Tim got the "boot"

Yes, it happened.  Tim got the boot!

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Tim had his car "booted".  We stopped in at a shopping center strip mall kind of place to look at refrigerators.  We looked for someone to pay for parking but saw no one.  The sign looked like it said we could park there so we did.  But, about 15 minutes later when we came back - there it was.  A bright orange boot had been attached to our back left tire and there was a huge sticker over the front and back windows.  Uh, oh!  We had heard about these things - but no one told us what to do if it happened to us.

Well, I looked around and saw a truck with 3 guys looking at us.  (Did I mention we were standing in the rain?)  I couldn't read what the sign on the truck said.  It actually looked like it was advertising phone cards.  But, it was clear the guys were focused on us, so I walked over to them.  In my very best broken Russian, I asked if they had put the boot on our car.  One guy got out of the truck and started speaking very fast in Russian or Ukranian, I'm honestly not sure which.  I didn't know if he was answering our question or was telling us what to do about it.  He showed me a paper that listed Parking II, some words in Ukrainian, and then 200 $.  I knew what that meant and I certainly didn't want to pay 200 greeven to get out of this mess.  I told Tim to call Dima or another Russian speaking coworker.  He finally did, and after 2 call he reached Darryl, a coworker who speaks the language.  Darryl told the guy that we had looked for someone to pay and had only been inside for a few minutes.  After a few minutes of back and forth with the phone, us, the guy - the guy told one of his coworkers to take the boot off the tire of our car.  YEA!  No money - just off.

I couldn't help but remember how many times I've heard people in the US say that people who go there to live should learn the language.  I also thought those young men were probably thinking that of us.  Maybe next time you have that thought of someone in line ahead of you at a restaurant, you'll remember us and you'll pray for those people and the difficulty they're having!  You may never know why God brought them to the U.S., but one thing is for sure - not knowing the language is a pain and difficulty, regardless of where you are and who you are.