MAKДOHAЛД'C

This is the story of lunching with Irina, who stayed in our home two years ago, along with Zhenia, Irina (the one I am living with here), and Nadjia. If you go the the January post entitled, "So, Tell Me, What Led to the Trip to Moscow?" you will see the picture of the four Russian sisters at our table. The first Irina on the left lives here in Moscow. She doesn't speak English very well, but her English is better than my Russian, for sure. She and I had such good fellowship when she stayed with us because we praised the Lord together in a sweet way, and that was enough. I love her big smile and bright blue smiling eyes when we pray together! I am going to call her Russian Irina, and the Irina who speaks very good English and is a translator of the Russian literature and with whom I am staying will just be Irina for the purposes of this story.

I saw Russian Irina at the first meeting I went to in Moscow. She has come to the training in Anaheim twice now, and this time she is attending the video training here. Right away she asked if we could spend some time together, and she offered to take me to a shop for some little things to bring back to the family. So today was the day. There were two meetings of the training today because it is Men's Day. All the men are commemmorated, and in April all the women are commemmorated. Right now there are fireworks going off outside the window in honor of men. It is a good day for the training because everyone is off work.

After the second meeting it was 2:00, so we were hungry, and Russian Irina and the Irina I am staying with were deciding what to do in the female fashion (even though it was Men's Day). That involves the women saying, well, what should we do?, well, I don't know, whatever you want to do...,
well, why don't we get a cup of tea,? well, we could stay here for a cup
of tea..., but whatever you want to do..., well, I don't know?, what do you want to do? well, I brought something for us to eat at MacDonald's...,
well we could get a cup of tea there..., well, why don't we eat it here?, well, what does Arla want to do?, well, I don't know, why don't we
do it together?, well...

(STOP)! This is not good. Russian Irina seems to want us to go to MacDonald's, and the Irina I am staying with is not terrific on that idea, and I'm not sure what my role is in this, but I'd rather not go through the female decision-making delay-pattern any longer, and I propose to Irina that we should short-circuit the female discussion cycle. This bumps us out of the wrong groove, and Irina agrees right away, explaining that one dog has one brain, two dogs have half a brain, and three dogs have no brain. So we go with the one-dog approach ~ one brain ~ and it is Russian Irina's brain. Arm in arm we all go out the door, walking on the icy roadway to MacDonald's. We are all happy females ~ or one dog if you will ~ or better yet, sisters in the enjoyment of our Christ at this point.

It turns out that Russian Irina had come prepared. She knew that we would need lunch, and she knew a MacDonald's is near the meeting hall, and she knew that we needed real food, so she brought it. The only thing that she couldn't bring with her was the hot tea. But no problem, we would eat our food at one of their tables and drink their tea. My Irina was a bit troubled about eating at MacDonald's if we hadn't bought food there, but Russian Irina wasn't bothered, and ordinarily I would be bothered too, but this time I was feeling shameless since the third dog doesn't have a brain to care with. I told my Irina that the worse they could do is ask us to leave, and with a voice of quiet reserve she told me that the worse that could happen is embarrassment. I could see her point of view.

We found a table right in the middle of an area with booths and tables that were all full of young people. Russian Irina got down to business and plopped a plastic tray of smoked fish on the table. Even though it was wrapped in plastic, the smoked fishyness was going to be a tip-off that no one at our table had a Big Mac. We stayed with the fish, and she went for the tea and came back with three hot cups, stir sticks, sugar, and fries. The black bread and cucumbers were pulled from some plastic bag in her purse. At this point I was seeing Irina's point of view: we had the kind of Russian food that three Vodka drinkers eat, and Irina says that when that kind of drinking goes on, it is always with three people. So there we were, three babuskas, and our smoked fish, black bread, cucumbers, potatoes, and hot tea ~ the food was really good and nourishing.

Irina's husband died seven years ago. She has two married daughters, and she works with an engineering firm that constructs bridges. After her first time to California, her co-workers asked if she had seen the Golden Gate Bridge, which she did not have time to go see. When she came to stay with us for the training, we went to see the bridge that spans from Long Beach to San Pedro.

We had some time to fellowship after one meeting. There are times that Russian Irina would like to serve the Lord in a more specific way, like my Irina does. But there is the encouraging point in Isaiah that Christ is typified by Cyrus, the Persian king, as the servant of Jehovah. Cyrus was raised up, anointed, and loved by Jehovah. Cyrus signifies Christ because he subdued Babylon, released the capatives of Israel, and charged Israel and supported them to build up the temple and the city of their God. Cyrus did God's pleasure, and all who are in Christ can be one with Christ to release God's people and build up His house and His kingdom.


Russian Irina is a servant of Jehovah, even as she works in the job the Lord has given her, and nourishing, releasing, and cherishing us by her care!

 
Nota bene: even to this day Cyrus's tomb exists in Iran (formerly Persia), and there is a cylindar called the Cyrus Cylindar in the British Museum that records his decree to free the Israelites to go back to Jerusalem.
Here is a picture of the cylindar:

Ha ha, it looks like a corn cob!