D is for David Davidovich

My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me.  Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day.  Today's letter is D so let's get right to it shall we?

A was for Amateur Parodist

B was for Blogger

C was for Christian

D is for David Davidovich

If you memorized my A to Z challenge theme reveal from March, (and really why wouldn't you?) you would have noticed that David Davidovich is not what I wrote for D.  My original D was Daring Do Gooder and  as I said in the aforememorized theme reveal I did reserve the right to to change some of my selections.  So the story of my deed of daring do-gooding will have to wait, while we explore my patronymic path. 

In  December of 1992 I went to Russia to teach English and to assist the Russian Baptist Churches in youth ministry.  I went to a section of Russia called the Russian Far.  The city is much closer to cities in China (1 hour by hydrofoil) and South Korea , and Japan (both less than 3 hours by plane) than it is to Moscow.  If you took a train it would be a 6 day 3 hour trip.  A car trip would be 108 hours (4.5 days) of driving time and an 8 1/2 hour flight.  On one of my vacations I took a 72 hour train trip west and was still  in the the continent of Asia only about 1/2 way to Moscow.  

I have written quite a bit of my two years in Russia.  One thing I discovered in Russia is that middle names are different there. Note: For best results read the next lines in your best Mater voice 

 In America, where I hail from, what we do is we get a first name, and a last name, and in the middle they give us a middle name.  I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think they call it a middle name because it's in the middle. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled interior voice

In Russia they don't have middle names that are new different names they have patronymic naming.  This means that the second name describes who your father is.  If your a boy named Michael and your Dad's names is Michael then your name will be Michael Mikhailovich. Your brother Vadim will be Vadim Mikhailovich and your sister Nadia would be Nadia Mikhailovna.  

The dads name ends in ovich for boys and ovna for girls.  Here are 2  little known facts I  just made up.  Maury Povich's son Oliver lived in f Russia for a few years where his name was Ollie Mauryovich Povich. Ollie Mauryovich Povich, coincidentally is also how they translate  Olly Olly Oxenfree into Russian.  

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I look a lot like my Dad.  We also have the same first name.  We have different middle names.  So I am David Davidovich but my Dad is not.  My Dad was the first born in his family and his Dad and Mom, My Grandparents, chose to give him the name of David.  I am the first born son in my family and when I was born my Dad chose his name for me.  To me that has always been a great honor he bestowed on me.  It was like another line of connection we held together.  I had 4 brothers and sisters and when there are that many kids in your family, I think you look for ways that you connect to your parents differently than your siblings.  Sharing the same first name was a way we connected. 

As I grew up I always found it remarkable when my Dad called me by the wrong name.  Now I understood it when he called Keith Chris, or Bonnie Kathy.  But how could he mix up my name when we shared the same one?  

My wife who is a school psychologist and knows a lot about how the brain works told me years ago  that calling a child the wrong name is like getting information from a folder inside your brain but retrieving the wrong file from it.  This is exactly what this article in Good Housekeeping says.  

Now that I am a parent  I  sometimes get my kids names mixed up as well.  I sometimes call Lucy, Emma and vice versa.  Since I only have one Son, I sometimes call him by one of my brothers names. Also I sometimes call Lucy, who is the baby of our family my baby sister's name.  

I thought for a long time that I would give a son the name David.   I have friends whose first and middle name goes back 3-5 generations and they have in turn passed on that name to their son.  My Dad and I do not have the same middle name, so I am not the second or  jr. In that way I felt less pressure than what I imagined my friends Lawrence Joseph the third and Albert Frederick the 5th felt.  I still wanted to pass that name on to my son.  

As I have mentioned many times in this space, my wife and I were friends for 7 years before things developed in a Sitting in the Tree kind of way.  We both grew up about 20 minutes from each other.  So during breaks from college we spent lots of time together in our parents houses.  During that time Amy was learning through observation what life is like when there are 2 people living in the house with the same first name.

The phone would ring, someone would answer it.  Dave you have a phone call, they would shout down the stairs.  Two David's would go for the phone, and then more shouting.  Not you, your Dad. No not you Dave, David! So Amy decided that if she ever did get married that her husband would not be recycling names with their son.  That was for me, she thought but not her husband. Years later when the part of her  husband was cast and I landed the role, one of our desires had to be modified.

