We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
he chastens and hastens his will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
sing praise to his Name, he forgets not his own.
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
so from the beginning the fight we were winning:
thou, Lord, wast at our side: all glory be thine!
We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation:
thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
What a glorious day!
You know, by the time you get to be our age you have become pretty set in your ways and your notions about what things should be like are pretty set in stone. That is especially true of holidays. So, as Thanksgiving day approached I was pretty apprehensive about how the family was going to react to our first major holiday away from home. For that matter, I was not sure how I was going to react. I like sleeping late on Thanksgiving morning and watching the parades in my pajamas. I like cooking a big turkey and smelling all of the wonderful goodies that Kellye prepares throughout the day. I like sitting around the table with my family and hearing all the things that we are thankful for. And, I especially like my afternoon nap on a big cushy couch while Kellye and the girls watch "It's a Wonderful Life."
Well, as you can imagine this Thanksgiving was different...but it was great. We spent most of the afternoon with our mission family here in Moscow. Including the children there were around 70 people, mostly missionaries, who gathered together in the cafeteria of the Christian school to celebrate the holiday. There was turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beens, and pumpkin pie. We sang songs of thanksgiving, talked about the things we were thankful for, and spent the afternoon enjoying each other's company. After dinner the kids went out to play in the snow while the adults and teenagers played board games. Hannah went home with a friend and SB went with the other teenagers to a friend's house to watch movies and hang out. When we got home our internet connection was working well enough to call home and talk to family, as well as some of our mission friends around the world. It really was a great day.
So today I am thankful for many things, including the fact that our first holiday in Russia was a happy one and not one filled with sadness and longing for home. As a matter of a fact, we are slowly able to call this our home...and that is something to be thankful for.
Some of the other things I am thankful for include:
~ My wife, Kellye. I adore her and am thankful to God for giving me such a wonderful woman to stand by my side.
~ My children. I know that one day you will have to move out of the house and live on your own, so for now I am thankful for a house filled with the noise of an active family.
~ Our family back home. We miss them all and appreciate their love and support.
~ Snow! Yes, it is beastly cold. But the snow adds a cheeriness to the otherwise bleak weather.
~ Small victories. Today on the way to lunch I was able to read a sign I had never seen before and understand what kind of place it was. (It was the post office.) Earlier this week I took the kids to McDonalds and ordered in Russian. This time there were only two items on my tray that should not have been there! You get the picture.
~ My two best friends, Mike and Neil. I know that the thought of me serving overseas as a missionary is still funny to you. But it is even funnier to me. Thanks for being my friends, no matter what the circumstance, for more than 20 years!
~ Our language teacher, Irena. I cannot tell you what a blessing she is to our family. Not only is she a gifted teacher, and she must be to teach me, but she has become a treasured part of our family. Although I am thrilled to have a four-day weekend, I will miss having her in our home tomorrow.
~ Ed Tarleton. I have known Ed for around two years now and every time I hear him speak to a group I am just in awe of this Godly man. I am proud to work with and for such a missionary.
~ Our Moscow family. We have a great group of IMB folks who live and work in Moscow. Every one of them has been loving and kind as we have made the transition here. I am especially fond of our team, but the entire mission family has taken us in and we are thankful for each of them.
~ Our FPO family. What a treat it is to get to chat with our dear brothers and sisters from FPO who are serving around the world. Kellye always knows when I am getting to talk with one of them because I am always smiling when she enters the room.
~ My pastor. What can I say. We would not be here today if it were not for my friend and pastor, Alan Floyd. I love this guy.
~ Email. I can't even imagine what it was like to serve overseas before email. I am sure that every letter from home was precious. While the method of communication is different, let me tell you that your emails are no less precious to our family. We love to hear from you and are thankful when you take time to write to us.
Fortunately, I am a blessed man and have much to be thankful for which means that I could continue to write about them for hours. However, it is getting late and the sounds of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" are coming from my living room which means that I need do go. Tomorrow evening we will pull a few precious Christmas ornaments (including a few dorky reindeer) out of a box and decorate our small tree for Christmas. While we do we will watch White Christmas and sing along. One of my favorite songs is in that movie and it talks about counting your blessings. I hope that tonight before you go to sleep you will take time to count your blessings and thank the God who has made every one of them possible.
