Another Tuesday...

another sauna day.

Here's what I find during sauna times: the guys are joking around the way old friends do and I understand about half of their jokes, if they speak clearly.
(Ok, here's a joke I did get that's fresh from today:
A man at a sauna answers a cell phone:
"Oh, honey, " says a woman on the other end, "I just bought a new pair of red shoes to go with my red cell phone...I hope that's alright"
"Well, what do I care? No big deal".
A while later she calls back: "Oh, honey, I hope it's ok that I bought a red purse to go with the shoes and phone. Is that ok?"
"Well of course, how could you pass that up?" he says.
And later..."Honey, I just HAD to buy a red Ferrari to go with the shoes and purse and phone"
"Well, of course you did. Hope you like it...goodbye." He closes the phone and looks around and asks, "Hey, whose phone is this?")

The general discussion is easier to follow. Today the discussion included religion vs. true faith; how much vodka you could REALLY drink and still legally drive; what the ideal blood pressure was for men of our age (from 55ish down to 48ish). Since I can't always jump into and out of the conversation I have extra time to pray for them.

Volodya Companietz, one of the guys who's at the 55ish end of the age scale, is also a grandfather has a sick grand daughter. The guys were trying to make connections to a pediatrician on their cell phones during breaks from the sauna and, having done that, Volodya will get to take his daughter and grand daughter in to see him tomorrow.

But, anyway, prayer.
Volodya is a Russian, a former-ish communist and a loud but diplomatic atheist. He and Yura laugh at things like Creationsim and miracles and ask provocative questions for which they expect no good answers...though I hope they expect more good answers now.
Anyway, as Alexey the Dentist was delivering us all to our drop-off points after the sauna I told Volodya I'd pray for his grand daughter. He actually stopped in mid-sentence, looked at me, and said "Thanks a lot for that".

There are no atheists in fox holes, it's said. I doubt if there are any in pediatric wards.

So, if you are reading this and have time to pray for this baby I know he'd appreciate it. Of course, pray that God answers in such a way that he doesn't just say, "Yeah, we had a good doctor."

Kim and I will be in Russia for the next 10 days at our annual retreat for CMA missionaries. We'll catch you up when we get back.