It was really no problem.  Probably because I wasn't David Fred the 5th, or even David Fred Jr.  I was  just  plain David  Charles.  I realized that not giving my first name to a theoretical son was in no way, shape or form, a deal breaker. When Amy was pregnant for the first time we had names picked out for a boy and for a girl.  Emma Kayrene for a girl and Anderson David for a boy.  Kayrene was Amy's mothers name a conglomeration of Kathryn and Irene.  Anderson is my wife's maiden name.  We would have called him Andy.  I thought that there was not much difference in honoring my Dad through middle name or through first name.  

Our first child was a girl, so we did call her Emma Kayrene.  Two years later we were expecting again.   We had a name picked out for both a boy and a girl.  Off hand I don't remember what the girls name was we had picked out.  The baby inside of Amy didn't feel like an Anderson David, so we had a different boys name ready, Charles.  Charles is my middle name so naming a boy Charles David had a good ring to it.  However that's not what we went with.  Two years before Emma was born my Sister named her third child, Calvin David and 9 months before my son was born, my brother named his son Robert David.  I thought that's a lot of blank Davids.  So, when our son was born we named him Charles Friedrichs.  My middle names nd my grandfather's last name.  Also Friedrichs was similar to my Dad's middle name of Fred.  

Now, I have no Russian ancestors.  However, I still feel I have a bit of a Russian heritage as I lived there for 2 years of my life.  I was immersed in the Russian culture and I partnered with many Russian believers in spreading the gospel in their country.

I didn't have much culture shock when I was in Russia and I rarely missed home.  But there was one day in particular when I did feel lonely  and isolated.  It was Easter Sunday in the U.S. but generally Russia celebrates Easter on a different Sunday.  My friend Vladimir told me in Church that Sunday there were two Americans in town who were in Russia for a few weeks and that we would visit them after Church. I was looking forward to speaking English with some of my country men and getting news from America and perhaps sending some letters to my family and friends  off with them.   It was  a bit of  a misadventure .  We travelled on several tram and trolley bus lines to a couple of places and did not find them.  We  ended u going even further out and going to Vladimir's house.  His dad was a kindly man who spoke no English and while my Russian was okay 4 months in, we really couldn't communicate unless Vladimir translated.  

We were sharing a meal together with Vladimir's family when his Dad said in Russian, something along the lines that because of Christ I was like another son to him, a member of his family.  It was an observation,  spoken aboyt me not directly to me but it had more impact than his Dad probably every realized.  From that moment I felt Russian.  I felt as if I belonged in the country.  I felt much that way from the beginning of my time in Russia.  But after Vladimir Vladimirovich's father said that I never had one moment of culture shock or loneliness.  I belonged.  

I think for this reason, not only do I consider myself David Davidovich,  I  consider my son Charlie Davidovich. and my daughters Emma and Lucy Davidovna.  My grandparents choice of the name David was passed on to me and I feel that it's been passed on to my children as well.  

So that's it for D post today.

To get back to the A to Z blog click here.  If you want to get back to A to Z master list click here.  If you want to get back to ways of Christopher Robin and  Pooh click here.  

Coming  Up on Team Saturdazzle: The One Without The Koolaid

F O G .... E L Berg

 My Daughter Lucy formerly known on this blog as both Puppy and Wolfina  is now a  19 year old adult in her first year at college at the University of Illinois.  She is a double major in Creative Writing and English.  She continues to sing in a choir and is rehearsing for her 3rd and 4th plays of the school year.  Same old busy dynamo.  Lucy is one of those students who seem to excel in everything she does.  When she was applying at colleges this made it difficult for her to choose a major on her applications.  I think she had a different major chosen for each  school got applied at.   At  heart though she's a theatre/music/writer/artist type of person.  

I'm sorry, this post is not supposed to be about Lucy, but about Dan Fogelberg.  Earlier this week a new  Fogelberg song was released posthumously.  Fogelberg died at the age of 56 in 1997.  The song, I know a Thief, was released on streaming services like Spotify as part of the celebration surrounding the 50th anniversary reissuing of Souvenirs.

   

So, what does that have to do with Lucy you ask, Is she a thief?  Well she did steal my heart, but that's not quite what the connection is.  Fogelberg matriculaed at the University of Illinois and while there studied Theatre and Art as well as writing, performing and beginning to record  his future hits.  

I visited Lucy quite a bit during her first semester at school.  I went so often mainly to watch football games but we hung out as well.  (Mostly kidding I hope.). Speaking of football games, If you didn't understand the title of this  post, (and let's face it who did?),  it is an allusion to the cheer they make at home football games for every first down, touch down , field goal and extra point U of I makes. The announcer says ILL and The crowd responds INI.  Still don't get it? Now you know how my family feels.

