Today I have had one of those moments when - whether through sheer co-incidence, or the working of a mighty angel, or some other intervention of God - a little miracle happens to "answer your prayers". As usual I feel a little embarrased that I took up so much of God's time over one small problem of mine - when he has the whole world to sort out. But it is in the personal events that we grow to trust God and deepen our relationship with him. So what happened?

Some months ago I was invited to go to Samara in Russia to teach with David Chaput and others in the PRIME team. (Go to their web site if you are interested). I have booked the flights, had my slides translated into Russian, and generally got myself well prepared for the trip in a week's time. We knew that the Russian visa can be a bit difficult at the best of times, I had sent off all the forms in plenty of time, and was happy when two weeks later I received a reply from the embassy. But to my horror all they did was return all of my forms as I had forgotten to fill in one section. Now I was in trouble with some 10 days before we were due to go, in the middle of a postal strike, and without sufficient time to get the visa back. So I went and queued outsiude the Russian Enbassy at 7am in the hope of getting in that day (if you are after 9am they often don't let you in). I duly entered and was told by the clerk that the visa would be posted back in 10 working days - too late for my trip. That is when I prayed for a miracle, and it duly arrived. The clerk must have taken pity on me and done the visa that day, and despite the postal strike it arrived the day after that. So I could go without any problem. Only a little thing, but it did bring me closer to God as I shared my problems with Him and so was able to go on this trip.

I spent an incredible week in Russia on a PRIME visit with David Chaput. He had been before but this was my first time in Russia proper. Samara was one of the closed cities in the past and manufactured rocket parts. It sits on the banks of the Volga - which is about a mile wide at this point. We stayed together in a flat and taught for the week on Whole Person Medicine at a private clinic. This was fairly large, and we had all of the staff participating, half in the morning, and half in the afternoon.

I enjoy teaching with David as we make a good double act. We enjoyed looking around the city and spending time with ordinary Russian Christians. You get such a different view of a country when staying with the ordinary folk. One thing that surprised me as that consider themselves to be europeans, which they say stretches up to the Urals, which is where Asia begins.

One amusing incident occured as I was coming home. I came alone and was told a taxi would pick me up. We had had the same driver all week but on this morning he didn't come. As I stood waiting a completely unknown car and driver stopped and motioned for me to get in. Naturally we couldn't communicate, but I assumed this was my car. Imagine my feelings as we started off, but not in the direction of the airport. We went deeper and deeper into the woods, down a mud track, and having watched too many spy thrillers I assumed this was the end for me. Eventually we stopped in front of a huge house, and out came our usual translator who was to accompany me to the airport. Naturally I was relieved!!