Before I forget...

About a week ago, on September 27th to be exact, we went to church as usual not thinking we'd do or see anything different that day than any other Sunday. We were 10 minutes late...as usual :) No excuses, but a small baby and a cranky mommy who cannot leave the house without that oh so needed cup of coffee. As we finished the singing and all the announcement, Mark - our pastor, introduced a friend, Dan, that would be preaching that morning, a pastor from a small church in...Iowa. Whoo hoo!! "Iowa, yeah, thats us!" I exlaimed. Moving on.

After about 20 minutes into the sermon, Everette whispers to me, " I think I know this guy."
Ok. Really. Whatever. Just because you are in Ukraine and listening to a guy from Iowa, that doesnt mean you know him. Iowa is not THAT small :)
5 min later. " I really think I know this guy! I think I even spend the night at his house."
- "Really? Who is he?" i whisper back; 'now you're pushing it, babe' thinking on the back of my head (have you ever said that out loud and really thought about words "thinking on the back of my head"... can we reeaally do that? weird.)

After the preaching, Everette came up to Mark and asked if Dan has son named Ben, and he does!!! "I KNEW IT! I figured it out after Dan said he loves Easter!!!!" my husband jumped.
Everette came up to Dan and said, "You might not remember me, but I hung out with your son about 8 years ago, and spent couple weekends at your house..."
Dan took a step back, looked, and shouted "Everette??!! oh, geez!!! Holy Cow! Goodness gracious! I havent seen you in so long! Of course, I remember you - you are the only Everette I have ever known!" - gave him a huge hug, so big and loud that next door Emergency Services person came out and shushed them :) - You shared how you came to know the Lord on Easter Sunday at my church!"
Ok. We are in Odessa. There are MANY churches here, and ours is renting two small rooms from a communist factory that used to make umbrellas, I think...And we meet this guy HERE??!!Speaking of a small world. Crazy!!!
It was so fun to watch them two just catching up and laughing. And of course, Dan is like, "ummm, what are YOU doing in UKRAINE, Everette?" hahahah LOL!

It turned out Dan works closely with the missionary organization International Messengers, whose headquaters are in Iowa (of all places! God - you are so cool!), who sent Mark and his family to start a church in Ukraine. So, Dan comes once a year or so to teach a week of courses at the Missionary Training Institue associated with International Messengers.

I had to post this, because it was such a cool suprise...Its like God said, "you need some laughter in your life right now! here, have a ball!" ...and plus if I dont write it down, I will forget, and years from now will be scratching my head trying to remember the good ol' times.

love to all! God is awesome!