On my way around campus especially on game days I've passed by a place called the Red Herring Cafe.  I've always been interested to know a little of it's history.  Well that turns out to be precisely where Dan Fogelberg performed and recorded many of his early works. 

Dan Fogelberg  at The Red Herring 2003
From Dan Fogelberg Facebook page

Red Herring Coffee House Poster 1972

Folk Festival @ Red Herring 1969
Both Posters from Smile Politely Article

My two favorite all time songs frim Fogelberg are Same Auld Lang Syne and Leader of the Band. The latter was also my only attempt at solo karaoke.  I found out today through an article in the Champaign Urbana News Gazette written shortly after Fogelberg's death that both songs have U of I roots, The meeting of the old girlfriend on New Years Eve in Same Old Lang Syne was a Champaign girl friend, the grocery store was on the corner of Green and Neil in Champaign, and at the end of the song when he talks about  feeling like he was back at school he was referring to being on campus.  

Fogelberg did not graduate from the U of I, he ended up dropping out to pursue his music. His Dad reluctantly agreed saying "to take a year of and see how it went".  That is where the line "Thank you for the freedom  when it came my time to go" in Leader of the Band comes from,  which precede the lines I bawled at during my karaoke rendition -

"I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough 

And papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough"

That about it does it for my midweek music break talking about Peoria Native Dan Fogelberg, his posthumous release, and his time at the University of Illinois at the Red Herring.

Speaking of red herrings, people stopping by from my link at Weekly Writer's Workshop must feel like I attached the wrong link.  The truth is, I have had such fun researching and writing this post I absolutely wanted to force it into the workshop and so I have. 

 This weeks prompt's were

1. Write a post based on the word positivity. 
2. Write a post in exactly 9 lines (sentences). 
3. Got any big plans for spring (Easter) vacation? Tell us about them! 
4. Tell us about the most disastrous date you’ve ever been on.
5.  List some (1-5) podcasts you listen to.
6.  Daylight Saving Time — love it or hate it?

There are several  I could do and I may come back and do a few more but today, I will focus on #4 as their is a Champaign/Urbana U of I connection.

Tell us about the most disastrous date you've ever been on?

It was November 1st 1985.   I was in a long distance relationship with a girl who lived near Springfield IL.  We at met at a college conference in 1984 when I was in a long term relationship with my high school sweet heart,  The girl from the conference and I maintained a correspondence and talked on the phone occasionally.  After a mutual break up with my high school girlfriend that lasted 2 years after graduation, we went on a few dates together,  This girl was way out of my league but she did not know it.  We bonded over our love for CCM Contemporary Christian Music and humor.  I was working my first full time job and taking some time off college that year, I was still living at home so the full time job gave me funds for travelling back and forth between Chicago and Springfield.  

As I recall, I was kind of playing the field for the first and only time in my life that summer  and had gone out on dates with 2 or three other girls since the spring.  Those dates  were mainly platonic and similar to what we would have done as friends.  Somewhere along the line things were getting more serious with the girl from Springfield, at least for me, and I stopped going on other dates. 

She and I were both huge Amy Grant fans and we decided to go to Champaign and see Amy play at what was then called Alumni Hall on the U of I Campus. The concert was on a Friday and I think I spent Halloween visiting  with friends at Eastern Illinois University. 

 I think we spent most of Friday together and at some point she told me she just wanted to be friends again.  Most of our relationship  before and during our dating period was via correspondence.  She had decided that I was not the guy for her.  I was at the point where I was thinking maybe I was.  She seemed to think that we could just enjoy the concert as friends because of course I had 4-8 hours to process it.  When I was a young man going to a concert with a girlfriend was all about holding hands during the love songs, and Amy Grant  is all about the love songs. 

 The opening act was Bob Bennett who did a great set.  He wasn't then but he now is one of my five favorite musical artists.  His brand of   adult contemporary  kind of Fogelbergesque  CCM does not give you too much to worry about on the love song angle.  Amy Grant was her Unguarded self. She brought the dancing, the cuteness, and the love songs.  We supplied the awkward. What was supposed to be a night to remember was quickly becoming one to forget.  

  

This is a ticket from the concert I went to but not my ticket.

This is what big named Christian Concerts cost back in the 80's.

