Ivan and Ivana ride the rails...

Dear All,
Well you are probably thinking we were run out of town on a rail but don't be so pessimistic.
We just had the trip of a lifetime-although we do hope to see our friend Anton again somewhere. We just returned from an uplifting weekend. They all are but this just seemed a bit extra special. Anton is a young professing man going to school in Blagoveshensk, on the Chinese boarder. He speaks fluent Russian, nul dah, Chinese and English. We arrived there on Sat. morning and left Monday evening and squeezed in a few studies and S. morning meeting. Anton was very helpful. He spent a year in the U.S. , Iowa, a year or two ago. He met the workers on Sakalin Is. in their Eng./Bible classes. His family does not profess but am told they are very nice people. Anton took us around town and bartered for us in the markets. The Chinese have several prices in mind when you look interested in something.
It feel so good to meet someone I had been praying for.
One morning at breakfast 4 Chinese men sat at a table near us counting money-lots. They were rubber banding 1 inch thick piles of 5ooo ruble notes, (35 rubles per dollar) and stacking the bundles in 6 or 7 inch piles. Either they were lucky at the tables or a local bank just went down the tubes.
The 30 hour train ride, plaush cartne, over was a hoot. As soon as the 20 or so high school students heard English we were inundated with students. It was nonstop English class for most of the trip. An Army major, tank commander, heard us and I think he spent more time with us than the students. Denis loved hunting and fishing so between sign language, note book pictures and limited language we had a time of it. He bought us a beautiful fishing calendar when he gave me a brief tour of Habarovsk, a one hour stop. When we got to Blago he insisted on hanging around to make sure this friend that we had never met would show up. Several students that we met introduced us to their mothers.
The trip home went slower as their were no students. Lots of nice people tho.
It was sad leaving Anton but he is another one of God's children out in the middle of nowhere that God is keeping. Remember him---and Him.
Annette, Karyn and everyone in the Vlad/Nahodka field are doing fine.
I will make an attempt to get a picture or two with this.
Paca, Paca, Moi druzya Morrie