CIS Prayer: Just when we thought it was bad...

[CarlaSun@aol.com]

Dear Friends,

Just after Kathy Mowry got my e-mail she sent me this note.   The Mowrys live in St. Petersburg, which is further north than Moscow!

She said I could share this...

On Thursday, as Jon was leaving for America, a flood started on the second and third floor landings of our apartment building.  There were actually waterfalls pouring off the landings, and the only way to get to the apartment was to walk right through them.  A pipe had broken, and this pouring went on for more than 12 hours before anyone responded to our calls.  They then turned off the water as much as they could, but they said they couldn't do anything else until the freeze is over.  And they left.  Water still pouring.  Ten inches of water at the bottom of the stairs.  All the stairs wet.  No pump, no nothing.  By Friday morning, we had 2 meter icicles hanging in the hallways up to the fourth floor.  We had ice several centimeters thick on all the stairs.  It was a sight you would have to see to believe.  On Saturday morning, the frustrated neighbors called emergency services.  We were like prisoners in the building.    It seems, though, that emergency services don't work on Saturday and Sunday.  So the neighbors pitched in and cleared a foot path down the middle of the stairs, but the water was still pouring.  My friend and her kids were able to get up Saturday morning to play with our kids, but after a few hours when they tried to leave, they couldn't get out at all.  We called the ministry center and Vova Boitsov came and helped them out.  The problem was particularly the last flight of stairs at the bottom where the ice was so thick there were no steps left.  It was a sheet of ice interspersed with columns of ice which started as icicles, but were now one or two feet thick and stretched from floor to ceiling.  Vova put each of the kids on his coat and slid them out of the building.  

This morning I had to have help getting out of the apartment with the kids.  Sonya helped me.  We inched Jonathan and Emily down bit by bit.  It took a very long time.  The only way we got Julia down the last flight of stairs was to sit her on her bottom and slide her.  Once we got down, I realized there was no way I would ever get the kids back up there today.

Fortunately after church, with no request from me, four of the youth went over with shovels, hammers, and picks, and spent three hours clearing a path through the ice.  The whole time they were working, the ice was dripping on them because today it was warmer here.  When they finished, they had icicles in their hair.  They looked like snow rastafarians.  

My neighbors were completely amazed that we had friends who would do that.  I was ever so proud to tell them that they were just friends from the church who came to do this without even a request from me.  The neighbors were incredulous and grateful.  

So today we could get out for a few hours.  The water is still running.  Tomorrow it will be -30 something again.  The kids start school again in the morning, so we are thinking we'll get them down the stairs on their new Christmas sleds that they haven't been able to use in these extreme temperatures. 

 Add alpinist to my resume.  

Stay warm.
Kathy