A Rusik Story

Mel read my previous post before we went to bed. I asked him what he thought about it, and he said he thought I had a person and/or situation in mind that I was addressing. Hmmm. I thought a minute and smiled, knowing to whom/what he was referring and responded, no, actually it is much more than that.

This has been a stressful weekend.

Ten American visitors, plus 2 Ukrainians traveling with them - we had a very loud dinner with them last night at a local cafe/bar (that's what they are called rather than restaurant - cafe/bars have lower taxes than do restaurants for some reason, we were told). The conversation was very good. I talked specifically with one of the couples and found out we had some history in common - I had cooked for them in the early '90's when they were guests at Horn Creek Lodge. After making that connection the woman actually remembered me. I thought that was quite interesting. I also talked at length to her husband about Scotland. We have a connection there, too, but I won't go into that right now. Maybe in the future - depends on how God eventually leads them. Again - I found that very interesting for a number of reasons.
The dinner was loud due to the music that was blasting away right beside us, not 5 feet away from me was the main speaker blaring out EuroBeat music. We all had to shout to be heard - hard on the voice and hard on my ears - to say nothing of hard on my love of silence and quietness. :) I have a quiet voice anyway, so by the end of the meal, my throat hurt from talking so loud.

Something happened at church today. I do not feel the freedom to write about it yet. The pieces all have to fall into place first, or at least get a bit of dust on them before I feel free to write in detail about it. Only one thing, if you pray for us, pray that God will provide a new place for us to meet until our building is finished. Nothing between the church members, nothing like that. But it has caused quite a bit of internal stress which needed to be dealt with. Part of the dealing was remembering that nothing is perfect, nothing stays the same - only God. He is the only One who can be counted on at all times. And even then, from the human point of view, there are many times when we say, "What the heck is going on here??" :) :) God is faithful. God is wise. God never hurries.

So, a lot of internal processing, a lot of going over the facts and the feelings and the impressions and the rememberings of times past and the dreams of the future.

It poured rain last night - buckets and buckets. Gray skies for most of two full days and I needed to remind myself again of where I find the beauty, the peace, the ability to survive the gray when it arrives. Again, the ultimate answer is not in people for sure, and not in my surroundings, but in my faithful, never changing Father.

And other things, other impressions from other happenings today. Thoughts about the way I react, how I deal with people and situations in general, and a zillion other thinkings in my head.

So, we talked about it a bit before Mel turned over and went to sleep.

I, on the other hand, turned over and found myself wide awake. Bummer. Two nights in a row, wide awake into the very wee hours of the morning and headed toward dawn. Double bummer.

And as I lay there on the bed, listening to the night sounds, I remembered Rusik.

Why did I remember Rusik? Well, because the guy who translated the sermon today for Jim (one of the American guests) is named Ruslan. Melinda mentioned to him last night that a former short-term team mate had two cats here named Ruslan and Lyudmilla. These two names come from a Russian folk tale. The diminutive of Lyudmilla is Lyuda, for Ruslan, it is Rusik.

Rusik was/is a siamese cat - beautiful animal, very beautiful. And full of personality. When Lisa lived here, before she got Lyudmilla, Rusik was an 'only cat.' Our team had Sunday lunches in a rotation, one week at Melinda's, the next at Lisa's, the following at our place (I kind of miss that - I love cooking for people).

One time we had another visitor here, named James. We had lunch at Lisa's, buffet style. James went up to the table and was getting some food on his plate. Rusik decided he wanted to get to know James a bit better. Rusik jumped up, hooked all 10 front paw claws in James's rear end and just hung there, limp as a rag. James let out a yell, threw his hands up and just stood there, yelling in pain. I couldn't help it - I laughed until I was practically sick. Melinda was not there - I don't remember why.

Sometime later, at a different meal, Rusik decided to get to know Melinda better. He jumped up, hooked all ten from paw claws in her rear end, and hung there limp as a rag. Melinda let out a yell, threw her hands in the air and just stood there yelling.

Rusik really seemed to be enjoying himself, and once again I couldn't help it - I laughed and laughed.

Lisa told us that he also did that to a woman named Nadia, and I believe he did it to one other person. I was never a recipient of the front paw fish hook sharp claws, thankfully!

But! Even now as I write about this, I start laughing. I can't help it. It was funny! Cat hanging off the rear end, person yelling loudly, hands in the air waving around ... what can I say? I'm laughing.

I started thinking about Ruslan the translator and Ruslan the cat and I started laughing in bed. I finally decided I'd better get up and just write it all down before I woke Mel up with all the bed jiggling. I needed a good outloud laugh to dispel some of the tensions from the day.

Rusik now lives a very happy, pampered life in Texas. As far as I know, he does not get to know people that way any more.

But I still laugh.