Let me add this on a total side note. I am finishing a video about our team and their strategy and I hope to post that here sometime later this week. However, I think it is important to remind folks back home that most of the people that we work with are"totally lost" in the sense that they have no background or concept of religion to work with as a starting point. Many who are a little older (25+) have told me that under the Soviet Union, Communism was their god. "Lenin and Stalin were our gods and we worshiped them," one lady told me. So, sharing the good news of Jesus and his sacrifice for our sins is not as simple as meeting for a cup of coffee at Country Cabin and finishing lunch with the "sinner's prayer." It is about forging deep relationships and personal trust which then gives us the right to share our faith. It is about them realizing that our lives and our family is different from theirs and them developing a hunger for wanting to understand what about us makes us different. The work of sharing the Gospel here is slow. However, in the end what we will find is that we have made a host of new friends and pray that they will one day meet us in heaven. That makes the daily struggles worthwhile.
OK, my sidebar is over.
Our team leader, Jeff, and his family head home this next week for their year of Stateside Assignment. Jeff and Karla will be serving as the Missionaries in Residence at the Baptist College of Florida in Graceville, Florida. Our whole family will miss them very much. They have not been just our team leaders, they have been our friends and I assure you that without their friendship, guidance, advice, shoulders to cry on, etc. that we would have given up and left Moscow long before now. So, I am grateful to them and ask that you pray for them as they transition back home this week.
And that brings me to the long list of changes that are in process...
First, let me tell you about church yesterday...all six and a half hours of it!!! That's right, you did not misread. We met as a church for 6 1/2 hours. For weeks you have been praying about our decision to host a Bible Study and yesterday was the first meeting in our home. It was truly amazing. Jeff and his family joined us for their last meeting with the group and we were also joined by another missionary family who has just moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow. But more importantly, there were 7 Russians who were with us yesterday! That meant that we had more than 20 people crammed into our living room as we sang songs of worship and studied the Bible. Our worship time and Bible study was at least three hours. Then we shared a meal together and fellowshipped. We played cards for awhile and then we had another spontaneous time of praise and worship again. It left us so excited about the decision we have made to host this group and it is so encouraging as we watch our new friends wrestle with the Word of God and see the Holy Spirit working in them. We are also excited by the fact that they are already stepping up and sharing in the leadership roles. We thought it was very important that they begin taking ownership of the group and started leading as well as participating. So, one of the guys has volunteered to play guitar each week and another (very shy) girl has agreed to facilitate the Bible study portion...a huge step for her. Next week we will start a six-week study on the life of Peter. Please be in prayer for our group as we use the life of this disciple to draw us closer in our relationship with Jesus.
Change number two...we are down to just six hours left of language learning!!!! As the Russians would say, "Oooo-rrrrah!" Our teacher in on vacation in Turkey this week so we will have the week off as well and then will study for three days next week and be finished...at least for awhile. Now, before you think us arrogant, know that we are nowhere close to knowing all of the things we need to learn and still struggle just to watch television and understand what is being said. However, we are grateful for what this break means in our lives. We are looking forward to spending more time with our children and doing things as a family. And, we are looking forward to our language learning taking on different forms...like actually talking with people. One of the drawbacks to full-time language study is that when you spend your day studying lessons and doing homework from textbooks it leaves you very little time to get out of the apartment and actually talk with people. So, I am especially looking forward to that. There is a possibility that in the fall I will start taking lessons again for six hours a week. But, none of that has been set in stone so we are reveling in our accomplishment and looking forward to the freedom it will bring to our lives.
Change number three...we are getting a vehicle!!!!! Our Moscow leadership decided this week to let us use the van assigned to Jeff and Karla while they are in the States. We are so excited about this decision because it will make our lives here just a little bit easier. It will also allow us to pick up Lilliana for church each week. She is 82 and could not attend if she had to take public transportation. We are trying to be cautious about how we use this new asset because it could be re-assigned at any time and will certainly go back to Jeff's family when he returns next year. And, when that happens we are back to using our feet and public transit, so we will try not to over-use the van while we have it. However, in the meantime it will allow us to transport groceries in large quantities from the store...and that, my friends, is worth the price of admission.
Change four...this week I officially transfer to my "real job" as the Russia Field Media Coordinator. This change, for me, is probably the most exciting of all because it means that I finally get to put my concentration on the things I am good at, and to finally be able to do the things that God called me here to do. I will tell you more about my new job throughout the summer, but my primary functions will be to (1) visit cities where we do not have any personnel and produce media pieces that will create interest in future personnel serving in these areas; (2) assist current personnel in the field with creating media pieces about their work in Russia; (3) work with the Russia Leadership Team in creating support pieces for our work here. As you can see, my life is getting to be radically different and I will most likely spend around 10 days a month away from home. Please pray for Kellye and the kids as we transition into this radically different lifestyle.
Change five...and this is not a good one...visa laws. The government changed their visa laws again this week and fellow colleagues are having trouble obtaining their new visas/work permits. We are scheduled to get our new documents in August. We were supposed to travel to Kiev, Ukraine to get this done, but have now been told that the Kiev office will no longer issue the documents we need, so as of today we really don't know what the plan is. Please pray that God will make a way for us to stay in Moscow to work with our friends here.
This week is the corner we have been waiting to turn for some time now. It is hard to believe that we have been in the country for nine months. It is hard to believe that we finally feel we have at least a base knowledge of the Russian language. It is hard to believe that we have made relationships with Russians and that there is a group of them studying the Bible in our home each week. And, it is hard to believe that most days I cannot imagine doing anything else with my life right now. That does not mean that all days are happy ones. As a matter of a fact, it generally means that we are under attack much more frequently and that makes life hard. If you never have before, I ask that you pray for our family over the next two months. If you have been praying all along, I ask that you double that amount this summer. While most of these changes are great ones we are aware that this time in our missionary career is a particularly sensitive one and is usually the point where a family either takes off and soars or crashes and burns. Pray that this week especially will be the one where we begin our ascent.
Blessings,
Marc
Here are some photos from house church yesterday:
I didn't have a wide-angle lens for my camera so you can't see everybody, but this gives you an idea of what our very full living room looked like.
Our "Russian Cowboy", Cyrill, singing during our praise and worship time. Notice his sweatshirt. Cyrill loves all things American and usually wears cowboy boots and a cowboy hat...quite a sight in Moscow.
Jeff leading us in worship.
Dema and his nephew Vita.
Lilliana...'nuff said. :-)
I didn't have a wide-angle lens for my camera so you can't see everybody, but this gives you an idea of what our very full living room looked like.
Our "Russian Cowboy", Cyrill, singing during our praise and worship time. Notice his sweatshirt. Cyrill loves all things American and usually wears cowboy boots and a cowboy hat...quite a sight in Moscow.
Jeff leading us in worship.
Dema and his nephew Vita.
Lilliana...'nuff said. :-)
1 comment:
That is so awesome! This will be another group that will become like family to you. I didn't realize Dema was coming. Did he always come? Or just since the English club?
Hope this week is a great one!
Kay
Post a Comment