   After the concert, we went our separate ways  (although later we did resume our friendship by correspondence).  I drove back to EIU and some of the awkward continued, because one of the girls I had gone on a few dates with earlier that year was the ex-girlfriend of the friend I was staying with. He seemed to think that I did it behind his back, which I don't know which way his back was pointed when we went out, but I never told him about it.  He had found out that summer, and this was the first time we had spent any time together since.  So it was kind of a bad night all around.  

For a short time Champaign and Assembly Hall and even Amy Grant were all reminders of that horrible date.  Long before Lucy got accepted there the place  came to mean much more than failed romance.

I went to two mission conferences  at U of I  in 1987 and 1990.  Both of these conferences were pivotal on the road God was leading me to missions work in my first few years after college.  At the 2nd of those mission conferences I went with a group form my college and in that group was a young woman who was quickly becoming my best friend and rather slowly (7 1/2) years becoming my wife.  Her name is Amy and I try to take her for Granted.  (Sorry had to work it in, I'm contractually obligated to make a certain number of groaner puns). Also at that 2nd conference Amy and I and the other 20,000 delegates were treated to a conference ending year ending concert at Assembly Hall by another one of my top 5 performers of all time Randy Stonehill.  (Yes, it would be a better ending to my post  if it was Dan Fogelberg singing Same  Auld Lang syne at the Assembly hall as he did twice in his career, especially singing it on New Years Eve.) Even the date of the Amy Grant concert, if it ever lived in infamy, has been redeemed as one of our 3 precious children was born on Nov 1st.

Thus ends my story about the influences of Champaign. I'll try to do one more midweek music break before the A to Z challenge begins next month, To at long last get back to The Weekly Writer's Workshop hosted by John Holton at the Sound of One Hand Clapping click here.  

Facing The Unknown - Weekly Writers Workshop

 

This weeks prompts for Weekly Writers Workshop hosted by the inimitable (I should know, I try to imitit him all the time, and I am not able) John Holton on his blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, are:  write a post on the word medications,  write a post in exactly 12 sentences, write about what would induce you to give up life as you know it and face the unknown, tell us the story of your personal experience with rejection, write about a bad habit you'd like to eliminate from your life, and write about a time you had to let go of someone you cared for.  I'm sure you have deciphered by the enormity of the first sentence, and the title of this post which prompts I have chosen.  

There have been at least 5 times in my adult life that I have given up life as I knew it and faced the unknown: moving across the state at the age of 22 to attend university,  moving across the world to serve 2 years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Far East Russia in 1992 a few months after the country had  opened it's doors to Western missionaries, moving across the U.S. to attend seminary, moving across the country again back to my native Illinois to court the woman who would become my wife, and finally moving against the grain by staying at home for 6 years and homeschooling my children. In each of these cases I gave up life as I knew it and faced the unknown; in the first 4 I also had to let people go that I cared for (the 6th prompt).  

What motivated me those 5 times varied by degree but they all had to do with a path I have tried to follow since becoming a follower of Jesus more than 40 years ago and that path has been putting the needs of others before my own.  I am not perfect, so I haven't  been perfectly motivated and I sure haven't perfectly followed this path but the path has certainly led many times to leaving life as I then knew it. 

My first three travels were all based on what I thought would be the life of a missionary.  When I left South Carolina where I had attended seminary for a year to pursue marriage with Amy, I had already become uncertain of a career as a missionary, but one of the myriad reasons I had fallen in love with her was because I had seen in our 7 years of friendship that she was also on the path to putting others needs before her own.  So I envisioned that we would attempt to meet those needs together, which we have for 26 years and continue to do so however imperfectly. 

The needs of my wife and children motivated me as a home educator, they also prepared me for my current job as a substitute teacher. With all our children out of high school, there may come a day when Amy and I, as a couple give up life as we know it and face the unknown. I am certain  that the same motivations that directed in the past would lead us into any new unknown. 

I know would like to lead you back to the known, which is a variety pack of other submissions that can be found in the comments section of  this weeks edition of the Weekly Writer's Workshop. 

Wordless Wednesday: Russian Roommates Reunited

 Wordless Wednesday is at Comedy Plus. 

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

E is for Eric

 

                                                     Eric Liddell

                                                    Years lived before 1921: Nineteen

                                                    Years lived after 1921: Twenty-four

 Eric Liddell was an Olympic champion, and  a Christian Missionary who died in a Japanese internment camp. He is one of the two main characters of the 1981 film, Chariots of Fire.

