God Changes Lives: Nelly

Lydia and Mary went swimming with Nelly, a lady who has trouble walking and talking. Red beard Sasha took her down in a wheelchair and she said she didn't like it, but she kept laughing. 

Then Mary and Lydia helped her take her clothes off and we went swimming. We didn't know that she liked to swim so deep...at first she just kept wading and we let her hold our arms to steady herself. 

Then she started to jump in the water - "it was hilarious, I don't know, she became this energetic little girl" says Lydia, "she was smiling and had this amazing joy" 

Then she swam so deep, we started plotting what we would do if she started sinking...we decided that one of us would dive under for her and the other would swim to go get Roma. 

Earlier in the week, we had been talking about what profession we wanted, and he said he always wanted to be a lifeguard. In fact, he said "I am a lifeguard! If I see a girl drowning, I can jump in and save her..even right now!" Then Karina and Lera were laughing, because he had specifically said girl, and not just "children" or a "person". :)

After a little while, Nelly turned around and swam back towards shore. On the way back in, we decided to jump with her.