Oh what a year it has been!

I have taken much of the last 10 days to reflect on the year that has past and to plan and dream about the year that awaits us.  As you can well imagine, 2007 was a year filled with change.  In 12 months our family took our first trip to Russia, had our final interview with the IMB, sold nearly all of our belongings, closed my business as Kellye finished a successful teaching career, said goodbyes to friends and family in Florida, moved into a mission house, spent 10 days in Baltimore with my parents, moved to Richmond, VA where the entire family had 8 weeks of classes designed to prepare us for the mission field, were commissioned as IMB missionaries, said more goodbyes to family, moved to Moscow, started learning the Russian language, spent nearly three months without reliable internet connections, and celebrated our first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's in Europe's largest city...our new home.  Wow!  That makes me tired just thinking about it.  The past year has surely been one of those landmark years that you spend the rest of your life looking back on.

This morning I was reading from the 14th Chapter of Luke where Christ is teaching about the cost of discipleship.  The Message reads this way: 

25-27  "One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, "Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters -- yes, even one's own self! -- can't be my disciple.  Anyone who won't shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can't be my disciple.

28-30 "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it?  If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish.  Everyone passing by will poke fun at you:  'He started something he couldn't finish.'

31-32  "Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other?  Ad if he decides he can't, won't he send an emissary and work out a truce?

33  "Simply put, if you're not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can't be my disciple."

I share that passage with you not to elevate our family or to call attention to what was left behind, but to bring specific attention to verses 28-30.  This has been a difficult year.  It is one thing to stand up in your home church and profess your love for Jesus.  It is quite another to turn your back on a profession that you have spent your adult life building, to tell family and friends that Jesus is more important than they are, and to count the cost of discipleship with your spouse and children.  My friends, we did not get to Moscow without first counting the cost.  And that is ok.  My largest fear is that we will be like the man who gets the foundation of his house laid and then runs out of money.  I do not want to be the man of whom people say, "He started something he couldn't finish."

So that brings me to the present year.  While 2007 was filled with change, 2008 will be a year of running the race.  And, as races go, it will not be a sprint but a marathon.  Come to think about it, it will probably be more of a steeplechase or triathlon with courses that change and many obstacles to overcome.  When Kellye and I married 18 years ago we decided that divorce would never be an option and therefore no matter what problems we may encounter so therefore it would not be something that we would discuss.  We have had to take a similar approach to the thoughts of going home.  It is not an option.  Jesus has called us to Russia for this season in our lives and the cost has been counted.  Going home is not one of the options at this point and therefore we have had to ban that vocabulary from our lives.  No matter how bad our days feel the suitcases must stay in storage.  So, my friends that is my prayer request for the upcoming year.  Pray that we would be faithful.  Pray that we would continue to build the house that God has asked us to build here and that we would build it to completion.  As I have shared with you before, life here is not always easy.  As a matter of a fact, it is typically more difficult than the life that we left behind.  And, homesickness is a real thing.  We all struggle with it, the girls in particular.  Please pray that in 2008 that we will not look foolish.  Pray that we will be able to finish what we have started.

As for the year ahead, here are some of the things that we are looking forward to:

~ Learning enough of the language to have conversations with those around us.

~ Traveling our new city and country to see things we never thought that we would ever see or experience.

~ Working with the missionaries of Russia to help them produce the media pieces they need to support their work here.

~  Hosting volunteer teams from the States who will join us in our work here.

As you head into the new year please continue to remember our family in your prayers.  Pray that each day will become easier than the day before and that we would be able to share the light of Jesus with the Russians that we meet.  Pray for the children as they continue to adjust to their new home and pray that Kellye and I would be the kind of patient understanding parents that we need to be.

I look forward to see what the new year will hold not just for our family, but for you and yours.

Blessings,

Marc