Back together again

Lucy has arrived safe and sound. It is great to have her here with me. Life feels much more balanced/complete when she is around. Today we went to church and listened to a good sermon on how a husband and wife can deepen their relationship with each other. Afterwards we gathered with old friends for a "Pizza Gathering" A tradition that I started about 15 years ago. I make Chicago style pizza, everyone gathers, we fellowship together and enjoy the blessings that God has given us.

One of the main topics that has been coming up over and over again is the financial crisis. It has touched people all over the world, even here in Yekaterinburg Russia. People ask me all sorts of questions from "How did this happen?" to "Where do I see God moving/acting in during these times of stress and difficulties?" Although at times it can be tiresome answering the same question over and over again, I still enjoy the Chance to dialogue with people about how they can find God in times of trouble.

Last week I taught a class at a local Bible school for adults who want to further their spiritual knowledge. It is run by the Living Word church here in Yekaterinburg, aimed primarily at lay leaders in the church. One question I was asked at the end was one I was familiar with but always have a hard time answering. A women asked me "I feel like God has given me certain spiritual gifts to be used in a specific ministry, but my husband is against me getting involved. He is a non-Christian and is against me being involved in anything religious outside of Sunday morning services. What do I do?" As we further discussed her situation, I encouraged her to continue to be faithful to God and her husband. This might result in her reexamining some of the assumption she has about what kind of ministry God is calling her to. She works full time, has friends, neighbors, and a home she can invite people into. There are people she interacts with all the time, people that her husband can not stop her form meeting, talking to, and caring for. Sometimes when a door seems closed, we need to see what kind of opportunities God is presenting us and pray that he will gives us the gifts an ability to respond to the needs around us. There were no specific answers or directions that I could give her, just principles and truths form the Bible that I could share, plus my own knowledge about how God has worked out these types of situations for others in the past. Often we want specific answers, but in the wrestling through the issues we learn so much about ourselves and about God. I truly value the chances I have to be a small part of helping people to work through some of the difficult questions that they face in life.

Tomorrow morning(Monday)we are off to visit a ministry that reaches out to street kids in Yekaterinburg. In the afternoon we will be catching a bus to the city of Chelyabinsk, where we will be spending the next three weeks.

Dan

Busyness

I've spoken to Dan a few times since he's been in Russia - things have definitely gotten busy quickly. He made a quick trip to Chelyabinsk, the city where we are buying a new apartment. The old apartment is sold and the new apartment is bought, sort of. Apparently the power of attorney we got for our friend to buy a new apartment for us only covered older apartments; since we are buying a brand new apartment there are different documents to be completed, stamps to be procured, etc. The good news is that Dan successfully jumped through the first set of hoops on Thursday, the bad news is that there are multiple more hoops to jump through! So, in between preaching and teaching in both Ekaterinburg & Chelyabinsk, and spending a week at church camp, we have to fit in long days of going from office to office to get all the paperwork in order. Pray that things go without too many snags and that by the time we leave in August the apartment would be officially ours and move-in ready for Pr. Ilya and his family.

Dan has lined up much of our official ministry for the summer. We're only going to one camp this summer, and Dan will preach the weekend on either side, so that will be a long week (8 days preaching in a row) for him. I will leave for Russia on Wednesday, arriving Friday morning local time (Thursday afternoon here in the states). The following week Dan and I will be in Chelyabinsk and have a list of friends we need to spend one-on-one time with. As usual, there are people struggling in big and small ways and one of the things that feels most important is to spend time just listening and caring for people. Pray that I would get over jet lag quickly and that we would be able to be an encouragement, despite not having as long to spend with people this summer.

I had a chance to meet last week with the woman who leads the IFES work in Eurasia - the former Soviet Union. Christy is a Filipina woman who has been a missionary in Eurasia for many years now. She is in the states fundraising and we sat down for coffee to see how we might help one another. Dan and I love IFES - the umbrella organization that InterVarsity here in the states and CCX in Belarus and Russia belong to - and their mission to see a vibrant indigenous Christian student movement in every country around the world. The work in Russia is struggling right now, low on finances and looking for partners to help them rebuild. We will get a chance to spend time with the leader of the Russian group, CCX, this summer and we are helping him set up a trip to the states in October of this year. Let me know if you would be interested in meeting Alyosha and hearing more about the student work in Russia!

Well, enough for now. When I get to Russia with the camera I hope we'll be able to post more pictures to go along with the news :) Pray for me as I get ready to go - and that I would be managing my fear about flying well.