Oh, and I am thankful that after six weeks you have continued to read our blogs! Happy Thanksgiving!
Blessings,
Marc
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
There comes a point in which a man has to admit to himself that he is not quite the man he thought he was. Today I found that point…it turns out it is right around 19-degrees!
We have had a busy week since I last had a chance to write. We have enjoyed a glorious week off from our language studies. This was in order to allow us to attend a team retreat Monday through Wednesday. So, our teacher decided to take the rest of the week off to visit her parents in Kiev, Ukraine. We have tried to take advantage of that time and do some fun things in addition to our normal routines, so I will try to bring you up to speed.
“That’s Russia!”
We have heard missionary friends of ours say “well, that’s Russia” before, but we are really starting to get a feeling for what that phrase really means. On Monday morning the family hiked a mile up the street to the nearest metro station (with three suitcases and four backpacks in tow) to meet our team and load the “bus” for our annual retreat. It was about 30-degrees and as we walked it began to snow. By the time we arrived at our meeting place the snow was falling heavily and the roads were getting slippery. As we started to load up we realized that the company had only sent a 17-passenger vehicle for the 20 of us. That’s Russia. We then drove the 70 kilometers outside of Moscow to the retreat center that we had booked for the week.
Russian Retreat Centers: Making RA Camp Look Luxurious
The only word I could really think of as we drove through the front gates of the retreat center was “gulag.” However, I am told that this was one of the nicer Christian retreat centers in Russia. Let’s just say that I don’t ever want to visit a bad one. As we popped out of the van like clowns out of a VW, we lugged our things to the second floor only to find that only three of the four adult couple’s rooms had bathrooms in the room. Guess who got the fourth. That’s Russia. The next morning I padded down the hallway in my jammies to take a shower. I turned the hot water on and waited….and waited…and waited some more. Then I turned on the hot water to the other shower on full blast…and waited. Stone cold. (And you have never felt cold water like the cold water here.) So I padded back to the room. Luckily our room did have a sink in it so I gave Kellye and John fair warning and started my day with a sponge bath. At breakfast I commented to a teammate about how cold the shower was and he told me that he kept getting the water too hot. It turns out that the lines to the shower were reversed and the hot water was in the opposite direction from which I was turning the knob. That’s Russia.
Capture the Flag and Other Feats of Physical Prowess
Our first evening at the retreat center ended with most of us spreading out around the campus to play “Capture the Flag”. If you have not played it, it is kind of like a mini war game where you can be captured and put into jail if you are caught behind enemy lines. I haven’t played capture the flag since I was in college and it seems that while my mind still believes it is 20, my body was in for the stark realization that it is not. To make matters worse, by this time it had been snowing for at least 12 hours and the ground was beginning to be covered with ice and snow. Now, I won’t tell you just how bad my body decided to rebel against me under these circumstances, but I spent the rest of the retreat being known as “Mr. No-Vertical-Leap” and my colleagues doing impressions of me attempting to hurdle the hedges in order to escape capture. I spend a lot of time in “jail” that night.
Never Eat S’mores With Your Gloves On
We were blessed to be joined on our retreat by a couple from Colorado that lead us in Bible study. Mark and Christy served on the mission field for many years before making Colorado their current home. More on that later, but one of the wonderful things they did was to bring suitcases filled with goodies. Candy and CDs for the kids, magazines (including MacWorld just for me) and books for the adults and a special suitcase filled with all the fixins for s’mores. So despite the six inches of snow that was already on the ground and the steady snow shower that was pelting our faces we gathered firewood and built ourselves a nice little bonfire. It was more like a campfire, but trust me when I say that nobody there wanted to camp by the fire for long. After one of our Journeymen discovered, the hard way, that you should not eat S’mores while still wearing your fuzzy mittens we doused the fire with snow and headed back indoors for the night, all the while looking like an army of snowmen (and women) making their way down the path.
