Our first Neighborhood Outreach

The Orthodox, and even the Protestants here, celebrate Easter on the Eastern calendar. So we've taken that up too, and it fell on April 27th this year.

Here was my cool idea for a game for my kids, that ended up drawing the other kids in our courtyard in as well:

I don't really go for the whole egg thing, since it's based in pagan fertility rituals, so I thought about hiding Bible verses instead. Lydia actually gave me the idea from the VBS they did during our staff conference in Hungary last year. I found verses that mentioned concrete objects that are found in our courtyard, such as:
"When you went out before your people, O God, when you marched through the wasteland..." "All the birds of the air settled on the fallen tree..." "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him." and I loved this one: "Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe."

Next, I wrote the verses on the backs of a jigsaw puzzle and hid them, so that each find would lead to the next. Each verse had another question to answer that helped the kids fill in words into blanks, some of which were key letters that they had to unscramble to answer the question which emerged on the puzzle when it was assembled: "What does 1Cor. 15:14 assume?" The answer in the jumbled letters: "an empty tomb."

Of course you are thinking what Diana thought: this is way over the heads of these kids. Well, who cares? I had fun making it up.

Anyway, as I was hiding the pieces, the kids who were outside got excited when I explained, "I'm hiding these for my kids to find." At first I tried to keep them in the dark since I didn't know how to include them. They got so interested that I finally gave in and decided we'd just make it work somehow.

So when my kids came out to start, I gave the others a Russian Bible and crossed my fingers that it would work. All of a sudden I was teaching them names of books, how to use the table of contents and find books, what chapters and verses are, and how to find them too. Yes, we are talking about major biblical ignorance. But, hey, they thought it was great, and they showed tremendous patience with the process, even though the translation didn't always work right.

Lydia had already been developing some relationships with the kids, and so I was tickled to be able to have an avenue to get to know them too. So now Lydia and I are praying for more opportunities to get to know them and create ministry opportunities. Pray with us.

A Reunion with our First Son

Diana and I had the joy of hosting a young fellow in our home from Georgia - the country - back in 1994-95. We were living in married student housing on the campus of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, where I was a student. David's father had been the minister of Justice in Georgia when he met my uncle at a World Jurist Conference. Before he died, he wrote my uncle a letter asking him to help take care of his boy.

David was a junior in high school when he came over, and we were all too eager to take him in, since we still had no children of our own. He quickly became a regular part of our family, and he was a part of all that we did for 3 semesters, including family trips, hikes in the woods, and church.

David tagged along with me when I was scoping out a church for us to attend, and I'll never forget his amazement when I singled out one that was clearly set apart from the rest. They all seemed the same to him, he willingly joined us and joined the youth group. Coming from a nominal Orthodox background, he was open to learn more, and between a good youth leader, lots of great discussions about faith, and the Holy Spirit, he gave his life to Jesus that first year.

Times were not always easy. He frustrated us with some of his juvenile ways, and we probably upset him by exposing him to our rocky early marriage, but it was a painful goodbye in the end. Without going into details for his sake, things fell apart for David not long after he left for college, and we hardly heard from him for the next 13 years.

He contacted us a few months ago, he later told me under compulsion from God, and we were back in relationship as though it almost had never stopped. We found out that he has had an incredible and even dangerous ride in the years in between. One of his job experiences that needs a movie script is detailed here.

Before we knew it, he was insisting that we come, on his dime, to visit him at his new residence in Dubai where he is helping lead a team to do no less that totally restructure the entire government of the country. It was hard for us to accept his very generous offer, but we decided we had to receive it from God's hand.

It was an incredible trip for the kids, which I will let Lydia tell you about (the kids and David got on famously), but most special for me was connecting with the man who held such a special place in my heart, and I hadn't even known it. We care about him like a son, and we worry about him like a son. I asked him at one point what he most remembered from his days with us, and he immediately answered, "that I got saved with you." Of course we had had no idea how much of what we had poured into David stuck, and we could ask for no more than this. My prayer is that we can continue this relationship and deepen that connection. David has already expressed interest in coaching - "but just not yet."

A side benefit of the trip was the way it confirmed in a surprising way what I had written about in last month's newsletter. I had said that we were starting to see more and more (and have others tell us) that God would powerfully use us in our own home as we opened it and our hearts to others. Now I can see that God had given me and Diana that ministry as long as 14 years ago before we even knew it. And that when we were hardly "experts" or mature believers.

I guess God doesn't need any of that to be able to use you.

Calling for Researchers

I put out this note recently to a local email group of mainly missionaries in St. Petersburg:

There are a lot of us who care about the orphans in and around St.
Petersburg. But it's becoming clear to me that the situation is
changing, and our data is quickly becoming out of date. At the
monthly prayer meeting for orphans last week, I asked about the need
for better information about the state of the kids in the city, and
there was strong agreement that there is a dearth of good info to
inform ministry and intercessory work and to evaluate progress. As a
result I decided to put out this email. What we need are a small
handful of individuals from various ministries and churches (including
Russians) willing to come to one meeting to discuss this matter. This
would be a short-term project (I'm guessing 4-6 months on the outside
with good cooperation) to produce a report (in English and Russian)
of professional quality that would include things such as:

• How many institutionalized orphans are in the city now, and what are the trends?
• What ministries, churches, and other organizations are serving them?
• How many street kids remain, and where are they? Who is serving them?
• Who is serving post-orphanage graduates?
• What do we know about adjudicated kids? Child trafficking? Sexual exploitation?
  
• What family support services are available?

We may want to expand somewhat from the above list. On the other
hand, qualitative questions such as best practices and relative needs,
and examining present and potential projects and forging cooperative
ministry (all of which are critical!) should be held off until this phase
is complete.

The purpose of an initial meeting would be to define the parameters
of the study and to assign responsibility to participants over
compiling certain categories of information. These people could, in
turn, be in charge of a small team of helpers, including anyone
(supporters?) abroad who could help with online or other research.
Some of you are not here now. That's OK. Let me know you can help and
how. I'm only asking for commitment to attend this initial meeting
because I am asking no one to commit to a process that is still
undefined. We will define that commitment at this first meeting.

Action items:

1. Write me back if you are willing to come to one meeting to give your input.
2. Let me know good and bad times for meeting.
3. Forward this email to others who might be interested.

I'm excited about the potential of getting our heads (and eventually
hearts) together on this critical issue so close to the heart of our
Lord.

If you are not here in the city, you can still help by doing research online. Just tell me what area interests you, and we can put you in that group (if we have more than one person in that area).