Safe in Russia

I Have arrived safely in Russia. It was an uneventful trip. Right now I am trying to get over jet-lag (it is an 11 hour time difference here) and organize a few things for the summer. Many of you know that Lucy and I recently sold our apartment in Yekaterinburg and are in the process of buying a new one in the city of Chelyabinsk Russia. There were some snafu's that have held up the process, I will be working through a lot of those issues on Thursday when I travel to Chelyabinsk (I am staying with friends in Yekaterinburg right now).

Today's agenda involves
• Getting a local sim card so that our cell phone will work.
• Getting my passport and visa registered.
• Figuring out how I can connect to the internet.
• Seeing old friends
• Trying not to fall asleep until 10:00 PM tonight
• Observing all the changes that have taken place in the past year. It is amazing how it seems like it can take forever to see change happen, and then tons of change comes along seemingly overnight.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Dan

And he's off...

Dan's plane should be in the air by now - he's flying overnight tonight to London, from there he'll fly to Frankfurt and finally to Ekaterinburg, arriving eary Sunday morning local time (around dinner time Saturday night here in Chicago).

It was harder to say goodbye than I would have expected - I think partly because the recent Air France crash brings up all my irrational fears about flying and because I just haven't gotten enough sleep lately so I'm extra emotional! Dan will spend the two weeks between now & when I arrive figuring out our schedule for the summer, reconnecting with church leaders in both Ekat. and Chelyabinsk, spending time with good friends from both churches and generally getting the "lay of the land". As many of you know, our apartment in Ekat. was just recently sold (yay!) and we now own an apartment we've never seen in Chelyabinsk, so Dan is hoping to get a chance to go and check that out, though we don't expect we'll be able to live in it at all over the summer. We might be able to help get it live-in ready for the fall so Pr. Ilya & his family can move in. We'll see! I have to finish up my last week of summer classes (Greek Exegesis) and then I make a quick trip to Nebraska to see my family over the 4th of July holiday (all of my siblings will be there -a highly unusual occurence!). I leave the evening of July 8th for Russia. Hopefully I'll be able to give you an update once Dan arrives & gets settled in. Thanks for praying!

"Why Do You Go to Russia?"

The other day my 4 year old nephew asked me, “Why do you go to Russia?” I get asked this question a lot. It is a good one, and I enjoy answering it. The quick answer is “Because God told me to.” This however is rarely enough of to satisfy my nephew, let alone an adult! If I dig deeper, the answer is because it changes so many lives: mine, those of people in Russia, and some of yours as well.

How are lives changed? It begins with the impact on my own life when I make myself available to God. When I take my eyes off myself, and begin to develop a concern for other people, I learn to see, love, and value people as God does. So many of the changes that God has wrought, the blessings that he has bestowed, the miracles that I have seen him perform have happened when I have made myself available to God and started serving others. I can’t imagine what my life would be like, how small and feeble my faith would be, if I hadn’t said “yes” to God’s invitation to go to Russia. Often people are amazed when they learn how much time I have spent doing missionary work. They assume that I do this work because I am spiritually mature – but the truth is that I am spiritually mature because I do this work.

Then there is the joy that I feel as I see how God changes the lives of people in Russia. There can be nothing greater than seeing people, who have lived lives devoid of real hope, feel and taste for the first time what life with God can be like. Take Alexi for example. Alexi was a young Russian man I met several years ago. He attended a camp I was participating in simply because he wanted to practice his English with a native speaker. Going in he didn’t expect a life changing event. After spending a week living and talking with Christians he commented “I never knew just how much joy I was missing out on in life!” I remember praying with Eduard, a man who was facing heart breaking family difficulties. Afterwards he commented that for the first time in ages he has felt a sense of peace again. Or the story of Alexander, a pastor in the village of Revda. Alleluia once gave him $200, as a gift to be used to meet the needs of his family. I remember how blown away he was by this miracle from God, as he viewed it. He commented that “the lottery has nothing on God’s church when it shares such great blessings.”

I could go on and on, sharing story after story. The heart of missions is in relationships. It is the privilege of being a part of these lives, seeing and getting caught up in what God is doing, that makes me want to return to Russia year after year. You can be a part of these relationships too. By giving, reading along with our blog, praying for us, looking at pictures of the people we get to minister to – you can begin to take part in the lives of people on the other side of the world! And I predict God will amaze you with how much those people and their stories can impact your life and faith. This is one great way you can move from spectator to participant.