Breaking Down Incrementally and Going Out In Joy
I am not sure that the timing for our retreat could have been any better than it was. Life in Russia is not easy. No, it is hard. And…that’s Russia. We all experience it. Whether you have been here for 13 years, two years, or just six weeks, after living in America, life in Russia is hard. To Russians it is just life…but for those of us used to the conveniences of the Western World everyday life here can be frustrating…and that is on the good days. You have probably guessed from our infrequent posts that we are still without dependable Internet service and I can’t really express to you the frustration that brings. Add to that the inability to communicate with those around us and the frustration of learning our new roles and it is usually only a matter of time before your first breakdown sets in. And, after spending time with our teammates we discovered that it happens to everyone, but some of us crash and burn all at once while others of us break down in increments. The secret, however, is to stay rooted in your call and to live in joy, regardless of your circumstances. I can never express enough gratitude to Mark and Christy who took time and money to leave their comfortable life in Colorado to share with us about living in joy. Yes, these are things that we all knew. But it is good to be reminded every now and again by someone who has walked the path that you are on. So remember that wherever in the world that you live or whether you speak the same language as your neighbor or not your life is supposed to be filled with joy. Whether you have high-speed Internet or just a hamster that runs around a wheel in a box to power your network connection you are to be filled with joy. How do you get that joy? It only comes from one place…a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Once you have that I promise that no circumstance or incremental breakdown can rob you of your joy.
Dining at an Oasis
Having the week off has given us some time to do some fun things. The kids and I have taken a few minutes to play in the snow. But even more notable has been yesterday’s trip to the Starlite Diner, an American-style diner in the heart of Moscow. We had pancakes with real maple syrup, bacon and probably the best cup of coffee that I have had since Miss Penny served me my last cup at Country Cabin. All the while we ate a fresh layer of snow fell from the skies and we listened to American rock-and-roll classics blaring from the jukebox. It was a little slice of heaven. I cannot wait until Kellye and I get to go back for date night in December so we can try their hot wings! After breakfast we got another treat…a trip to MediaMarket— think Best Buy on steroids! They had one of the largest flat-panel tv screens that I have ever seen. We bought a hair dryer for the girls and I got a DVD of Looney Tunes cartoons that are overdubbed in Russian. Hey, if you are going to learn a foreign language you might as well make it fun!
Plowing Concrete and Long Cold Winters
I think there is something about how constant cold, snow and ice effect a person’s personality. Russians are not unfriendly, but they are not an outgoing gregarious society either. We have been jealous as we have read the blogs of other missionary colleagues who have been invited into the homes of national friends, neighbors and others that they meet. Quite frankly, we are jealous that they have forged relationships with any nationals at all. Before arriving we were told that the work here can be described as “plowing concrete” and so far that has been a pretty accurate description. While others are enjoying meals with neighbors, we are happy when any of our neighbors nods their head at us in the elevator or on the sidewalk outside of our building. This week I had the opportunity to speak with several different people and while my communication skills are limited at best, I was still able to have brief encounters with these Russians. I will write more about these encounters, as I am able to begin to develop relationships with them. However, in the meantime please pray that we would be able to reach these people and eventually have the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
Praying For Us…
As Thanksgiving approaches this week we are reminded for all we have that we are thankful for. I cannot tell you how thankful we are for you. All of you who take time to check our blogs regularly and pray for us. We can’t tell you how much that means to us and what an important part of our ministry it is. As you head into Thanksgiving week and the Christmas season, please pray for the following things on behalf of the Hooks family…
1. Dependable Internet service.
2. Language acquisition.
3. Wisdom in making decisions about the children, home situations and other matters that will need Godly discernment.
4. Joy in all situations.
5. That we will begin to have an impact and ministry in Russia.
Blessings,
Marc
We have had a busy week since I last had a chance to write. We have enjoyed a glorious week off from our language studies. This was in order to allow us to attend a team retreat Monday through Wednesday. So, our teacher decided to take the rest of the week off to visit her parents in Kiev, Ukraine. We have tried to take advantage of that time and do some fun things in addition to our normal routines, so I will try to bring you up to speed.
“That’s Russia!”
