Hello, New Country

Well, it happened. I arrived. After a lovely Lufthansa flight across the Atlantic and a connection from Frankfurt to Minsk, I was slowly shuffled through customs by Mr. Nosmilingbelarrusian, and then met a smiling threesome in the airport--a shaved-headed man with a blonde goatee, a sweet mexican woman, and a third bearded man with glasses. They tirned out to be Mr. and Mrs. Nebel, and Mr. Christian. Friday I was introduced to THE tiny house and its guard dog (more on that later), and the rest of the Nebel family, and got a nickel tour of the church. After a fitful night of sleep on Friday, Saturday began with a 4:00 sunrise (I think), and included visiting four impoverished Belarussian families to deliver food, a meeting that was all in Belarussian, a youth church service, and a wonderful "Welcoem to Belarus!" party with all four American families in Ratomka, the suburd of Minsk where I am staying.

The good news is, the people and the place and the work are already amazing. The bad news is, I am badly sick. Last night my throat was hurting, but during the night a high fever developed, and my throat swelled up so badly that it hurt to swallow even a sip of water. One of the missionary wives is a nurse, and she checked it out and said ti was not strep. She got me some meds, and now it's bearable. Although about 3:30am this morning, when I woke up and my throat was inflamed, I seriously thought I was dying. So let's thank the Lord that at least now I have a somewhat good chance of pulling through.

It's still light outside (at 9:45 at night), but I really need some rest before getting up at 7:00am. I promise more news to come later, as well as pictures. Until then, I miss you!

p.s. there are so many railroad tracks here that my legs are killing me