Just because I am posting quickly now, does not mean you don't have to comment of yesterday's blog!

Sunday
Well, Veronika is sick, the poor dear. She has a big exam tomorrow too. Her throat hurts and she has a headache. She has been needing to do a lot of studying but she keeps taking “15 minute naps” that end up being more like 2 hour naps (or 8 hour mini comas if you will). She and I just downed some Airborne. I am not sick yet but since I live and sleep with her I guess I better be on guard. Today at church a little girl read the scripture about how Samuel was called by the Lord as a young boy. I love that verse! And the priest said that today the church is praying that everyone would believe one faith, instead of all of the different denominations and sects being scattered and disagreeing so much. And he talked about how Martin Luther was the first to translate the Bible into something the commoners could understand. I didn’t understand all he said, since it was of course in Russian and I am after all a foreigner, but it was strange. I very much wanted to be in on my guard about the whole ordeal and had to pray a lot for humility. I couldn’t agree more that it would be AMAZING if we could all agree on this TRUTH of who Christ is and how we need Him (which we essentially do all agree upon). I am also surprised he spoke rather positively about Martin Luther. He of course spoke against the Reformation in that it destroyed the unity of the Church, but I totally agree that that was a TERRIBLE aspect of the reformation. But none the less I was expecting him to say something harsh or untrue about Protestantism, and since I didn’t exactly understand all of the nuances of his speech, I to this moment don’t really know if he did. But, oh well, it is not like I could do anything about it if he did. 
It is interesting that this was the primary topic of discussion because yesterday Veronika and I were talking about this very thing. She asked me what is the difference between Catholics, Baptists, Methodists…. I took a long pause, and she continued with saying, “we all believe in the same Bible don’t we? We believe in the same Christ?”
“Yes. There are really only little differences: We don’t have a Pope,” I said (all of this was in Russian).
“Is that all?” she said.
“No, We don’t pray to the saints, just to God and Jesus. and are churches aren’t pretty, so that…”
“I know, we have people like that here too.”
“And I can’t take communion at a Catholic church, because I am not catholic, but you could take it at my church… um…”
“And you do have communion too?”
“Yes.”
“With what?”
“Well, with bread and either wine or grape juice depending on the Church. Oh and we believe you have to invite Jesus to live in your heart (although I didn’t say this, but I think that is a sort of bull in a way. Nowhere in the Bible does it use that terminology, and I understand why we use it, but that isn’t really the clincher of salvation). Oh and Baptists don’t baptize babies. You have to believe first before you can be baptized. And we baptize… uh… maybe in a River… and like this (I acted it out because I don’t know the Russian word for submerged)… all. Oh, and when we pray it is like we are just talking to God, we don’t really read our prayers, but if you want to you can too (and I told her about my Valley of Vision book).”
That was really as far as we got because we were having Chai at the time and Vitalik came home and was singing and listening to music, and the last part of the convo was talked over him, but it trailed off eventually. But she and I agreed it was stupid that some Baptists abhor Catholics and vice versa and when I said I’d go to any church that is trying to believe the truth and Love God whether Baptist or Catholic or Orthodox, and that I disagreed and agreed with everyone an d felt that what was most important was reading the Bible and seeking the truth on my own and then learning from what God told others, she whole heartedly agreed. Then she asked me if I was Baptist because my parents are Baptist I said sort of, except now I am Presbyterian, which is different, but kinda like Baptist. One thing I thought that was really cool was when I was talking about how I don’t think I will ever find a church that believes everything I do, when I said Catholics are wrong and Baptist are wrong, Veronika whole-heartedly agreed. This made my heart happy. I dunno why, I guess just because people tend to get in a lot of trouble when they take the spiritual teaching someone tells them as absolute truth without weighing them.
Oh, and because Veronika is sick I asked if I could pray for her healing. I had been praying about whether I should do it the whole time we were at church and felt confirmation about it. So After church I asked if I could and she said I could so I laid hands upon her and prayed. Her head and throat still hurts as of now, but I have faith he will answer that prayer still today, and would ask you all to pray for the same. 
Yup. That is life here at the Ranch. There is like half a foot of snow on the ground and it was so much fun to walk in today, especially at the cemetery where nobody shovels or sweeps it away. I think I might start going for daily walks in the delightful snow, and maybe God and I shall make them prayer walks. 
Keep your prayers up!!! I am feeling a lot closer to God than I have been, and I feel that a lot of that is your prayers, a lot of that is the prayers God has encouraged me to make, a lot of that is God’s word and Beth Moore’s Spirit-filled exegesis, and simple and undeserved Grace from the Lord. I hope all of it keeps up and even increases!!! 
Also I am less sure than I once was that the Church I went to when I was last in St. Pete is indisputably the one for me. It has nothing to do with the church itself. It has to do with providence and divine direction. You see I asked the Lord which church I should go to and I got the answer from something/one saying “you know,” and at the time I felt quite sure that meant this particular church. I specifically recall finding this to be an interesting answer from the Lord has never said that to me before. This, however, was during a time in which I was having an excessively difficult time with discernment. This voice passed the test in saying that is both worship and served the Lord, but I’ve been confronted with a sneak lately that says that but does not always offer good direction. This theologically befuddles me. The only thing I can figure is that it is the voice of my prideful self. This makes since because in general I do serve and worship the Lord Jesus Christ, I often am not proper in my discernment and at this particular time I was quite fully consumed with pride so it makes since that I would hear myself louder and more clearly than the Lord. Last night while praying about it I believe the peaceful and wise voice of the Lord came to me and say “You’ll see” to the same question. Form experience this sounds much more like the voice of the Lord. The Lord often says this to still my heart by assuring it of His presence, knowledge and caring, and at the same time calling me to rest in the Lord, and not worry about tomorrow. And the “You know” when analyzed under these circumstances sound all the more like pride, because naturally my prideful self would think that I know best. So I would thank you to pray for me further for discernment and that the Lord would destroy my pride, increase my prophetic gift and other gifts he would use for His glory, and mold me for His work and glory, live kenosis, and all of that stuff.  thank you!!! All prayers are more than welcome!
I love you all!!!!!!
I wrote this as a word doc and before I could post it, my aunt uncle and cousin came over and we had a birthday dinner for Vitalik in which we successfully ate a great deal of food and toasted Vitalik with a bottle of vodka and a bottle of wine. So much alcohol at every celebration, my poor little Baptist-raised self isn’t used to it. It was swell and I finally contributed to a conversation with my uncle (I have to warm up to people before I feel comfortable talking to them in Russian, but this time we were at my home instead of him and I saw him longer than I have on other occasions). I may be getting sick from Veronika, so in addition to my many toasts of wine I was to drink some vodka too. I only had a shot, and babushka wanted me to “vipitj” (to lazyto use Cyrillic) which as close as I can tell means get drunk or more literally “drink my fill” because that is their cure for the common cold and other mild illnesses. I am not kidding or exaggerating. Vodka is to Russians as Windex is to Greeks. ;)
I may have drank a little more than I would prefer, but I shall pray and see what God thinks about it.