Full Hearts and Full Bags

We often make mention of the hospitality of Georgians, but it never fails to make us step back and just reflect in wonder and joy at another such occurrence. This week we headed northeast from Tbilisi to a small village at the base of the northern Caucasus mountains in eastern Georgian. A pastor here has big visions, such that we have rarely seen among other pastors and leaders. He has a vision to reach 30 villages in his area. He even has sheets of paper up on a wall with the name of every village and the names of the believers in each village. Fifteen of the villages have no believers and the other 15 have between 1 and 10 believers in each. He and his family, along with other believers, regularly pray for God to reach these villages. The main purpose for our visit was to take pictures of an old house that they want to purchase to serve as a church and place for prayer because they currently do not have a place in their village. The trip, of course, was about more than some pictures. We spent time with the pastor, his wife, his sister, and 4 of his 6 children. They prepared a delicious Georgian table for us. Their teenage daughters sang worship songs for us before heading off to lead a small youth group they started with their village friends. We prayed together. We were also able to give them a few Georgian Bibles and a few in Azeri (several people from Azerbaijan live in this area of the country). We also gave them some reading glasses…a huge need for many who want to read the Bible but are not able to because they cannot see the small print. They will give these out to those in need.

Naturally, they also wanted us to stay the night but other plans prevented us from being able to do that this time. So reluctantly, they sent us off but not without gifts from their garden…bags full of green peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelons. Here are photos of what we brought home, but 2 watermelons and a large bag of the vegetables had already gone home with the other couple that went with us to the village. We shared our part of the blessing with 2 other families and still have an abundance left over.

This is the region and season for melons and many other fruits. We passed by dozens and dozens of people along the road selling melons…watermelons and other types of melons. There were so many in some places that you could smell the melons as you drove by on the highway. Many were also selling peaches so we loaded up on those since they are cheaper than in Tbilisi (also in the photo above).

Our hearts are filled with joy from spending time with this amazing family. They blessed us with their hospitality, smiles of joy, worship, prayers, dreams for their neighbors to know Christ, and bags full of food. Our stomachs were filled to the brim and there is more to enjoy back here in Tbilisi. We pray that God will fulfill the dreams this pastor and his family have for those around them to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.

Tour of Georgia

In 13 days, we crammed in all we could of the sights, sounds, and tastes of Georgia. Megan’s parents came to visit us. It was their first trip to Georgia and it’s been about 13 years since they traveled away from US soil. It was a monumental trip so we wanted nothing less than the best for them. We took them every direction from Tbilisi to give them a picture of the landscapes and sights all around the country. We skipped the summer hotspot along the sea, but otherwise they got to see a large majority of Georgia. They also were involved in some of our normal activities around Tbilisi, like attending services at both of our churches (Georgian and international churches), helping out at street kids ministry and a local orphanage, spending time with many of our friends and colleagues, driving and getting around on transportation in the city, and normal shopping at our multiple locations (it takes multiple shops to find all the stuff we need). We felt they had a good balance of tourism and normal life in Georgia.


Their favorite part of the visit (besides being with us!) was experiencing Georgian hospitality and life inside a Georgian home. We took them to meet Sveta, our hostess while we lived in Bolnisi. She treated them well with a delicious table of Georgian cuisine. She was disappointed she couldn’t prepare more food since her arm is still in a cast from her fall in May, but she’s Georgian and she still managed to prepare more than enough food. Before taking off, we also enjoyed playing Nardi with her. Sveta was such a good teacher that Wade was able to beat her this time. We left to go do a bit of sight-seeing in the area, but we passed by the house of our friends Shalva and Natia. We saw Shalva just coming home for his lunch break so we stopped to say hello. He immediately invited us in and before we knew it, we were sitting down for another meal…just a couple hours after the first one! It was almost as if we had arranged to stop by their house the way it all fell together. That is Georgian hospitality…always ready to wine and dine any guest whether planned or not.


One of their favorite sight-seeing days was also our longest and most adventurous. We took them to visit one of three cave cities in Georgia. Vardzia is located south and west of Tbilisi. There is an old road that was redone a couple years ago that goes all the way to it. It is shorter than the route that most people usually took before this one was redone. However, we hardly knew it was shorter because we took many stops along the way to see lakes and wildflowers. It was a beautiful drive on a beautiful day! Then we came to a decision point…continue on the way most people would go or try an alternate road. We opted for the alternate road. Turns out it added at least an hour to our drive, possibly more. The road was fine for a little while…still some of the renovated road. Then we turned off and the last sign we saw was still an old one with Georgian and Russian (not one of the new road signs with Georgian and English). It was an old, rough dirt road, but along it were the most beautiful fields of wildflowers we’d seen all day! Then the road curved and we decided to be sure it was the right way. A guy indicated that we needed to go down (we asked in Georgian and he answered in Russian, but we managed to communicate). By down, he meant drive down a winding, single-lane, mountain dirt road. It took 45 minutes to get down that mountain! But again, from the top and all the way down, we could see the cave city from a viewpoint that few people ever get to see it. Congratulations to Wade for successfully driving down that mountain and even making it through the cow herd blocking the single-lane road! Getting there was only half the fun because then we got to explore the caves at Vardzia.


We truly had a memorable time with Megan’s parents! We are so grateful that they had the opportunity to come see and experience our life in Georgia. They definitely have a better picture of what we are experiencing here. We love you, Rudy and Linda! Thanks for coming to visit us!


These are just some of the pictures from their visit. It was hard to narrow it down from over 1,400 picture and video files to just a few! It's difficult to capture everything in pictures anyway, but at least it's a little sample of their tour of Georgia!