A Saint's Birthday

Pasha, who had been at the colony, me, and Lydia at her home.

On Saturday, Sergei and I drove a couple of hours to Kremenchug to meet with Lydia Petrovna. Since it was going to be Lydia's 86 birthday on Sunday, we stopped and got her 7 roses (I wanted to get 6, but Sergei told me that in Ukraine you only get flowers in even numbers for funerals. Note that). When we got to her house, Lydia was so happy and said, "how did you remember?" My question is how could we forget?

That is a typical thing for Lydia to say as she truly doesn't expect people to do things for her. Another was when we were talking about how the weather here has turned cold and wintry, Lydia said that it's hard for her to get to the juvenile prison colony to see her boys and she misses them. It turns out that she's still been going into the colony, but "only" once or twice a week, rather than the three or four visits she usually makes.

And Lydia gets such joy from sharing the Gospel and love in the colony. When Lydia and Sergei came back from there (I'm still waiting for permission to go in), Lydia told me that Sasha came up to her all excited as he had gotten a letter from his mother, whom he had not heard from in months. Just the week before, Lydia and Sasha prayed together for his mother and that he would hear from her. Her happiness for Sasha and her thanks to the Lord for that seemingly small gift was awesome to see.

So happy birthday Lydia Petrovna, may the Lord bless and keep you. And Lord, thank you for the gift that Lydia is to us.