We have heard missionary friends of ours say “well, that’s Russia” before, but we are really starting to get a feeling for what that phrase really means. On Monday morning the family hiked a mile up the street to the nearest metro station (with three suitcases and four backpacks in tow) to meet our team and load the “bus” for our annual retreat. It was about 30-degrees and as we walked it began to snow. By the time we arrived at our meeting place the snow was falling heavily and the roads were getting slippery. As we started to load up we realized that the company had only sent a 17-passenger vehicle for the 20 of us. That’s Russia. We then drove the 70 kilometers outside of Moscow to the retreat center that we had booked for the week.
Russian Retreat Centers: Making RA Camp Look Luxurious
The only word I could really think of as we drove through the front gates of the retreat center was “gulag.” However, I am told that this was one of the nicer Christian retreat centers in Russia. Let’s just say that I don’t ever want to visit a bad one. As we popped out of the van like clowns out of a VW, we lugged our things to the second floor only to find that only three of the four adult couple’s rooms had bathrooms in the room. Guess who got the fourth. That’s Russia. The next morning I padded down the hallway in my jammies to take a shower. I turned the hot water on and waited….and waited…and waited some more. Then I turned on the hot water to the other shower on full blast…and waited. Stone cold. (And you have never felt cold water like the cold water here.) So I padded back to the room. Luckily our room did have a sink in it so I gave Kellye and John fair warning and started my day with a sponge bath. At breakfast I commented to a teammate about how cold the shower was and he told me that he kept getting the water too hot. It turns out that the lines to the shower were reversed and the hot water was in the opposite direction from which I was turning the knob. That’s Russia.
Capture the Flag and Other Feats of Physical Prowess
Our first evening at the retreat center ended with most of us spreading out around the campus to play “Capture the Flag”. If you have not played it, it is kind of like a mini war game where you can be captured and put into jail if you are caught behind enemy lines. I haven’t played capture the flag since I was in college and it seems that while my mind still believes it is 20, my body was in for the stark realization that it is not. To make matters worse, by this time it had been snowing for at least 12 hours and the ground was beginning to be covered with ice and snow. Now, I won’t tell you just how bad my body decided to rebel against me under these circumstances, but I spent the rest of the retreat being known as “Mr. No-Vertical-Leap” and my colleagues doing impressions of me attempting to hurdle the hedges in order to escape capture. I spend a lot of time in “jail” that night.
Never Eat S’mores With Your Gloves On
We were blessed to be joined on our retreat by a couple from Colorado that lead us in Bible study. Mark and Christy served on the mission field for many years before making Colorado their current home. More on that later, but one of the wonderful things they did was to bring suitcases filled with goodies. Candy and CDs for the kids, magazines (including MacWorld just for me) and books for the adults and a special suitcase filled with all the fixins for s’mores. So despite the six inches of snow that was already on the ground and the steady snow shower that was pelting our faces we gathered firewood and built ourselves a nice little bonfire. It was more like a campfire, but trust me when I say that nobody there wanted to camp by the fire for long. After one of our Journeymen discovered, the hard way, that you should not eat S’mores while still wearing your fuzzy mittens we doused the fire with snow and headed back indoors for the night, all the while looking like an army of snowmen (and women) making their way down the path.
Breaking Down Incrementally and Going Out In Joy
I am not sure that the timing for our retreat could have been any better than it was. Life in Russia is not easy. No, it is hard. And…that’s Russia. We all experience it. Whether you have been here for 13 years, two years, or just six weeks, after living in America, life in Russia is hard. To Russians it is just life…but for those of us used to the conveniences of the Western World everyday life here can be frustrating…and that is on the good days. You have probably guessed from our infrequent posts that we are still without dependable Internet service and I can’t really express to you the frustration that brings. Add to that the inability to communicate with those around us and the frustration of learning our new roles and it is usually only a matter of time before your first breakdown sets in. And, after spending time with our teammates we discovered that it happens to everyone, but some of us crash and burn all at once while others of us break down in increments. The secret, however, is to stay rooted in your call and to live in joy, regardless of your circumstances. I can never express enough gratitude to Mark and Christy who took time and money to leave their comfortable life in Colorado to share with us about living in joy. Yes, these are things that we all knew. But it is good to be reminded every now and again by someone who has walked the path that you are on. So remember that wherever in the world that you live or whether you speak the same language as your neighbor or not your life is supposed to be filled with joy. Whether you have high-speed Internet or just a hamster that runs around a wheel in a box to power your network connection you are to be filled with joy. How do you get that joy? It only comes from one place…a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Once you have that I promise that no circumstance or incremental breakdown can rob you of your joy.