Eric was born in and died in China.  In between he went to boarding school in London and college in Scotland.  He was a gifted athlete a 2 sport star (Rugby and Track) and played on Scotland's national Rugby team.  He made the 1924 Olympic team in track and field and was supposed to run in the 100m 200 m and 400m for the U.K.

It is some times hard to look at the past through the lens of the present and get the full meaning of the time period.  This is certainly the case for Liddell, who refused to run in the heats for the 100m (his strongest event) in Paris as they were on S said of hisunday.  Christians play sports on the Sabbath with regularity 97 years after Liddell's stand.  This in no way demeans his achievement or integrity.  He ended up winning the gold in 00m and the bronze in the 200m neither of which had heats scheduled on Sundays.  

When asked what his success was attributed to Liddell he responded ...

"The secret of my success over the 400m is that I run the first 200m as fast as I can. Then for the second 200m, with God's help I run faster."

This quote is actually very descriptive of how he lived his life.  After the Olympics he returned to China as a missionary, met and married a Canadian missionary and began raising his family and continued doing the work of a missionary.  The work of a missionary became more and more dangerous in China in the 1940's and Eric was sent to a Japanese internment camp.  He was able to send his wife pregnant with their third child and his first 2 daughters to Canada before that occurred.  His youngest daughter never met her father.

Though his life was short it was exemplary. Throughout his life people took notice of his moral excellence.  The headmaster of his boarding school described him as "entirely witout vanity". In the internment camp he was described by one internee  as "the finest Christian gentleman I ever had the pleasure to meet." and another went into long detail of how Liddell poured himself ito the lives of the young people at the camp to make their time less difficult.  Considering that Liddell died in the camp from a brain tumor and  that his life there was even more difficult because of his medical condition underscores his selfless behavior even more.

Liddell has been a role model and hero for me most of my life. I have been a runner and a missionary an educator and a father just like him.  In a pivotal scene in Chariots of Fire, Liddell falls down in a 400m race gets back up and ends up winning the race.  The biggest way I try to emulate Eric Liddell is that when I fall, I get back on my feet and with God's help I get right back in the race. 

A To Z Easter Eggs

 A to Z Archives: My Top 10 Favorite Movies of All Time.  at HSD. Not surprisingly Chariots of Fire is on this list.  

After you've looked at the additional content from my other blogs head back to the challenge and explore continue exploring.

Comedian By Steve Taylor

 I lived in Russia between the end of 1992 and the end of 1994.  During those 2 years abroad, I missed many things.  By missed I don't mean longed for, although I certainly did miss Mountain Dew and Lou Malnatis's pizza by that definition and was glad when my brother brought those along when he visited me.  I also don't mean by miss that I wasn't there for it, yet heard about.  While I want there for the Bronco chase , Nolan Ryan's pummeling of Robin Ventura, Michael Jordan's retirement announcement , or  the birth of my first niece,  I was acutely aware of all 4.

No, what I mean by missed is there were some events that I did not hear about until I was back in the states, sometimes for several years.  Some of these were deaths of famous people, others were books, movies, or music that came out during that time.  It wasn't uncommon to hear someone talk about a movie I had never heard of, only for me to ask if it came out in 1993 or 1994 and quite often it had.  Finally, I had to come to grips that due to my decision to leave the U.S. and plant a church in Russia in the early 1990's that there would be indeed certain things that I left behind and missed entirely.  I never regretted that decision and certainly experienced many more things that I would have never experienced in the states had I stayed put.

Over the past few years I have realized that I have experienced another gap without leaving the U.S. for more than a fortnight every 10 years or so.  I experienced it today when I was playing with my Spotify account in between classes.  There was a recommended song by Steve Taylor and some band he was in and I had never heard of the song or the band.  Now not to be confusing Steve Taylor uses to front for a band called Some Band.  So, I am not referring to them.  The name of the band is The Perfect foil,  and according to Wikipedia it is an alt. rock supergroup featuring artists from 2 more of my favorite groups (Peter Furler from Newsboys & Jimmy Abegg from (A Ragamuffin Band).  What was odd is this super group was formed in 2010, and I was only just hearing about it 11 years later.  Not really odd when you think that in 2010 I was homeschooling my 3 children all under the age of 11.  Listening to old music on c.d.s is something I did when I had the occasional spare time. Keeping up with music was  not something I invested much time in.  Again, I would not trade that time in my life for anything but it does explain how a song like Comedian stayed off my radar for so long.