Financial update: So far we have raised just under $3,000 for the Russia Mission fund. Thank you to everyone who has given! We need at least $4,500 but would like to raise as much as $12,000 (or more) to assist God’s church in Russia.

36 hours and counting...

Less, actually. I could figure it out, but I'm too tired. In general, Dan and I are both exhausted. The last week has been jam packed and Dan, the introvert, is particularly struggling to stay engaged to the end. Please pray for us tomorrow - our last day here in Russia and a VERY full one. We'll have lots of goodbyes at church, of course. Dan is preaching and in the afternoon teaching a class for the bible school the church runs for new believers (people newly baptized need to attend once a week for at least a year, though there is a two year program - anyone is invited). In the evening I will lead - and Dan will help me (I hope!) - the youth meeting. The theme will be relationships, dating and marriage. And of course, there is still all the packing and getting things in order here in our apartment before we leave.

Yesterday we had friends over and watched the opening of the Olympics. Last night and today we've been watching round-the-clock news about the situation in South Ossetia. Needless to say, it's sobering to hear about war and to see and hear the reactions of our Russian friends. We have a friend from another city staying with us right now and it's hard to tear him from the television - it's a gripping and distressing situation. BBC news gives one view of the conflict, if you'd like to read up... of course, the angle of the Russian television here is a different one. It's very hard to know where truth is, but it's certainly true that people are dying and the conflict is escalating.

Thanks for your prayers - please pray for strength to make it through tomorrow and finish well. We want to make sure to say our goodbyes properly. Pray for safety on the journey home. And do pray for peace in South Ossetia.

Though it will be hard to leave our friends here, we are also really looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Lucy

Lucy downtown.

Comparing CNN, BBC and Russian news on Southern Ossetia.

With our good friends, Kostya and Luda.

Countdown to America!

Well, we can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. Just 4.5 more days and we'll be getting on a plane bound for Chicago (well, first Frankfurt, then Chicago!). These last weeks - this past month, in fact, have been jam-packed. If the first few weeks of our summer started at a leisurely pace, we have more than made up for it in the hectic, activity-filled weeks of July and now into August.

Last week - after being back at our apartment in Ekaterinburg long enough to catch up on a little sleep, enjoy a hot shower and do some laundry - we took a bus back to the city of Chelyabinsk, a few hours south of here. This is the city of Heaven's Open church and the regional CCX (student movement) group. We had already spent much of July with many friends from Chelyabinsk who took part in one of the 3 camps we participated in. So it was nice to be able to spend a week with people already "mid-conversation", so to speak. Rather than just catching up, we were able to go deeper in our conversations and relationships, which is always gratifying. We spent Sunday with Heaven's Open church, where Dan preached. They are so grateful for the partnership they have with Alleluia (and many of you!) through us. I wished that day that many of you could have been there to experience the contradictions of faith here: a weak church, yet so strong in their faith in so many ways; a poor church and yet so hospitable and overflowing in generosity.

The communion table.

Dan preaching last Sunday.


Praying for a church member with cancer.

Friday we celebrated Pr. Ilya and Anya's 7th wedding anniversary with them, their families and many close friends (both theirs and ours). It was a rather impromptu gathering - they invited everyone within a few days and only finalized things Thursday night - but still 21 of the 23 invited guests made it. Proof that Russians are an event-oriented rather than time-oriented culture :) They said 7 seemed like a significant year biblically speaking... and they just wanted an excuse to throw a party! Another reason for them to celebrate this year - they have just announced that they are expecting their 2nd child at the end of February. It is a real demonstration of faith and joy for this couple - who are stretched financially, even by Russian standards - to have another baby. It was evident to us, though, as we looked around the party Friday night how key the ministry of this family is. They have one of the healthiest marriages we know, either side of the Atlantic, which sadly couldn't be said of many of those gathered to celebrate. Russian society has some crippling disfunctionalities (to use an American word), and families inside the church seem to suffer almost as much as those outside. It is reassuring to us to see Pr. Ilya and Anya living a practical faith that gives hope to the people in their congregation.

Pr. Ilya & Anya: 7 Happy Years!

Celebrating Ilya & Anya's anniversary.

We'll try to update some more in the next few days with stories of the last few weeks. This week is a busy one! For now, go over to our Picasa web albums and take a look at the newest photos from the last week & a half. Pray that our final days with friends and the church here in Ekaterinburg would be meaningful and not simply bustling. Pray too for our preparations for Sunday: Dan preaches and then leads a bible class in the afternoon; I will be leading the youth meeting that evening.

At the dacha.


Dan and Lucy near the city center in Chelyabinsk.