" - English hello.  We had proceeded forward fifty feet or so when they came running after us.

"Are you from America?" 

  

He is a church member from Texas and will be returning home Monday.  His friend is not of our beliefs, is from Donetsk, spoke a little English and had alot of questions about our church.  We were just approaching a big gold domed Orthadox church .  "How is your church different from ours?  What can your church offer that this one cannot?"    What an amazing question to be asked when we know that we do have an answer.  How wonderful to be invited to explain that the unanswered questions have answers and explanations to the unexplained have been revealed through living prophets.  Of course, a few minutes in the middle of a sidewalk on a busy street will not suffice.  The couple agreed to meet us at church Sunday and then come to a roast beef dinner at our home after church.

So that is how today's street contacting (or how they contacted us) began with the pigeons and ended with us wondering if we really were lost today, or if we were led.