As I’ve said & written elsewhere, our entry into Orthodoxy, while on mission in England, was extremely difficult. Again, the Russian Orthodox were warm & welcoming, & helped as much as they could, within Church parameters. Some, w/ ROCOR, were kind of crazy, but they still helped us. The Greek Orthodox, there & then, were extremely hostile, condescending, contemptuous, unhelpful & unwelcoming. It’s only the intercession of the Theotokos that, many years later, over here, convinced me it was okay to work w/ Greeks. Our local Greeks here are, overall, tremendous, loving, warm people. (Doxa Theou!). The Greeks I encountered in England didn’t think the Russian Orthodox were actually, really Orthodox, when I ID”d myself/ourselves as Russian Orthodox.
Calling the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan HQ in London, explaining our Journey & struggle, & asking for help, I was told: “We are NOT interested. Go talk to the Rusdians!” So we did. …….. At one point, totally depressed w/ all this, & beginning to think we’d made a HUGE mistake in becoming Orthodox, I went, again, to visit St. John the Baptist Monadtety. What I experienced at Vespers that night was so utterly powerful, real, overwhelming & Heavenly, that the doubts & fears & regrets were washed away. Not long after that, our way into Orthodoxy began to get easier. I’m not prepared to fully share that experience hete, just yet, though I have shared it a bit w/ a couple of trusted bishops & hieromons.. Once burned, twice shy. Many times burned, many times shy.

I will, however, share something that became more widely known (again, only because of my Bulgarian bishop).
1n 1999, my family made a visit to Georgia (w/ the blessing of our bishop at the time), to answer a call by folks there for another mission to be started, 70 or so miles north of Atlanta. We went, met folks, found work, found a house, made an accepted offer…….everything seemed to be a go. Then we returned to Indianapolis. Then everything changed & shifted, all those plans unravelled. It seemed to center around an icon in our home that was exuding Myron, quite without “rhyme or reason.,”

This was a photograph of a miraculous icon that was a Crucifix w/ Christ crucified in it. The large original had been, before becoming miraculous, in a Carpatho-Russian church that decided to get rid of it for something newer & fancier. So they gave this one to a poorer Carpatho-Russian church in Michigan City, IN. In that 2nd church is where it started exuding massive amounts of miraculous Myron. It caused an uproar. People came from all over the US & the world to see, to venerate, to be blessed. The stress of it all was so much, the parish priest ended up in the hospital. We heard about it after the initial furor subsided, & went to visit & venerate. People were still coming from all over to venerate, & I was pressed into service to bless those pilgrims w/ the holy oil. We were given a phographic copy of the icon, in a stand-up plastic display holder, which we gratefully took home.

So, we found, not long after returning from Georgia, that our copy of the icon was also exuding Myron. We were shocked, amazed, astounded. Us? In our home? In the middle of all our messes, muddles, challenges, difficulties. failings???!!! REALLY??!!
Our bishop came to see it, when next in town, & asked if we would please place it on the shrine of the Theotokos in the church. We did, for awhile. It wasn’t well received by many of the people there. & then a certain mentally-challenged lady tore off a corner of it. We then took it back home, where it remains. Before it went to the church, we had a visiting group of Orthodox youth in town, who came to our house to venetate, & receive a blessing w/ the oil. Our dog at the time, also got in line for a blessing. She used to regularly come to me for blessings, both before & after this event. Word got out to a few believers, who asked for me to bring the icon & bless them. 3 things happened thru this, all miraculous, in my view.
1) A baby of friends was in hospital w/ life-threatening water-on-the-brain. Following the blessing, full & speedy recovery occurred.
2) A friend w/ a cancerous obstruction of the bowel asked for help. Following the blessing, the obstruction completely disappeared, no cancer.
3) Someone who was suicidal asked for help. After the blessing, healing & soundness of mind & spirit happened.

So…….Glory be to God!, Who is so incredibly kind & merciful. That I/we am/are not worthy of such tbings is so blatantly obvious, as to really not even need to be mentioned. But there we are. We can only say THANK YOU to the One who has never let us down, & Who has always looked after us! Amen