This evening, Mikhail accompanied Eunice and I to a Russian orthodox church in the center of Moscow. It was a very interested cultural experience. We all remained standing in the middle of a room with white walls and high ceilings covered with colorful pictures of saints. There was a priest walking around shaking an incense ball on the end of a chain, and when he walked around, we followed him with our standing position. There were three people situated around a piano at the front, an amazing bass, tenor and soprano, singing the most beautiful hymns and chants in Russian and Slavonic. It was so pure that you could hear harmonics echoing across the room. The only thing I recognized was the Bogoroditse Devo Raduyse, but, unfortunately, it was not Rachmaninov's version. For a while the priest sang out things and the three singers answered in song when he stopped. Then a younger priest came in and sang out things less gracefully. At one point I had to leave the room because the standing and the incense were making me a bit dizzy. Then the musicians got down and the young priest stood with his back toward the people singing out words and the older priest took a line-up for confessions, covering the women's heads with his robes before he absolved them. I can't imagine going to a church like that again, but the singing was heavenly.
On a lower side, I have successfully rendered useless both of my debit cards and found myself with 1 ruble to my name. I guess I just like giving God challenges. Looking forward to seeing how he takes care of me through this situation as well.
August 9
I slept terribly last night. I keep realizing that I don't have access to money and that I have to rely completely on Eunice, a woman who's already done so much for me. That's a really hard thing for me to do.
Jessica (one of the new teachers at the school, my age and really fun) came over this morning and we had my scones with blackberries in them. Then we went to Moscow Bible Church and heard Adam (dad from dvor) speak about Christian Hedonism. It was an excellent sermon and it was really fun to hear the consecutive Russian translation as well. Everyone at the church was so nice.
Afterward, we (Eunice, Jessica, the school receptionist and I) indulged ourselves with McDonald's value meals nearby. Eunice and I watched Secondhand Lions before bed, which really is a great movie that I might add to my collection some day. Check it out.
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