A knock on the door at 4:00 AM (Sunday Morning) meant Tim Simpson (East-West, Birmingham, AL) had arrived, about 24 hours later than expected. Characteristic smile. Both of us retired quickly and slept into the late morning.
Waking in the late morning, Tim and I dressed and caught up, and then determined to head to the market area 3 blocks away for food. Tim used his Russian to inquire from workers in a grocerette “where there is a restaurant to eat.” One young man led us outside and pointed across the frantically-busy street to a place “down below.” We dodged our way through traffic and descended down 2 flights of steps to check it out – nobody else in there save 3 chatty waitresses waiting for customers to show up. Dark and unpromising as it was, we quickly ascended the stairs back to the street, and across, to a street vendor in a small hut. The young man at the counter would make for us two “schwarmas” (I think Tim called them). The first legit meal since I arrived tasted really good, augmented by a cold Pepsi. We ate it together sitting on a curb within the market area.
At the grocery, we bought some liquids and returned to the apartment. For several hours we debriefed about the week ahead, then napped, waiting for Jim Herrington, Gia (a Georgian national church leader), and a group of 9 college-aged students from Redeemer Bible Church (Houston, TX) to return from staffing an English language, evangelistic camp up in the mountains. The general plan was for all of them to arrive at our apartment, perhaps shower, and then we would head into the city together to see the heart of Tbilisi, and eat at a good restaurant together.
Several young men (Gabriel, Scotty, and another) arrived first, then another couple who dropped off a carload of suitcases (apparently, for the group), and eventually, the entire college team joined us at the apartment. Within time, we hopped in a series of 4-5 taxis, and headed to downtown (and ancient) Tbilisi.
The whole group of us, Jim, Tim, David, along with Gia and the 9 students from Houston, wandered down some of the ancient, bricked streets of Tbilisi. It is truly a charming place, especially in the early evening, with shops and inset restaurants around every bend…and many bends there were. While not aware of it at the time, we were simply seeing some of the sights before this college team headed back to Houston in just over 24 hours. Another hour of wandering, and waiting, and wandering, and seeing some of the most charming sights the city provides--then we loaded in cabs again to eat at a wonderfully delicious Georgian restaurant.
Dinner, when it finally happened, was a true Georgian delight…and feast, in an establishment which featured live national music and a never-ending stream of incomparably delicious food. The dinner was a reward to a college team that had worked hard at an English camp in rough conditions for over a week.
Sometime around 10:00 PM, or later, we loaded in cabs a final time to head south to the apartment in S. Tbilisi. The apartment – our staging place for the week -- also hosts the small church which Gia leads. Arriving “home,” the college kids wanted to hang out a bit more…on the other side of the wall, three men over 40 hit the sack.
It struck me later that this was a Sunday where we had not taken any time to formally worship the Lord; a misstep in retrospect. No wonder the Lord would wake me up just 3 hours later.
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