Dining at an Oasis
Having the week off has given us some time to do some fun things. The kids and I have taken a few minutes to play in the snow. But even more notable has been yesterday’s trip to the Starlite Diner, an American-style diner in the heart of Moscow. We had pancakes with real maple syrup, bacon and probably the best cup of coffee that I have had since Miss Penny served me my last cup at Country Cabin. All the while we ate a fresh layer of snow fell from the skies and we listened to American rock-and-roll classics blaring from the jukebox. It was a little slice of heaven. I cannot wait until Kellye and I get to go back for date night in December so we can try their hot wings! After breakfast we got another treat…a trip to MediaMarket— think Best Buy on steroids! They had one of the largest flat-panel tv screens that I have ever seen. We bought a hair dryer for the girls and I got a DVD of Looney Tunes cartoons that are overdubbed in Russian. Hey, if you are going to learn a foreign language you might as well make it fun!
Plowing Concrete and Long Cold Winters
I think there is something about how constant cold, snow and ice effect a person’s personality. Russians are not unfriendly, but they are not an outgoing gregarious society either. We have been jealous as we have read the blogs of other missionary colleagues who have been invited into the homes of national friends, neighbors and others that they meet. Quite frankly, we are jealous that they have forged relationships with any nationals at all. Before arriving we were told that the work here can be described as “plowing concrete” and so far that has been a pretty accurate description. While others are enjoying meals with neighbors, we are happy when any of our neighbors nods their head at us in the elevator or on the sidewalk outside of our building. This week I had the opportunity to speak with several different people and while my communication skills are limited at best, I was still able to have brief encounters with these Russians. I will write more about these encounters, as I am able to begin to develop relationships with them. However, in the meantime please pray that we would be able to reach these people and eventually have the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
Praying For Us…
As Thanksgiving approaches this week we are reminded for all we have that we are thankful for. I cannot tell you how thankful we are for you. All of you who take time to check our blogs regularly and pray for us. We can’t tell you how much that means to us and what an important part of our ministry it is. As you head into Thanksgiving week and the Christmas season, please pray for the following things on behalf of the Hooks family…
1. Dependable Internet service.
2. Language acquisition.
3. Wisdom in making decisions about the children, home situations and other matters that will need Godly discernment.
4. Joy in all situations.
5. That we will begin to have an impact and ministry in Russia.
Blessings,
Marc
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Headlines from Moscow
(After some gentle chiding from a missionary colleague I am making myself sit down and write a post for my blog. It is not that I have forgotten or lost interest, but have started three or four entries that never got finished. So, here is a catch-up blog.)
Many of you know that in one of my former lives I was a newspaper writer and editor. While that was not my favorite job in my media profession it did have its own set of rewards, one of which was writing headlines and seeing them on the paper the next day. You see, writing a good headline can be an art. It needs to be short, snappy, grab people’s attention and sum up the story in just a few words. So, when I start writing blog entries my brain automatically switches into “reporter mode” where I begin thinking of a headline at about the same time that I start writing the blog. So I got to thinking, how would I convey our Moscow experience thus far by using only headlines. And this is a few of what I have come up with…
“Nat King Cole may have loved Paris in the springtime, but I love Moscow in the fall.”
“Deaf, Dumb & Blind—Going Shopping in a foreign land.”
“Life lessons from playing charades.”
“Are you there God? It’s me, Marc.”
“Frustrated missionary murders tutor at dining room table using nothing but a Russian Language textbook.”
“The fetal position…not a bad place to be.”
“Baby, it’s cold outside.”
“Dancing Bears and a good night’s sleep.”
“Lewis & Clark could not have found good Internet in Moscow.”
“Patience is in a jar on the top shelf next to the peanut better…oh wait, they don’t have that here either!”
“Let’s play ‘What’s That Smell!’ That’s right Sergi, it’s fish and cigarette smoke…again!”
“I’m a katchka in a shopka!”
“Spa-see-ba Bog and other dinnertime prayers.”
