Russia

Lake Baikal, Siberia, March 1990

You know the ice breaker game played to encourage groups to get to know one another? Everyone tells an obscure fact about themselves that no one would ever guess. For the last 20 years, on such occasions, I’ve shared ‘I’ve been ice fishing in Siberia’ as my random factoid. Every once in a while I’ll play the ‘I finished a marathon’ card because it is actually more unbelievable than the Russian bit.

The thing is, I really have been ice fishing in Siberia. But as the years march on, my time in Russia is a story I don’t think much about anymore. Sure, it comes in handy for the icebreaker games or at cocktail parties, but who goes to those anymore?

Lately I’ve had Russia on my heart. And, I’m beginning to believe my random factoid isn’t so random after all.

I’m working on pulling the pieces of my story together. The biggest obstacle is clearing the cobwebs obscuring the view backward to 1990. And the fact that all of my photos, letters and memorabilia from this era of my life are hidden in the attic where it is 300+ degrees in the Texas summer heat. I lasted 15 minutes up there yesterday wishing whilst I sweltered that my Russia epiphany had occurred in December.

None the less, I’m on a mission. Mind you I have no clue what this mission is exactly. But, I’m being led to be ready and prepared. And that, my friends, includes a stroll down memory lane. Via the inferno of the attic.

And I am certain that God,

who began the good work within you,

will continue his work until it is finally finished

on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6