my lovely host

Eunice

I just recently left Eunice's house to stay with a wonderful family in Zelenograd, but before telling you about them, I wanted to tell you about the woman I spent the last 10 days with.

A month or so ago, my dad got in touch with his contacts at the church office and got Eunice's email address to email her. He told her that he had a daughter who was coming to Russia and was wondering if she could help out in any way. You see, I had been planning on coming to Russia right after Andy left Spain to help out at the Christian Associates Eastern European Connect (a missionary conference). The date for the conference, however, was pushed back all the way to the last week in August, so I had a big gap in between Andy leaving and my first real duties in Russia.

I was reluctant to contact the church because last time I asked for missionary contact information I was denied, but my father emailed anyway and Eunice replied, graciously opening up her home to me. Without ever meeting me, she said that I could stay with her while I was in Moscow (from the 31^st of July to the 10^th of August). She herself was just getting back from around 6 weeks in the United States and she told me that the week I would be here would actually be her busiest week preparing for the school year to start! The Lord worked it out perfectly and we are benefiting mutually from this arrangement.

I met Eunice when I arrived at her flat on Friday afternoon (although she told me she had been waiting for me to arrive all afternoon the day before!) and since then we have been hanging out around Moscow, the house and her neighborhood.

Eunice is the secretary at the Christian school in Moscow. She has lived in Russia for about 8 years and has worked at the school for the last couple years. In California, she worked as a legal assistant at a company for a number of years. She came on a couple short-term mission trips to Russia and somehow ended up moving here! She actually met my dad a couple years ago when he came to teach at the Bible school in another part of Russia (though she doesn't remember him). Eunice likes to cook foods I've never tasted before (like scrambled eggs with buckwheat, millet, and celery root salad), to eat dinner by six while watching a movie on tea trays, get up at ridiculous hours in the morning and do Stormie O'martin videotapes from the 90s. She has excellent taste in videotape movies and a surprisingly dry sense of humor that sometimes escapes.

I thank the Lord for bringing us together, I can't imagine trying to sort out my first 10 days in Russia alone in a hostel (especially with my bank card problems). So, thank you, Eunice!