Beautiful Things

On Saturday I went to see Gulia with Pastor Sasha and Olya and two-year-old Matthew, and their friends Kostya and Tanya. We bought two fried chickens and took her to the beach for a picnic. It was so beautiful. I will remember this forever. I didn't realize how much I've been in the city until I was out of it - I felt like I could eat the trees!

She was so happy to see Matthew she paid very little attention to the rest of us. But after we took a bunch of pictures on the beautiful white sand, she wanted to take some too, which was like her old self. They so feel like a complete family when they're together. I think I'd do anything to bring this about.

One of the deaf boys, Lyosha, came to church with Sveta the translator (I later found out he'd been at a morning service and the afternoon service). They were sitting in front of me and she was helping him read the songs on the overhead and sign the words. I wondered what it was like to have only four other people that you could communicate with. I wondered at what age he learned a sign for "God" and what it meant within that world of four people, if it was a joke or a swear word or a history lesson or a mystery, if he had wondered about it, if anybody had ever signed to him or he'd ever thought of anything like what he was signing now: that God loved him, cared about him every moment, made him, died for him, gives life.

Sveta had told me she didn't know how long he'd stay, but he stayed for the whole thing. She signed the sermon, but it was a complex one about what the Old Testament temple worship symbolizes for us,that would require a lot of explanation if you had never heard of the old testament and temple. Lyosha signed back to Sveta a lot - they were just talking and talking about something in that message, I have no idea what. I saw that an advantage of being deaf and speaking sign language is that you can talk all through church and not disturb your neighbors. He looked very serious and moved.

Sveta is on the team of people who prays for anyone who wants after the service, and Lyosha went up and they laid hands on him and prayed, and he closed his eyes and stood there, although he couldn't hear the prayers. Maybe he could feel them.

I want to see God move with power and reach into Lyosha's silent world, and place Gulia in the family that's waiting for her.

You know what to do.