A nice thing about discovering something you missed from long ago is that when you do eventually discover it, you also  discover many other things alongside it.  In finding out more information in this missing chapter of Steve Taylors musical journey I discovered a blog that writes an awful lot about Christian Music and other topics that interest me.  It is a blog by Keith Shields called Thirst  and he does an entire post about this song.  I encourage you to do what he suggests in his post which is listen to this song (I have put the Spotify link below at the same time you read the lyrics to the song and then read how the song affected him.  (The link to his post is here.) 

I enjoyed his interpretation of a song from 11  years ago that I only just discovered this morning.  Still in all I'm glad I didn't miss it.  

Keith for 50

Today is my brother Keith's birthday.  He would have turned 50 today. He died in April of 2009 at the age of 38.  Over the years I have written a lot about his life  and death many of those posts can be found by clicking here.

Over the years I have also written about a musician friend of mine Allen Levi.  He also lost a brother and chronicled their story in an excellent memoir called The Last Sweet Mile. I mislaid my copy a few years ago when we moved into our current house.  It is probably in a box in the basement some where.

I found 2 posts I wrote about Keith that I wanted to share.  One was written on 11/11/11 which was a birthday he has been looking forward to as it resonated firmly in his mathematical mind. The other was written a year earlier than that when he would have turned 40.  I will reprint it here as it is also features the aforementioned Allen Levi.

Big 40 minus the birthday boy

My brother Keith would have turned 40 today. He died 18 months ago so he never quite made the milestone. When My Mom turned 40, my Dad put a banner across our garage that read "Jeanne's 40 today. But don't tell anyone!". We lived across from the local library at the time and man people people became aware of the event. When I turned 40, Amy had a surprise party for me and had one of my favorite musicians, Allen Levi, fly in from Alabama and sing at my party. He performed the following song among others...

 

 When Amy turned 40, relatives teamed with me so I could give her 40 rolls of quarters. (Amy loves quarters) Keith died 18 months ago, so he never quite made the milestone. Keith was born on Veteran's day and loved that his birthday was celebrated by many people even though they might not be aware they were doing so. Today as you reflect on the men and women who served our country in the military. Reflect also on the men and women boys and girls who left the party before we had a chance to throw them one.

Meanwhile back in 2020

On occasions like this I really want to say something profound about Keith.  Instead I'll just say this...

There really has never been anyone exactly like him.  .  I find it fitting that Keith's 50th birthday falls on the heels of the death of Alex Trebek.  He loved Jeopardy and even auditioned for the show, easily making it to the 2nd part of the process.   Keith excelled in trivia but there wasn't anything trivial about him. Keith was Bi-polar but his mental illness did not define him.  What defined Keith was a world class mind, a kind and gentle spirit, a quirky and quick sense of humor, a simple but abundant faith, and a love for his family and friends.  

Keith visited me when I was living in Russia, teaching English as a Second Language and working as a Baptist Missionary.  One day Keith and I were on a bus on the way to visit a family I knew.  Keith heard someone speaking Spanish and started talking to them in Spanish.  I didn't realize how much Spanish Keith knew.  He studied it  a little in High School but picked it up mostly working at McDonalds.  The Person Keith was speaking to was a  Brazilian missionary who had only been in the Russia  for about 2 weeks.  He spoke very little Russian no English,  ,some Spanish but mostly Portuguese.   Keith invites him to visit this family with us. We get to the families house they have never met Keith or this guy before. The family consisted of a high school girl that I was tutoring in English, her college aged sister and their mother. Their English ranged between somewhat fluent and none at all. This family loved foreigners and were really interested in getting to know Keith and this Brazilian betters.   The guy from Brazil  would speak in Spanish, Keith would translate it into English and I would try to  translate it into Russian.  Then we would reverse the process.  Keith would get off on these crazy tangents and try to explain an idiom or a pun  and I would have no way to translate it with my limited Russian.  

Everybody had a wonderful time.  When I would see that family or that missionary after that they always commented on how much they enjoyed that evening. This is not surprising.  Keith made life an adventure. When I hear Spanish, I sometimes remember the day Keith turned a bus ride into a party.  He may have left the party early but he certainly made a lasting impression. 

My Friend Dan

I have several friends from college who home school.  One is Dan, who lives in the same town as my sister-in-law and her 2 kids.  He is a police officer who spoke 2 years ago at our local homeschooling conference about internet safety.  Earlier this year he took his family on a missionary trip to South Africa.  He is now in the process of switching careers and going back to South Africa as a full time missionary.  His wife is planning on continuing the home education of their children.  Here is a link to their blog, which you can also find on my blogroll starting today.