“WWLMD…What would Lottie Moon Do? And other questions from the field.”
“We’re still having tacos for dinner and Kellye can tell you how that reminds us of Jesus!”
I hope you have enjoyed the headlines from Moscow. Trust me, there is a story for each of them and one day I hope to be able to write them all. If you see one that has peaked your interest, leave a comment and ask for the whole story. I will try to write and publish them as as soon as possible.
Thanks for joining us in prayer. I wish I could report that life here is easy and fun all of the time, but I cant. I wish I could report that 20 new churches have been planted since we arrived, but they haven’t. I wish that if you called me today I would be able to talk back to you in Russian, but I won’t. But what can report is that the God of the Universe has called us to this country to help spread the word about how people here, including missionaries, don’t have to live in a world without hope. I can report that our God is alive and well in Russia and that my family is happy to be part of that work…on the good days, the funny days, and even the bad days.
I will leave you today with words that God gave me this week from the book of Isaiah. Now I understand that when they were written they were speaking about Jesus and well we all know that the comparison stops with the fact that we are both Jewish men. However, they spoke to me this week and so now I share them with you…
“I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You,
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations,
To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
Wherever you are this week, and whatever you are doing, remember that the Lord has called you too to be light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and to those who dwell in darkness from the prison. Won't you take your light and search the darkness of your workplace, your community and your own family so that the light can be seen?
Blessings,
Marc
Many of you know that in one of my former lives I was a newspaper writer and editor. While that was not my favorite job in my media profession it did have its own set of rewards, one of which was writing headlines and seeing them on the paper the next day. You see, writing a good headline can be an art. It needs to be short, snappy, grab people’s attention and sum up the story in just a few words. So, when I start writing blog entries my brain automatically switches into “reporter mode” where I begin thinking of a headline at about the same time that I start writing the blog. So I got to thinking, how would I convey our Moscow experience thus far by using only headlines. And this is a few of what I have come up with…
“Nat King Cole may have loved Paris in the springtime, but I love Moscow in the fall.”
“Deaf, Dumb & Blind—Going Shopping in a foreign land.”
“Life lessons from playing charades.”
“Are you there God? It’s me, Marc.”
“Frustrated missionary murders tutor at dining room table using nothing but a Russian Language textbook.”
“The fetal position…not a bad place to be.”
“Baby, it’s cold outside.”
“Dancing Bears and a good night’s sleep.”
“Lewis & Clark could not have found good Internet in Moscow.”
“Patience is in a jar on the top shelf next to the peanut better…oh wait, they don’t have that here either!”
“Let’s play ‘What’s That Smell!’ That’s right Sergi, it’s fish and cigarette smoke…again!”
“I’m a katchka in a shopka!”
“Spa-see-ba Bog and other dinnertime prayers.”
“WWLMD…What would Lottie Moon Do? And other questions from the field.”
“We’re still having tacos for dinner and Kellye can tell you how that reminds us of Jesus!”
I hope you have enjoyed the headlines from Moscow. Trust me, there is a story for each of them and one day I hope to be able to write them all. If you see one that has peaked your interest, leave a comment and ask for the whole story. I will try to write and publish them as as soon as possible.
Thanks for joining us in prayer. I wish I could report that life here is easy and fun all of the time, but I cant. I wish I could report that 20 new churches have been planted since we arrived, but they haven’t. I wish that if you called me today I would be able to talk back to you in Russian, but I won’t. But what can report is that the God of the Universe has called us to this country to help spread the word about how people here, including missionaries, don’t have to live in a world without hope. I can report that our God is alive and well in Russia and that my family is happy to be part of that work…on the good days, the funny days, and even the bad days.
I will leave you today with words that God gave me this week from the book of Isaiah. Now I understand that when they were written they were speaking about Jesus and well we all know that the comparison stops with the fact that we are both Jewish men. However, they spoke to me this week and so now I share them with you…
“I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You,
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations,
To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
Wherever you are this week, and whatever you are doing, remember that the Lord has called you too to be light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and to those who dwell in darkness from the prison. Won't you take your light and search the darkness of your workplace, your community and your own family so that the light can be seen?
Blessings,
Marc
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