Where is our ministry going long-term?

We don't plan to leave Russia. I sometimes even tell Russians that we will die there (I'm in the states as I write on furlough). This really shocks them, since they are not used to missionaries being so committed to them. Of course God's will be done, but I really can't see having a significant impact in less than 10 years in any event. Why?

• Russians are slow to trust you.
• The problems are deep and entrenched.
• Our ministry is not about getting quick decisions for Christ and once-for-all changes.
• It has multiple phases:

1. Find those individuals, ministries, churches, and organizations (businesses?) that are hungry for transformational change - change that starts in the heart and affects everything
2. Invest deeply in them so until their strongholds have given way to the Lord, until their dreams align with His purposes, their relationship with Him is deep, abiding, and infectious, and until others are learning from them.
3. Gather these "fathers" together into teams who can dream God's dreams for the city and nation. Coach them into praying and thinking strategically together.

This step is really the beginning of where the potential comes. I could relish the thought of helping such a team implement these exciting large-scale dreams into reality. Yet this is where I could theoretically see us moving on should God so move us.

How do leadership development and orphans fit together?

Sometimes I describe our work in Russia as a dual thrust: developing leaders and serving the needs of orphans. Although this is a true picture, I see the two coming together over time. Here is my present understanding of how God is working to that end:

We all know the story of the kid who saves the starfish washed up on the shore. Even though there are countless thousands of them that he can't save, he is content saving the ones he can. This is truly the heart of the Father, who will leave the 99 to go after the 1 lost sheep (Lk. 15:4). Yet, since we know that God is not willing that any should perish (2Pet. 3:9), we know that it is not an "either/or" dilemma with God. Our Father has given some of us a heart to rescue the lost, one precious soul at a time. Others he gives a burden to reach many at once or to help change the structures and systems that keep them in bondage.

My work in Richmond showed this tension: during our 10 years there (post graduate school) I served simultaneously as a family counselor and as the head of a ministry dedicated to bringing leaders together so that they could find one heart and mind for large-scale change in the city. At the time, I considered my leadership in this ministry to be my main calling. I now see it differently. My calling is to work with leaders and potential leaders one-on-one as a means of cultivating a team of leaders from all sectors of society who can work together to see the "whole Church bring the whole Gospel to the whole city."

Now to the connection with orphan ministry. I am beginning to think that the key concept here is fathering. Men are spiritually neutered in Russia (and in most of the world, but particularly here). Paul commanded Timothy to pass on what he had given Timothy "to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (2Tim. 2:2). This is spiritual fatherhood. Ideally, our biological fathers should be our main spiritual father as well, but this is sadly far from the case. I feel called to father those who can father others. Once this "spirit of adoption" returns to the Church, it will manifest itself in physical adoptions, which are quite rare among Russians (hence the Westerners take them). In the mean time, I will work with orphan ministries to teach the staff how to have this kind of father's (Father's) heart towards the kids.

Why orphans?

Neither Diana nor I had ever done any work with orphans before moving to Russia. We had once, however, begun the process of adopting a child from the Ukraine after Lydia was born. But then when Kerith came along much sooner than expected, we abandoned that project (perhaps for another day?). We had both worked with kids. In addition to both of us having experience in camp counseling,
I had:

• taught ESL for kids in the USSR and in the States
• taught delinquent teens at an alternative school in Oregon

Diana had:

• taught emotionally disturbed kids in Richmond
• taught in the public schools for several years and online for 7 years and counting

We had each had our own ministry in Richmond, I leading a citywide ministry, and she teaching homeschooled kids through The Potter's School. What we wanted was to find an area where we were both interested. Orphan work was that place that brought tears to both our eyes when we considered the plight of these kids.

Even now we don't completely see how we fit together in this ministry, but the pieces are beginning to come together. Our work with Yuri and other kids from the Harbor is one example of direct ministry, but I see it evolving over time as we let God use our respective gifts in complementary ways for His glory.